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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Managing any relationship can be difficult. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 enables an organization to manage their marketing, sales, and service efforts for a customer, and give users a 360 degree view of the customer."Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide" will assist individuals in passing the certification exam by reviewing each topic covered by the exam in depth, providing questions to test your knowledge at the end of each chapter, and finally by providing a 75 question practice exam including answers.You'll start with an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 along with an overview of the exam, benefits of certification, and helpful exam taking tips.The following chapters take a deeper look into the CRM application itself covering each of the key modules: marketing, sales, service, and service scheduling. At the end of the book, there is a 75 question sample certification exam.This book will help you attain the MB2-868 certification, making you more marketable.
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Table of Contents
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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First published: April 2013
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Cover Image by Artie Ng (<[email protected]>)
Credits
Author
Danny Varghese
Reviewers
Neil Benson
Guillermo Barker Cruz
Ian Grieve
Acquisition Editor
Edward Bowkett
Lead Technical Editor
Sweny M. Sukumaran
Technical Editors
Vrinda Nitesh Bhosale
Manmeet Singh Vasir
Project Coordinator
Anurag Banerjee
Proofreader
Dirk Manuel
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Graphics
Ronak Dhruv
Aditi Gajjar
Production Coordinator
Nilesh R. Mohite
Cover Work
Nilesh R. Mohite
About the Author
Danny Varghese is a business applied technology consultant committed to providing clients with highly valued business solutions. His mission is to offer a unique blend of industry, project-management, technical, and customer-support skills to ensure his work supports the strategic objectives of his clients.
His colleagues would describe him as an energetic leader and effective communicator who works productively with clients and all levels of management. It is clear to everyone who works with him, that he is passionate about what he does, and adept in integrating technological advancement with the correct amount of improvement to the business process.
It is this same passion and aptitude that inspired him to take on the challenge of writing this book. He believes in the exponential potential of business and in sharing the knowledge required to attain that potential with others in the community. It is his hope that this book serves as a resource to solving business problems with the highest possible valued solutions.
He has been a consultant at Slalom Consulting for two years. Slalom Consulting has won numerous Microsoft Country Partner of the Year awards, and consistently ranks in the top 10 best places to work by Consulting Magazine and glassdoor.com.
Acknowledgement
1 Corinthians 10:31
To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Everything I do and all that I am is because of you. The skills and opportunity to write this book have been a blessing and I owe everything to you.
To my wife Sharon, thank you for being the model of love, patience, and understanding. You've supported me in everything I've ever done and for that I can never repay you.
To my daughter Ariana, you are the absolute joy of my life. I didn't believe in love at first sight until you were born. "For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow." – Rosemonde Gérard.
Mom, Dad, Denny, and Daley thank you for your continued support, teaching me to love God, work hard, and seize every opportunity.
Mom and Dad, thank you for raising such a strong Christian woman, making me feel like your son, and taking care of us with unconditional love. Shawn, thank you for being another great brother and supporting me in writing this book.
My friends, whom I consider family, you've helped mold me into the man I am today, keeping me honest and always being there when I've needed anything. Words cannot express what you've meant to me in my life.
My colleagues and friends, including Jeff Shaffer, Bryan Van Antwerp, Darren Liu, Luke Simpson, and Shelley Schmelter, you've helped me to grow professionally and to become a well-rounded technology consultant.
My colleagues and friends at Slalom Consulting including Jason Davis and Giovanni Spiteri, you are two in a long list of excellent managers giving me the support, tools, time, and latitude to pursue any career goal I've had. Jamie Burton, thank you for being the first face of the organization and always being there as a friend whenever I needed one. Charles Fabiano, Sheila Hernandez, Nirnay Patel, Jenny Meilander, Yolande Du Preez, and Stan Ray, you are one of the best and brightest teams I've ever worked with.
Last but not least, a very big thanks to everyone at Packt Publishing for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for your encouragement, guidance, and support throughout this process.
About the Reviewers
Neil Benson has been a CRM addict since 1999 and is an experienced CRM solution architect. He is a certified Microsoft Dynamics CRM consultant, and has been a Microsoft CRM MVP since 2010. An active member of the Microsoft CRM community, he runs the LinkedIn Microsoft Dynamics CRM group on behalf of Microsoft, and has spoken at numerous Microsoft conferences and CRM User Group meetings.
