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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Use a no-code approach to create powerful business solutions using Dynamics CRM 2016
About This Book
- Latest guide on customizing your system using various features in Dynamics CRM 2016;
- Highly practical, example-rich guide that gives you power to bend Dynamics CRM to maximize profits in your organization;
- A no-code guide that is easy to follow for even non-programmers
Who This Book Is For
If you are new to Dynamics CRM or a seasoned user looking to enhance your knowledge of the platform, then this book is for you. It is also for skilled developers who are looking to move to the Microsoft stack to build business solution software
What You Will Learn
- Configure Outlook to integrate with your Dynamics CRM online instance
- Manage the existing application structure by understanding how to extend and/or modify the modules and update the navigation
- Find out how to use different entity views in order to get a 360-degree view of customer data
- Map modern business processes to the platform to enhance the user experience
- Use different Dynamics CRM processes such as dialogs, workflows, actions, and business process workflows
- Use internal and external social data to enhance the user's ability to make the right decisions
- Dive into generic administration options such as managing configuration and customization to become a power user
In Detail
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Microsoft solution to satisfy the various needs of customer relationship management and is already equipped to be flexible to meet the needs of businesses. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, many new features were added for social, marketing, sales, and integration with other tools. These features add many dimensions to customization.
This book will not only showcase how CRM can be customized, but will also be your guide on how the latest advancements in Dynamics CRM 2016 can be used to benefit your business.
You will learn how to enhance the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 and use it to serve different businesses of various scales. You will see how to get ready to customize CRM and then quickly move on to grasp the CRM app structure, which will help you customize Dynamics CRM better. You will find out how to customize CRM for sales, service, marketing, and social. We'll also show you how CRM 2016 can be seamlessly embedded into various productivity tools, and how to customize CRM for machine learning and contextual guidance. Finally, we'll also cover the latest advancements in CRM's mobile capabilities and its complete offline support so you can better customize it.
Style and approach
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Microsoft solution for various needs of customer relationship management and is already equipped to be flexible to some extent as per the needs of the business. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, many new features for Social, marketing, sales, integration with other tools are added. These features add many dimensions to customization. This book will not only showcase how CRM can be customized but will also be a guide on how latest advancements in Dynamics CRM 2016 can be used for the benefit of your business.
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Seitenzahl: 336
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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Table of Contents
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization Second Edition
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization Second Edition
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: December 2014
Second edition: May 2016
Production reference: 1230516
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78588-151-0
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Credits
Author
Nicolae Tarla
Reviewer
Ian Grieve
Commissioning Editor
Veena Pagare
Acquisition Editor
Ruchita Bhansali
Content Development Editor
Sanjeet Rao
Technical Editor
Deepti Tuscano
Copy Editor
Merilyn Pereira
Project Coordinator
Judie Jose
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Mariammal Chettiyar
Graphics
Disha Haria
Production Coordinator
Conidon Miranda
Cover Work
Conidon Miranda
About the Author
Nicolae Tarla is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM consultant involved in solution architecture and technical presales. He has worked on various mid-size to enterprise-level Dynamics CRM and SharePoint implementations for both the private and public sectors. He has been delivering Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions since version 3.0 of the product.
Nicolae was a technical reviewer on the book Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Dashboards Cookbook, Packt Publishing, wrote Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Scripting Cookbook as well as the previous edition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization Essentials, Packt Publishing, and is an active blogger at http://www.thecrmwiz.com. He has also presented at various public events, including eXtreme CRM in 2014.
In 2014, Nicolae was awarded the Business Solutions MVP title for his Dynamics CRM contributions.
I would like to thank my family for the ongoing support provided during this project.
Also a big thumbs up to the community for being there, being active, and driving me to engage in yet another book project. You rock!
About the Reviewer
Ian Grieve is a Microsoft® Most Valuable Professional for Microsoft Dynamics GP and is also a certified Dynamics CRM consultant specializing in the delivery of Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM projects. He is the ERP Practice Manager at Perfect Image Ltd. and a Microsoft Partner and VAR in the North East of England.
