Proposal Automation In Your CRM And What To Look Out For

CRM is a very versatile tool that’s often used for B2B sales and all its aspects, including tracking opportunities, leads, contracts, consolidating collaterals, documents and keeping contacts, tasks and events under one platform.

One of the most-overlooked essentials in B2B is the sales proposal process. But a timely CPQ, or Configure, Price, Quote software built in right on your CRM can give you that boost you’ve never had.

Thinking of adding CPQ to CRM? Consider these 7 elements to get the best system for your B2B needs.

  • Have an SSO, or Single Sign On to make everything easy for you and your users.
  • Can you use templates? This can speed up the process of generating new business and growing your company.
  • Analytics and Sales Reporting solidify the objectives and gives you something to aim for.
  • Integrations free up invaluable hours of your time by automating the apps you use for B2B.
  • Full support for your kind of business, and one that can give you the right CPQ from start to finish.
  • Value and scalability so you won’t have to pay more than what’s necessary. These days, it’s all about flexible pricing and zero annual licenses.
  • Last but not the least, you’ll need product flexibility that can adapt with the ever-changing B2B landscape.

Why Will You Need Single Sign On?

At first glance, having an SSO will mean a safer and more secure platform than without, but the biggest benefit you can take from this is complete accessibility. Sales tools must be visible and easy to get into so you and your staff can use it more. Plus, your CRM will be on the same platform as your tools, including your proposal.

In short, you’ll have the power to distribute, approve, create and collaborate on the proposal you’re working in one easy-to-use system that’s controlled by a single SSO, eliminating the need to install multiple software.

Are Templates Really That Important?

Proposals can mean the difference between landing your dream job and being stuck in your current situation. You’ll need a professional, high quality, detailed and engaging proposal or else it will get sent to where the sun doesn’t shine.

Templates can get you that stunning proposal quickly and consistently. Sales quotes won’t have to be done from scratch, thereby saving you time and effort. For business proposal templates that win deals, take a look at https://qwilr.com/templates/business-proposal-template/ and customize accordingly.

The end result? Cleaner, more professional proposals that show the client you’re really serious about your job. Automation and pre-filled templates can bring you there sooner than one without.

What About Reporting?

Sales processes are mainly made up of two parts- the sale itself and afterwards, the reporting. Metrics are there to be seen and analyzed so you can do better on your proposals the next time around. Real-time monitoring on the most important sales aspects mean you’ll be able to target areas of improvements to get better results the next time around.

When you learn how to read the data you’ll be more equipped to make the necessary adjustments for improved success. This is true of CPQ, CRM and A/B testing as well.

How Integration Can Benefit You

In the world of fast-paced B2B, the quicker you can point leads to your sales team, the greater the chances of turning a profit.

Automated proposal software integrated into your CRM platform is one of the best ways to close that gap. For example, you can use Zapier to connect to Microsoft Dynamics (on version 8 and above) and Qwilr with up to 20 unique configurations. Or, have the Microsoft Dynamics CRM tied to Qwilr easily and without having to input a single line of coding.

Here’s how the process works. Zapier connected to Qwilr supports the CRM account with automatic lead updates. Your sales team will know almost in real-time if there’s a possible lead they should follow. That said, it’s only a matter of time before your sales team becomes a well-oiled machine, nurturing proposals and getting more sales and profits.

The Role Of Support

You will need a CPQ that offers support for software development, maintenance and management. Free up all your time, concentrate on proposals and work on leads instead of having to do system troubleshooting.

Why Value and Scalability Are Important

B2B sales, mergers and growth can happen in the blink of an eye, and for that reason you will need a CPQ system that can keep pace. Moreover, while a good bargain is appealing, an invaluable partner is better for long-term success.

CRM Flexibility

Being able to spread winning bundles and create them via templates is one of the must-have features for CRMs as a whole. CPQ will make your sales team work as one even if they’re not all on the same office, area or location.

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Using Precedence Constraint Editor to control the task execution in Control Flow (SSIS)

Precedence Constraint component in SSIS allows us to control the flow of the execution of tasks within the Control Flow.

Suppose we have the below package wherein we are traversing through the folder using Foreach Loop Container and are processing XML and docx files within that folder.

And we want them to be processed differently.

We have the following user-defined variables specified.

Within the Script Task, we have specified FilePath as the ReadOnlyVariables to read the full file path and figure out the extension and FileExtension as the ReadWriteVariables to which we will write the result.