Neil is the author of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization & Configuration (MB2-866) Certification Guide, Packt Publishing, and a contributing author to The CRM Field Guide, We Speak You Learn, LLC. He lives in Manhattan Beach, California with his wife and son.
Guillermo Barker Cruz is a professional in the service industry with experience in personnel management and in working with multidisciplinary working groups. His areas of expertise are to implement creative solutions to complex problems and create a suitable work culture to ensure customer satisfaction. He has wide experience in negotiating agreements with companies, analytical skills, creativity, goal-orientation, and ability and willingness to work as a team. His experiences include working as a CRM division manager at UruIT DynamiX and Axxon Consulting, and as a service and support director at Epson.
He is an Electrical Engineer from the Universidad de Chile, a Microsoft Certified Professional, and a Microsoft Certified Trainer. He is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM trainer at Golden Training. His LinkedIn profile is http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=32635763&trk=tab_pro.
Ian Grieve is a Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM certified consultant specializing in the delivery of Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM projects. He is a senior consultant at Perfect Image Ltd., a Microsoft Partner and VAR in the North East of England.
Ian has worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP since 2003 and, over the nine years since, has dealt with all aspects of the product life cycle, from presales, to implementation, to technical and functional training, to post go-live support, and subsequent upgrades and process reviews. Alongside his work with Microsoft Dynamics GP, he has fulfilled a similar role dealing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with special emphasis on project delivery and the training of end users on the management of sales, marketing, and service.
In his spare time, Ian runs the azurecurve | Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant blog dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics GP and related products and tries, often unsuccessfully, to squeeze in extra time for the Dynamics CRM-related blog coralcurve | A Consultant's Dabblings In Dynamics CRM.
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Preface
This book will teach readers how to manage the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 application, including marketing automation, sales, service management, and services scheduling.
This book will also assist individuals in passing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Exam by reviewing in depth each topic covered by the exam, providing questions to test your knowledge at the end of each chapter, and finally by providing a 75-question practice exam including answers.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Overview, teaches you about the applications available and how they can address your organization's requirements. You will also learn about the value of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications Certification Exam (MB2-868) and the role of this exam in certification for Microsoft IT professionals and developers.
Chapter 2, Activities and Notes, introduces you to the sales process and activities.
Chapter 3, Managing Marketing Automation Applications – Marketing Lists and Campaigns, teaches you how to create and manage marketing lists, campaigns, and campaign responses. You will also learn how to analyze marketing data to provide your organization with effective reporting.
Chapter 4, Managing Sales Applications, teaches you how to create and maintain lead, customer, opportunity, and competitor records. You'll also learn how go through an entire sales process, starting with leads, converting a lead to an account, contact and/or opportunity.
Chapter 5, Managing the Product Catalog and Order Processing, walks you through working the opportunity to close, creating a quote, and then converting the quote to an order and finally to an invoice. You will then analyze sales metrics and use goals, dashboards, personal views, and reports.
Chapter 6, Managing CRM 2011 Outlook Client, teaches you about the Outlook client and how it integrates with CRM. You'll be able to track e-mails, convert e-mails to leads or opportunities, and learn how to configure the views in the Dynamics CRM Outlook client.
Chapter 7, Managing Service Management Applications, teaches you how to create and manage cases, subject trees, knowledge base articles, queues, and contracts. You will then learn how to analyze cases by using service metrics, goals, and dashboards.
Chapter 8, Managing Service Scheduling Applications, teaches you about service scheduling scenarios, users, facilities/equipment, and service activities. You'll also learn how to report and analyze service activities.
Appendix A, Sample Certification Exam Questions, assesses your understanding of applications within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and your readiness for the certification exam by providing 75 questions similar to those found in the MB2-868 exam.
Appendix B, Answers to Sample Certification Exam Questions, contains answers and explanations to the sample certification exam questions found in Appendix A, Sample Certification Exam Questions.
Appendix C, Answers to Self-test Questions, contains answers to the self-test questions found in chapters 2 to 8.
What you need for this book
For this book, it's recommended that you have a grasp of the overall customer relationship management concept, and understand how to solve business problems through the use of technology.