Ian has worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP since 2003 and, since then, 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 since joining Perfect Image, 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.
Ian is the author of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Financial Management, Implementing the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client and Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow 2.0, coauthor of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook, produced the Microsoft Dynamics GP Techniques online learning course, and was the technical reviewer for several Microsoft Dynamics CRM books published by Packt Publishing including Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Cookbook.
In his spare time, Ian runs the azurecurve – Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (http://www.azurecurve.co.uk) blog dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics GP and related products.
The most recent offshoot of running his blog is that Ian started writing plugins to extend the functionality of the blogging platform, WordPress. A new site, azurecurve WordPress Development (http://wordpress.azurecurve.co.uk), contains information on his plugins, and so does the new blog, where he discusses how development of plugins is done.
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Preface
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization covers the structure and configuration and customization options available to a Dynamics CRM power user. The book takes the reader on a journey through the basics of the platform, then delves into the customization options available and finishes with a high level overview of various administrative options.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started, walks you through an introduction of the platform, and guides you through setting up the trial environment used through the book. No prior knowledge of Dynamics CRM or other skills is assumed. Upon completion of this chapter, the reader will have a free trial sandbox environment valid for 30 days, as well as the client-side configuration for certain scenarios.
Chapter 2, The Dynamics CRM Application Structure, delves into the Dynamics CRM application's structure and describes the standard modules, the elements available for customization, and their relationships to each module, as well as the available options to extend the platform further. In this chapter, you will understand how to manage the existing application structure, how to extend and/or modify the modules, and how to update the navigation accordingly.
Chapter 3, Dynamics CRM Customization, builds on the knowledge gained in the previous chapter, and goes one step further by showing the reader how to work with entities within the existing modules, how to customize and extend these entities, and how to create logical relationships between them. In addition, this chapter will loop back and reference the previous chapter by describing how these new customizations fit within the application modules, and how they can live across various modules. This chapter will also analyze the various document storage options, and the impact of choosing one model versus another.
Chapter 4, Building Better Business Functionality, takes you into the meat of the application by looking at how business affects the behavior of the platform. The reader will look at how to enforce the business rules on the platform, and how to create customizations that will guide and correct the user, thus making sure the platform works with the user. Specific features and enhancements of the platform make it easy for businesses to map their current processes on this platform. Integration with the Microsoft Office suite of products makes Dynamics CRM an even stronger platform, giving users the ability to experience a familiar interface.
Chapter 5, Dynamics CRM – Additional Features, gives you a glimpse inside and outside the platform by diving first into the internal aspects of the platform that have received great enhancements over the last few versions of the product, and then tapping into external data from the market, as well as customers and prospects. You will get an introduction to some of the new features introduced into Dynamics CRM, and you will also get some pointers for the integration with platforms around social and marketing, as well as an overview of analytics options available with the platform and the complementary products.
Chapter 6, Dynamics CRM Administration, guides you through generic administration options available on the platform. While this is by no means an exhaustive guide to the application of administration, this chapter aims to give you enough knowledge about the administration options to provide a base of knowledge. In addition, references to Microsoft documentation will point the readers to available sources to enhance their knowledge.
What you need for this book
Following the instructions provided in Chapter 1, Getting Started, you will be able to create a 30-day trial of Dynamics CRM Online. This environment can be used to experiment with the configurations described in this book.
In addition, Microsoft Office Outlook can be used to integrate with this environment. Chapter 1, Getting Started, also described how to configure this integration.
No other software or hardware is required.
Who this book is for
This book is the basic guide for both new and seasoned Microsoft Dynamics CRM end users. It takes a gradual approach to presenting the platform, starting with the basic structure, looking at customization options, and ending with basic administration concepts.
A new user will be slowly guided through the basic concepts of the platform, the structure, and the customization options, so that he/she can become a power user.