Below is our code for the Script Task, here we are reading the file path and getting the extension and setting the FileExtension variable.

Now back in our control flow, open the Precedence Constraint Editor and select Evaluation expression as Expression and Constraint.

The constraint should be success and for the expression, we have defined the FileExtension variable’s value to be .docx, and both the condition to be true i.e. Logical And.

Similarly, define the Precedence Constraint for the second brand of the Script Task as shown below.

Now run the package and based on the file extension we would see the execution taking the appropriate path, processing the next component and showing the correct message.

Hope it helps..

Applying XSLT transformation using the XML Task in SSIS

Using the XML Task component in SSIS we can apply XSLT to the input XML file.

Recently we had a requirement to read data from XML file and create/update corresponding records in Dynamics 365 CE. For the child entity tags in the XML, we wanted to insert some of the tags (key) from the parent to the child so that it can be easily used for mapping and setting the parent lookup.

For that we had used Foreach Loop Container to read the XML file, then had applied XSLT transformation using the XML Task before processing the file using XML Source Component and CRM Destination Component of KingswaySoft.

The XML task editor here is using 3 File Connection.

One for the input file, another for output and third for the XLST file.

Here need to select

  • Operation Type as XLST
  • Source Type as file connection as we are specifying XML file as input.
  • For output, we are creating an output XML file and overwriting the destination file if existing.
  • In the Second Operand, we are specifying the XSLT file.

For InputXMLTask file connection, we need to specify the user-defined variable that reads the file in its connection string property for it to work properly.

Same for OutputXMLTask

And for the XSLT File Connection

Let us take a simple example to understand it better à

Suppose below is our source XML i.e. Contact.xml

We want to apply following XSLT transformation to it, which adds the fullname tag to it which is a combination of firstname and lastname tag. i.e. XlsTransform.xslt

Drag the XML task to the control flow of the package.

Specify the following properties for it as shown below

Run the package we will get the below output file, a fullname tag added which is combination of firstname and lastname tag as below i.e. ContactOutput.xml

Hope it helps..

Order of attributes in Alternate Key in Dynamics CRM Destination Component in SSIS (KingwaySoft)

Recently we got the below error in one of our SSIS Packages

error

The packages were working fine in one of the environments and were failing in another.

It was throwing an error in one of the lookup fields that was referring to the alternate key. Here the alternate was defined with 2 fields.

As it turned out in another environment the order of the fields was changed for the alternate key field.

We recreated the alternate key field in the proper order of the attributes to fix this.

Hope it helps..

Using Foreach Loop Container in SSIS to loop through all files in folders and subfolders

Recently while working on an integration requirement we had to loop through all the XML Files within a folder and subfolder and create corresponding records inside Dynamics 365 CE.

For this, we used the XML Source component which is part of KingswaySoft’s Productivity Pack https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-productivity-pack/help-manual/json-and-xml-processing/xml-source

Below are the steps we need to perform to loop through the files.

Create an SSIS Project and drag the Foreach Loop Container to the control flow.

Here we are using 3 variables, one for the full path to the file, the other for extension and the third one to specify the folder.

Double click and the Foreach Loop Editor, set the enumerator as Foreach File Enumerator and set the Directory and FileSpec property expressions to use the variables that we had defined.

Check the Traverse Subfolder if we want to traverse the subfolders.

Click on Variable Mapping and set the FilePath variable that will be used to iterate through the files in the Folder and Subfolder specified.

To see it in action, we have added a Script Task inside the container.

Here we have set the FilePath variable as the ReadOnlyVariables that we will read within the Script Task code and show it in the Message Box.

Our source code that reads the FilePath and displays it in the Message Box.

Now just execute the package and we will see it looping through all the XML files with the folder specified.


Hope it helps..

{Happy note and Book Launch} Power Platform Happy hour Singapore and Launch of my book Mastering Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

MSDYNAMICSBLOG BY DEEPESH

Today evening we were the third in the world after London and Heliniski to host our Happy Hour from Singapore and being the first one from Asia!

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Let us start with thanking Mark Smith for his new initiative Power Platform Happy Hour!

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We did few things same and some newer things. 5 MVPs connected on to this Happy hour, some virtually on Skype for Business!

Myself from Singapore

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Not to forget the champs Jeeva and Kasun from Singapore

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Nishant from Dubai

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Debajit from Bengaluru

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Sahan from Australia

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Nadeeja from Australia:

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Multiple community heads joined:

William from TDG

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Simaranjit from Sydney

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4 people got goodies which were e-books to my new book. Third one and one of my hardest projects : Mastering Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement which was launched here!