You can use a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 30-day trial to follow along with this book. The trial can be obtained from http://crm.dynamics.com.
Another option is to set up a Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premise deployment. For this, the following software is required:
In addition to software, it's a good idea to have working knowledge of the Microsoft Windows operating system, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office.
Who this book is for
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide is for individuals who will implement and support Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. These individuals can include, but are not limited to, IT consultants, professionals, business users, and even key business stakeholders.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "This is a free text field where you can enter text such as PTO or Sick."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Start CRM, click on the Workplace module, and then click on Activities."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Chapter 1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Overview
In this chapter you will learn about:
Introduction to CRM 2011
Every organization is dependent on customers, and every organization is challenged to manage these customers. Businesses need a way to attract, sell to, service, and track every interaction these customers have with their organization. To do so, they often implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
Microsoft offers a CRM solution as part of their Dynamics suite, which allows companies to implement a system that manages more than just their customers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a web-based application that can be accessed online through an Internet browser or through Microsoft Office Outlook.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Web client
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client
Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes three main modules:
Each module contains entities, which are objects in CRM, and are used to help model data.
Throughout this book, business examples will be used to explain various concepts. A fictitious company called Race2Win Insurance Company will be used to further illustrate these concepts.
Sales module
Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows businesses to optimize their sales processes and customer tracking efforts. With CRM, an organization can increase interactions with current customers, shorten sales cycles, and increase opportunity close rates to gain new customers.
The sales module within CRM consists of the following entities:
Each of these entities are explained in more detail in the upcoming chapters of this book, but let's give a high-level overview of how users could potentially use these out of the box capabilities.
Business scenarios
The business scenarios that we'll cover in a moment outlines the use of the sales module for our fictitious insurance company. Although entities such as marketing lists, quick campaigns, and sales literature are found in the sales module, these will be discussed in the marketing business scenarios. For our scenarios, we'll illustrate examples from the viewpoint of various individual roles within the organization.
Leads
Race2Win Insurance Company needs a way to track leads they've acquired as a result of efforts by their marketing team. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows the company to track and qualify leads. For example, let's say Race2Win is capturing information on the lead record related to a potential insurance customer. Based on information entered, business rules can be applied to categorize the lead as hot, warm, or cold. CRM has out of the box functionality to apply these business rules automatically.
Once a lead is qualified, Dynamics CRM provides the ability to convert the lead into an opportunity, account, contact, or a combination of the three.
Accounts
The organizations or companies that Race2Win Insurance views as customers can be tracked as accounts in CRM. These accounts may be managed by one or more salespeople. A salesperson may receive commission on sales made to their managed accounts, thus making accounts critical. Accounts contain the address, industry, and various other demographic data about the customer.
Contacts
As part of the sales process, Race2Win Insurance Company's sales force may reach out to individuals or employees at a company. Individuals, either on their own or tied to a company, can be tracked as contacts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Like the account, contact records can store addresses and industry/professional information, but can also store more personal data, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and information about various family members. A salesperson may find personal information critical to start and maintain a personal relationship with people at a company.
Opportunities
Opportunities can allow the Race2Win sales force to track potential sales opportunities with their customers. The opportunities can go through various sales cycles, and can track the estimated versus actual revenue of a particular sale. Opportunities can have products from the product catalog associated to them in order to help estimate the revenue more accurately. The Race2Win Insurance salespeople receive their commission when an opportunity is won, and the commission amount is based on the estimated revenue.
Products
Race2Win Insurance Company has various insurance products and services it may sell. Products can be sold to different customers at different prices, and some products may be eligible for discounts based on the quantity ordered. Dynamics CRM allows all of the above functionality through the use of the product catalog.
Quotes
Let's say that during the course of a sales cycle, the customer wishes to receive more detailed pricing information such as an estimate from the Race2Win salesperson. Dynamics CRM allows a quote to be generated ad hoc or from an opportunity. In either case, products from the product catalog can be added, prices from the price list can be used, and discounts can be applied—all to create an accurate quote.
Orders
If a customer wishes to proceed with purchasing products or services, the opportunity can be closed as won. The salesperson will receive commission, and the process is now handed off to someone in order entry to create an order. Orders can be created ad hoc, from an opportunity, or quote. If an opportunity or quote has products, prices, and/or discounts, these can be inherited, making the generation of the order timely and accurate.