An advanced user will find coverage of certain platform aspects that he/she has not yet worked with, or will find specific gems about the differences between versions of the platform, and new features introduced with the latest version.
A power user will find details and concepts that will help him/her become better, faster, more efficient, and proficient at customizing the platform. In addition, he/she will get an overview of the platform administration's options, helping to close the communication gap between users and administrators.
This book takes a no-code approach to basic configuration and customization concepts, and is aimed at non-developers. It is intended as a guide for someone evaluating the platform features, starting new on the platform, or as reference material during the platform's life.
Due to the relatively small book size, this is by no means a comprehensive encyclopedia, but rather a reference guide to be used to quickly and efficiently ramp up on Dynamics CRM's basic concepts.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles 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: "OrganizationName is the name you have selected for your online organization."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "A user with necessary permission can navigate to Settings | Dynamics Marketplace."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Chapter 1. Getting Started
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market has seen a huge uptake in the last few years. Some of the drivers for this market are the need to enhance customer experience, provide faster and better services, and adapting to the customer's growing digital presence. CRM systems, in general, are taking a central place in the new organizational initiatives.
Dynamics CRM is Microsoft's response to a growing trend. The newest version is Dynamics CRM 2016. It is being offered in a variety of deployment scenarios. From the standard on-premise deployment to a private cloud, or an online cloud offering from Microsoft, the choice depends on each customer, their type of project, and a large number of requirements, policies, and legal restrictions.
In this chapter, we'll first look at the environment we need to complete the examples presented in the book. We will create a new environment, based on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online trial. This approach will give us 30-day trial to experiment with an environment for free.
The following topics will be covered in this chapter:
Introducing Dynamics CRM
Dynamics CRM 2016 is the current version of the popular Customer Relationship Management platform offered by Microsoft. This platform offers users the ability to integrate and connect data across their sales, marketing, and customer service activities, and to give staff an overall 360-degree view of all interactions and activities as they relate to a specific customer.
Along with the standard platform functionality provided, we have a wide range of customization options, allowing us to extend and further customize solutions to solve a majority of other business requirements. In addition, we can integrate this platform with other applications to create a seamless solution.
Being the only available CRM platform on the market today, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 is one of the fastest growing, gaining large acceptance at all levels, from small to mid-size and enterprise-level organizations. This is due to a multitude of reasons, some of which include the variety of deployment options, the scalability, the extensibility, the ease of integration with other systems, and the ease of use.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be deployed in a variety of options. Starting with the offering from Microsoft, you can get CRM Online. Once we have a 30-day trial active, this can be easily turned into a full production environment by providing payment information and keeping the environment active. The data will live in the cloud, on one of the data centers provided by Microsoft.
Alternatively, you can obtain hosting with a third-party provider. The whole environment can be hosted by a third party, and the service can be offered either as a SaaS solution or a fully hosted environment. Usually, there is a difference in the way payment is processed, with a SaaS solution, in most cases, being offered in a monthly subscription model.
Another option is to have the environment hosted in-house. This option is called on-premise deployment and carries the highest up-front cost but gives you the ability to customize the system extensively. In addition to the higher up-front cost, the cost to maintain the environment, the hardware, and the skilled people required to constantly administer the environment can easily add-up.
As of recently, we now have the ability to host a virtual CRM environment in Azure. This offloads the cost of maintaining the local infrastructure in a fashion similar to a third-party-hosted solution but takes advantage of the scalability and performance of a large cloud solution maintained and supported fully by Microsoft. The following white paper released by Microsoft describes the deployment model using Azure Virtual Machines:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49193
Features of Dynamics CRM
Some of the most notable features of the Dynamics CRM platform include:
Let's look at each of the features in more detail.
Scalability
Dynamics CRM can scale over a wide range of deployment options. From a single-box deployment, used mostly for development, all the way to a cloud offering that can span over a large number of servers, and can host a large number of environments, the same base solution can handle all the scenarios in between with ease.
