In my last I wrote about how easy it is to create a contact in Microsoft Outlook and have the information sync with your Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. The purpose of that blog was to show how seamlessly and easily Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office can be used in harmony with each other to create a more productive work environment. In this blog, I will again talk about the synergy between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office, but this time I will focus on the “view” functionality.
There are two types of views that can be created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM – System Views and Personal Views. A system view is a “standard” or “canned” view that can show things such as active accounts, open tasks, etc. You can modify and create a variety of different system views from inside of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Not only can a view allow you to view data from the record itself, but also any record associated with it. This can be extremely convenient when browsing data. A personal view is a system view that is personalized to an individual or team. For example, the font can be different for different records, or the color changes depending on whether the lead is hot or cold. Personal views are designed to allow individuals the freedom to edit a system view into a version that meets their personal preferences.
One of the easiest ways to create a personal view is to modify a standard view in Microsoft Outlook. For example, if your manager shares a standard view, you can receive and review the view in Outlook, and from there create a personal view. This will allow you to edit settings such as the width of the columns or change which columns are displayed. Like most things in the Microsoft Office Suite these changes can be made in a quick and efficient manner, such as dragging the border of the column to make the column-width change or by right-clicking the column and selecting to add or delete column(s).
While still in the Outlook interface you can also add a new format to the Dynamics CRM view. This can be done by clicking the “add new format” button in the view tab and following the familiar Microsoft Prompts to add a highlight color to certain opportunities or to specify different fonts for different companies. For example, you can easily instruct Outlook to show all of your “hot” opportunities in red and all of your “cold” opportunities in blue.
Once you have created the view with your personal preferences you will have to click the “save as” button located in the view tool bar within Outlook. When you have successfully saved the view, you can share your personal view with different people in your organization by clicking on the “advanced find” and “share” buttons respectively. Outlook also gives you the option to choose the permissions those individuals you have chosen to share your view with will have. For example, you may specify they can see the view but not modify it.
As noted above, personal views are powerful tools because they allow you to highlight the things that are specifically important to you or your team. Even more impressive is that because of how seamlessly Microsoft Outlook and Dynamics CRM work together, these personal views can be modified directly within the Outlook interface. Having this capability so readily and easily available will cut down on training time in your organization as well as boosting user adoption.
To learn more about creating personal views or to set up an appointment to discuss Microsoft Dynamics CRM, please contact at 303.773.6464 or sales@nexustek.com.
By: , Marketing Specialist, Nexus tek