Invoices
An invoice can be generated for a customer in place of an order if needed. Many other organizations like Race2Win have their billing department typically create an invoice once the order is ready to be billed. An invoice can be created ad hoc or from an opportunity, quote, or order. Like an order, invoices can inherit the products, prices, and/or discounts from an opportunity, quote, or order.
Note
While quotes, orders, and invoices can be created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, sometimes they are created in an ERP system and then imported into Dynamics CRM for reference or reporting.
Competitors
Race2Win Insurance Company has now been using the leads generated to attain new customers, increase sales, and generate quotes, orders, and invoices for customers quickly and efficiently. Like any successful organization, Race2Win has to deal with competition. Dynamics CRM gives the organization's sales force and management the ability to track competitors, analyze their sales strategies, products, and the business they win.
Goals
Throughout a period of time, say fiscal year, an organization like Race2Win can set up goals to track various metrics such as sales performance. These goals can be tracked for each individual, and managers have the ability to see each of their team member's goals. The entire business scenario we just outlined can be achieved by using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales module.
Marketing module
Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows an organization to launch and maintain marketing campaigns. The responses to a campaign can be tracked to gauge the effectiveness of a campaign. These responses can also be converted into accounts, contacts, leads, quotes, orders, or opportunities.
The Dynamics CRM marketing module consists of the following entities:
Each of these entities are explained in more detail in the upcoming chapters of this book, but let's again look at a high-level overview.
Business scenarios
The business scenarios that we'll cover in a momentoutlines the use of the marketing module using our fictitious company, Race2Win Insurance Company. Race2Win's marketing team has analyzed its existing customer base and found areas to expand the company's business. They can market new products and services to their existing customer base, and try and turn potential customers into new ones.
Marketing lists
Race2Win has realized that it needs to market new insurance products to an existing list of accounts, and market existing products to potential customers in China. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows Race2Win to set up a marketing list containing a static list of accounts. They can also use CRM to set up a dynamic marketing list of all leads where the address has the country set to China.
Campaigns
Using marketing lists, an organization can kick off, run, and evaluate marketing campaigns. Race2Win can kick off a campaign very quickly for the existing accounts and it can also execute a more lengthy campaign, containing multiple communication channels, for the leads in China. Depending on the campaign type, the marketing team can create planning activities, track the cost of the campaign, and target certain products.
Sales literature
At times, customers or even internal business users may want to know more about a product that an organization is selling or marketing. Race2Win is no different, dealing with multiple inquiries about products from customers on a weekly basis. The sales literature in CRM can offer collateral for marketing or sales teams to share. An example can be a brochure of their latest insurance products.
The scenarios we just described illustrates how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM marketing module can be used to achieve any marketing goal.
Customer service module
Obtaining new customers is an important goal of any organization, but servicing existing customers is just as important. Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a solution to service an organization's customers, manage service resources, and maintain a knowledge base repository that can be used to efficiently resolve future service incidents.
The Dynamics CRM service module consists of the following entities:
Each of these entities are explained in more detail in the upcoming chapters of this book, but let's look at a high-level overview of how an organization could potentially use these out of the box capabilities.
Business scenarios
Thanks to CRM, Race2Win Insurance Company has been able to effectively market and sell its products to companies in a wide range of industries all over the world. Now it's time for Race2Win to start servicing their clients, and it's Dynamics CRM to the rescue once again.
Cases
Let us say a customer didn't receive their invoice for insurance products that they purchased. This customer e-mails this issue to a client service representative at Race2Win. With Dynamics CRM, this e-mail can be converted to a case. During that process of conversion, an account or contact can be linked (the case can reference a product if needed). Once converted, the original e-mail will be tied to the newly opened case. After the case is created, it can be assigned to a user, or routed to a queue. Throughout its lifecycle, activities such as e-mails, phone calls, and/or tasks can be tracked as a part of the case.
Knowledge base articles
In trying to resolve the case, users can access a repository of knowledge base articles to reference past issues and resolutions.
Contracts
Race2Win can use CRM to create service contracts to define the type and level of support required. These contracts can then be referenced when new cases are opened.