Extensibility
Dynamics CRM is a platform in which the base offering comes with prepackaged functionality for sales, service, and marketing; and a large variety of solutions can be built on top of Dynamics CRM. The extensibility model is called xRM and allows power users, non-developers, and developers alike to build custom solutions to handle various other business scenarios or integrate with other third-party platforms.
The Dynamics CRM Marketplace is a great example of such solutions built to extend the core platform, and offered for sale by various companies. These companies are called Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and play a very important role in the ecosystem created by Microsoft. In time and with enough experience, some of them become the go-to partners for various implementations.
If nothing else, the Dynamics Marketplace is a cool place to look at some of the solutions created and search for specific applications. The idea of the marketplace became public sometime around 2010 and was integrated into Dynamics CRM 2011. At launch, it was designed as a searchable repository of solutions. It is a win-win for both solution providers and customers alike. Solutions can also be rated, thus giving customers better community feedback before committing to purchasing and implementing a foreign solution into their organization.
The Dynamics Marketplace is hosted on Pinpoint, Microsoft's online directory of software applications and professional services. On this platform, independent companies, and certified partners offer their products and services. At the time of this writing, Pinpoint hosts a few marketplaces, including Office, Azure, Dynamics, and Cloud, and is available at the following location:
https://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-CA/Home/Dynamics
Navigating to the Dynamics page you are presented with a search option as seen in the following screenshot:
You now have the option to filter your results by Solution providers, Services, or Apps (applications).
In addition, you can further filter your results by distance to a geo-location derived from an address or postal code, as well as other categories as illustrated in the following screenshot:
When searching for a solution provider, the results provide a high-level view of the organization, with a logo and a high-level description. The ratings and competencies count are displayed for easy visibility as shown here:
Drilling down into the partner profile page, you can find additional details on the organization, the industry's focus, details on the competencies, as well as a way to connect with the organization. Navigation to additional details, including Reviews and Locations, is available on the profile page.
The Dynamics Marketplace is also available, starting with Dynamics CRM 2011, as a part of the organization. A user with necessary permission can navigate to Settings | Dynamics Marketplace.
This presents the user with a view by solutions available. Options for sorting and filtering include Popular, Newest, and Featured. Community rating is clearly visible and provides the necessary feedback to consider when evaluating new solutions.
Ability to integrate with other systems
There is a large variety of integration options available when working with Dynamics CRM. In addition, various deployment options offer more or fewer integration features. With CRM Online, you tend to get more integration options into cloud services, whereas the on-premise solution has a limited number of configurable integration options, but can provide more integration using various third-party tools. The base solution comes with the ability to configure integration with the following common services:
In addition, you can use specific connectors provided by either Microsoft or other third-party providers for integration with specific solutions.
When the preceding options are not available, you can still integrate with other solutions using a third-party integration tool. This allows real-time integration into legacy systems. Some of the most popular tools used for integration include, but are not limited to:
Ease of use
Dynamics CRM offers users a variety of options to interact with the system. You can access Dynamics CRM through a browser, with support for all recent versions of the major browsers now. The following browsers and versions are supported:
In addition, a user can interact with the system directly from the very familiar interface of Outlook. The Dynamics CRM connector for Outlook allows users to get access to all the system data and features from within Outlook. In addition, a set of functions built specifically for Outlook allows users to track and interact through e-mails, tasks, and events from within Outlook.
Further to the features provided through the Outlook integration, users of CRM for Outlook have the ability to work offline. Data can be taken offline, work can be done while disconnected, and can be synchronized back into the system when connectivity resumes.
For mobile users, Dynamics CRM can be accessed from mobile devices and tablets. Dynamics CRM provides a standard web-based interface for most mobile devices, as well as specific applications for various platforms including Windows-based tablets, iPads, and Android tablets. With these apps, you can also take a limited sub-set of cached data offline, as well have the ability to create new records and synchronize them back to CRM next time you go online. The quality of these mobile offerings has increased exponentially over the last few versions, and new features are being added with each new release.