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Not to forget the support from Microsoft in the form of Sanjeev!

Some more pictures:

Virtually happy!

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Next time Please connect…

View original post 93 more words

Dynamics 365: Solution install failed

Dynamics 365 Funda by Zohaib Uddin Khan

Author By: Zohaib Uddin Khan

Scenario:

Let suppose you’re trying to install a managed solution (such as Project Services Automation, Field Services, Portal, etc.) through Admin Center and you’re facing ‘Solution Installation Failed‘.

Since, Admin Center don’t provide any reason for failure, apart from retry or contact the support which are not very productive.

SolutionImport-0

Solution:

Go to Dynamics 365 Org – Settings – Customization – Solution History

SolutionImport-1

Open the latest or related solution from ‘Internal Solution History’ view. And, reason for the failure of the solution is available under Exception Message. 🙂

SolutionImport-2

View original post

Using CDS/CRM Connection Manager of KingswaySoft’s SSIS Dynamics 365 Integration toolkit in Script Component (SSIS)

Recently for one of our requirements we had to use the CDS/CRM Connection of KingswaySoft’s SSIS Integration Toolkit for Dynamics 365

Below are the steps to be followed –

Drag the Script Transformation component, specify any input columns and inputs / outputs as required.

In the Connection Managers add the connection to Dynamics 365

Click on Edit Script to open the Visual Studio.

Add references to below 3 assemblies. We need to search for the 2 KingswaySoft assemblies in the machine and then add them.

The sample code –


public override void Input0_ProcessInputRow(Input0Buffer Row)
{
var connMgr = this.Connections.CRMConnectionManager;
var connectionString = (string)connMgr.AcquireConnection(null);
var conn = new CrmConnection(connectionString);

var orgService = (IOrganizationService)conn.GetCrmService();

RetrieveRequest retRequest = new RetrieveRequest();
retRequest.ColumnSet = new ColumnSet();
retRequest.ColumnSet.AddColumn("statuscode");
retRequest.Target = new EntityReference("dxc_contract", "dxc_contractnumberinternal", Row.dxccontractnumberinternal);
var response = (RetrieveResponse)orgService.Execute(retRequest);

if (response.Entity != null)
{
// status is closed
if (((OptionSetValue)response.Entity.Attributes["statuscode"]).Value == 282210002)
{
Row.IsApprovedContract = "N";
}
else
{
Row.IsApprovedContract = "Y";
}
}
}

Get all the details here

http://www.kingswaysoft.com/blog/2013/06/24/Writing-Script-Component-or-Script-Task-using-CRM-Connection-Manager

Hope it helps..

Assembly must be registered in isolation error while trying to register plugin \ custom workflow activity in Isolation Mode None in Dynamics 365 On Premise

While trying to register our custom workflow activity from Isolation mode – Sandboxed to None for Dynamics 365 On Premise we got the below error

This was because the user through which we were trying to register the plugin in None Isolation Mode using Plugin Registration Tool was not having Deployment Administrator role.

Adding the user to that Deployment Administrator role through Deployment Manager fixed the issue.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/on-premises/deployment-administrators

Read more about it

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/dynamicscrm-2016/developers-guide/gg309620(v=crm.8)#security-restrictions

Hope it helps..

Scribe Insight Limitation – XML Source doesn’t support repeating sibling nodes

Recently we were evaluating Scribe Insight as our Integration tool for one of our clients. The requirement was to read an xml and create records in Dynamics 365 CE.

The basic structure was something like below, with Account as the parent tag and Payment, Assets, Consumer as repeating child nodes of Account i.e. 1 – n.

However, to our surprise when we started defining the same structure in the XML Component within Scribe Workbench we got the below error message à

—————————

XML Component

—————————

Repeating nodes are not supported for cousins, siblings, etc. Multiple repeating nodes must be related linearly to repeating nodes that already exist. Thus, a new repeating node must be a grandparent, parent, child, grandchild, etc., to an existing repeating node.

—————————

OK

—————————

Interestingly enough the same limitation doesn’t exist in Scribe Online. Had posted something similar few days’ back on that

https://nishantrana.me/2019/01/14/scribe-online-working-with-hierarchical-data-in-dynamics-365-ce/

As we wanted to go with something that works in On Premise setup we went ahead with SSIS Productivity Pack of KingswaySoft https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-productivity-pack which had XML components that works perfectly well with this kind of schema or structure.

Hope it helps..