Service calendar
If the servicing of customers requires the allocation of resources, whether that is an individual employee, a contractor, a facility or equipment, Dynamics CRM's scheduling features can assist. The service calendar can show users how each resource is being allocated for a given time period. With this knowledge, you can schedule resources more efficiently in order to deliver a prompt resolution to a case.
As you can see, CRM has a rich feature set that can be used to service any type of client. We just went through a high-level introduction of the three main modules in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This book is a guide to help pass the CRM 2011 Applications exam (MB2-868) and we will delve deeper into each of the modules to help you better understand the application. The next section gives you an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 training and certifications.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 training and certifications
The majority of the content for this section was created by my colleague, Neil Benson, who is also writing a Dynamics CRM certification guide. He was gracious enough to offer this material as a resource for folks preparing for the MB2-868 (Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications) certification exam.
Training courses and examination
On the Microsoft Learning website (http://learning.microsoft.com), you can find more information about the courses and exams. Here, you can also find a local training course provider or buy an online training course collection.
For users
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 users will find the following two courses very useful:
There are no exams or certifications associated with these courses.
For implementers and administrators
If you are an implementation team member or a system administrator, there are eight training courses and four exams available.
Applications
There are four courses available for learning about the major application areas of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:
There is one exam covering all four of these application areas. This exam is Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (Exam MB2-868). After passing this exam, you will earn a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification.
There are two other useful courses available for implementers and administrators. These courses are as follows:
There are no exams or certifications associated with these courses.
Installation
There is one training course and an exam that covers the installation and deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:
Customization and configuration
There is one training course and an exam that covers the customization of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:
For developers
For developers, there is one CRM 2011 training course and an exam available.
Extending
There is one training course and an exam that covers extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:
Note
In addition to the Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 training course and exam, developers should also consider the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization and Configuration training course and exam listed earlier in this chapter.
Certifications
This section describes the two levels of certification available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, and the benefits of becoming certified.
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
MCTS certifications demonstrate your proficiency in a feature area of a Microsoft product. Passing any one of the four CRM 2011 exams described earlier in this chapter will earn you an MCTS certification.
Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
MCITP certifications demonstrate your in-depth expertise across a number of Microsoft products. There are three MCITP certifications available:
Benefits of certification
Whether you work as an independent consultant, work for a Microsoft customer, or work for a Microsoft partner, earning a Microsoft Dynamics CRM certification leads the way to better career opportunities.
Microsoft partners value certified individuals because employing Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) enables them to achieve silver and gold competencies that demonstrate their commitment to, and expertise in, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Microsoft customers value certified individuals because Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions implemented, managed, and supported by MCPs have a lower total cost of ownership and a higher return on investment.
Achieving certification demonstrates the technical proficiency that validates your knowledge, adds credibility to your resume, and will help you advance in your career. When combined with real-world experience, certification will mean that you are more highly regarded than other individuals with similar experience who haven't taken training or shown sufficient initiative to achieve certification.
Exam MB2-868
The focus of this certification guide is exam MB2-868: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications. In this section we'll learn:
How to study for the exam
There are several ways to study for the MB2-868 exam:
The best study method will depend upon your training budget, learning style, and the available time. Note, however, that certification guide is the only option available that includes practice exam questions.
Hands-on experience
Hands-on experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is essential, regardless of your preferred study method. Follow all of the procedures covered in this guide several times in a CRM test environment. Use a 30-day trial subscription to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online if you don't have a training deployment available. You don't need to have completed a full implementation project, but some hands-on experience will greatly improve your chances of success.
How to register for your exam
Regardless of which study method you choose, the only way to register for your MB2-868 exam is with Prometric: Microsoft's official certification exam provider.
Visit the Prometric website to register for your exam (http://www.prometric.com/Microsoft/Dynamics.htm).
You must take your exam in person at one of the Prometric's worldwide test centers. Candidates can use any test center, except in India, China, or Pakistan where you must provide proof that you are a legitimate resident of that country.
If you are taking an official training course with a Microsoft Learning Partner, check whether or not the course includes an exam before you book directly with Prometric.
Exam languages
MB2-868 is available in the following languages:
Exam fees
The exam fee for MB2-868 is USD 150 (at the time of writing). The exam fees in your country may vary.
Your organization may be entitled to, or have purchased, exam credits. Check with your manager before booking your exam.
