Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators : Newsfeed Business Productivity Accelerator

4/11/2012 4:41:34 PM

The Newsfeed Business Productivity accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 could possibly be the answer to organizations whose users have not successfully adopted CRM 4. This accelerator has an appealing and easy-to-understand interface that provides insight into business data, for any level of user.

The Newsfeed Business Productivity accelerator provides the following solutions:

Newsfeed report showing current CRM user activity
Sample workflows used to add items to the newsfeed

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the \Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the newsfeed accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

Documentation for installation
Source code
Custom report
Workflow

Installing the Newsfeed Business Productivity Accelerator

1.	Open CRM and select Settings, Customization, Import Customizations. Import the \SourceCode\Workflows\newsfeed_oob_workflows.xml file into CRM. You’ll be importing four workflows, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Import the Newsfeed workflows.
2.	If using the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator, import the \SourceCode\SF Workflows\newsfeed_esf_workflows.xml to also display Sales Forecasting results.
3.	Publish the workflows.
4.	Import the custom report using the following configuration (see Figure 2): Existing File, which is found within C:\Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0\Accelerators\BusProd\Newsfeed\V1.0\BusProd_Newsfeed_RTW\SourceCode\SSRS\CRM Newsfeed.rdl. Update Categories to include Sales Reports. You could use all categories or none. Set the Related Record Types to Activities. Set the Display In to Reports Area and Lists for Related Record Types. Click the Administration tab and set the report to be available to the organization. CRM user permissions will still apply so that users will see only records for which they have permission to view. Figure 2. Import the Newsfeed report.
5.	Optionally, you can modify the list of activities that appear in the Newsfeed dashboard by adding the string newsfeed: to any note within a record.

This accelerator can be extended easily by building workflow to enhance the data displayed within the custom report, or by updating the CRM site map, you can set the newsfeed report as the “home page’ for all CRM users.