Microsoft CRM 3.0 problems

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Has anyone gone through the pain of installing this application?

Loads of my clients are requesting this and each install has had its ups and downs.

At the moment users cannot open Outlook offline with the CRM Toolbar installed. I’ve installed the laptop client (for offline use) but still get the same problem. Also sometimes Outlook starts but when I click on a CRM folder I get a CRM authentication error. The users have cached Windows credentials (CRM needs this) so I don’t know why it’s throwing this error. Online use is all working ok.

Any idea?

Many virtual beers available!

 

It is a nightmare to install, the SBS version isn’t too bad but the client installs can cause problems.

Installing on a Windows 2003 box takes more time, SQL Server is needed, IIS has to be configured and other services need to be started\installed.

I’m going to troubleshoot the problem with offline CRM tomorrow, I need to take a laptop to the client site and patch it into the network as I can’t kick anyone off their laptop for more than 5 mins (busy people!)

Boyce, are you installing the SBS version? Just a tip for you if you need to install the client plugin for Outlook. It will say that you need to install .NET framework (minimum 1.1). Make sure you install 1.1 and not 2.0, 2.0 causes more problems!

 

Good find!

The http://crm3:5555/_common/error/authenticationError.htm?0x80040216&http://crm3:5555/default.aspx error is similar to what I get in some cases. (the app is so flakey it throws many different error messages!)

The way CRM works is that it runs a local copy of the database with MSDE when offline, then in syncs with SQL Server when the user logs back onto the domain and opens Outlook. The problem is that the error message above says http://localhost etc. so it *looks* like the user can’t authenticate with the local copy of the database when offline, weird problem!

 

The client install *looks* the same regardless of the version and the toolbar is the same in Outlook.

Boyce, if your company is outsourcing this make sure all the clients can use the Outlook toolbar offline and online. Don’t let them walk out the door after only installing the web version!

 

You can access the web version from a client PC on the LAN by typing http://crmserver:5555 and the IIS directory uses integrated Windows authentication so you are logging in with Windows credentials and then you can access the CRM server. Within CRM users can be granted permissions to determine which parts of CRM they can access.

The Outlook CRM toolbar offers more functionality than the web version, you can share contacts and track emails through CRM. To be honest when it’s all working CRM looks like a great application and I’m sure more and more clients will be asking for it to be installed over the next few months. It was the same when sharepoint came out but that was much easier to install in comparison to CRM.

Using the web based version will save you some grief (Note: you need to make CRM an exception for any pop up blocker) but it will be a matter of time before a user asks about the Outlook toolbar as they can potentially have the same contacts in two places when using CRM web version and Outlook. Not the best!

 

Ok, so I turn up to the clients site today, dodge all the ‘My laptops running slow’ complaints, and patch in a test laptop to the network and add it to the domain.

I create a new user in AD make it a member of the users group and then give that user rights within the CRM app.

I install CRM on the laptop, start up Outlook and the CRM toolbar loads with no problems. I then configure CRM to work offline and then log off the laptop. I disconnect the laptop and log on with cached credentials and start Outlook, guess what? Everything works!!

I think it may be an issue with MSDE not running the local copy of the CRM data correctly on the two users laptops that have this problem. They were not around so I legged it back to the office! At least it appears to be a problem with the clients rather than the server which *should* be easier to fix.