In addition, third-party providers have also built mobile solutions for Dynamics CRM. A quick search in the application markets for each platform will reveal several options for each platform.
Global Data Center Locations for Dynamics CRM Online
Dynamics CRM Online is hosted at various locations in the world. Preview organizations can be created in all available locations, but features are sometimes rolled out on a schedule, in some locations faster than others.
The format of the Dynamics CRM Online Organization URL describes the data center location. As such, the standard format is as follows:
The OrganizationName is the name you have selected for your online organization. This is customizable and is validated for uniqueness within the respective data center.
[x] represents a number. As of this writing, this number can be anywhere between 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, or no number at all. This describes the global data center used to host your organization. The following table maps the data center to the URL format:
URLformat: crm[x].dynamics.com
Global data centre location
crm.dynamics.com
NAM
crm2.dynamics.com
SAM
crm4.dynamics.com
EMEA
crm5.dynamics.com
APAC
crm6.dynamics.com
OCE
crm7.dynamics.com
JPN
crm9.dynamics.com
GCC
Out of these global locations, usually the following get a preview and the new features first:
Organization
Global location
crm.dynamics.com
North America
crm4.dynamics.com
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
crm5.dynamics.com
Asia-Pacific
New data centers are being added on a regular basis. At the time of writing, new data centers are being added in Europe and Canada, with others to follow as needed.
Some of the drivers behind adding these new data centers revolve around not only performance improvements, as a data center located closer to a customer will provide theoretically better performance, but also a need for privacy and localization of data. Strict legislation around data residency has a great impact on the selection of the deployment model by customers who are bound to store all data local to the country of operation.
In total, by the end of 2016, the plan is to have Dynamics CRM Online available in 105 markets. These markets (countries) will be served by data centers spread across five generic global regions.
These data centers share services between Dynamics CRM Online and other services such as Azure and Office 365.
Advantages of Choosing Dynamics CRM Online
Choosing one of the available hosting models for Dynamics CRM is now not only a matter of preference. The decision can be driven by multiple factors.
During the last few years, there has been a huge push for the cloud. Microsoft has been very focused on enhancing their Online offering, and has continued to push more functionality and more resources in supporting the cloud model. As such, Dynamics CRM Online has become a force to reckon with. It is hosted on a very modern and high performing infrastructure. Microsoft has pushed literally billions of dollars into new data centers and infrastructure. This allows new customers to forego the necessary expenses on infrastructure associated with an on-premise deployment.
Along with investments on infrastructure, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) offered by Dynamics CRM Online is financially backed by Microsoft. Depending on the service selected, the uptime is guaranteed and backed financially. Application and infrastructure are automatically handled by Microsoft so you don't have to. This translates into much lower upfront costs, as well as reduced costs around ongoing maintenance and upgrades.
The Dynamics CRM Online offering is also compliant with various regulatory requirements, and is backed and verified through various third-party tests. Various rules, regulations, and policies in various locales are validated and certified by various organizations. Some of the various compliance policies evaluated include but are not limited to:
All these compliance requirements are in conformance with regulations stipulated by the International Standard Organization and other international and local standards. Independent auditors validate standards compliance rules. Microsoft is ISO 27001 certified.
The Microsoft Trust Center website located at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/CloudServices/Dynamics provides additional information on compliance, responsibilities, and warranties.
Further to the aforementioned benefits, choosing cloud over a standard on-premise deployment offers other advantages around scalability, faster time to market, and higher value proposition.
In addition to the standard benefits of an online deployment, one other great advantage is the ability to spin-up a 30-day trial instance of Dynamics CRM Online and convert it to a paid instance only when ready to go to production. This allows customizers and companies to get started and customize their solution in a free environment, with no additional costs attached. The 30-day trial instance gives us a 25-license instance, which allows us to not only customize the organization, but also test various roles and restrictions.
What do you need to customize Dynamics CRM?
First and foremost, in order to follow through with the information presented in this book, you will need an instance of Dynamics CRM Online. The following sections will describe in detail how to obtain a 30-day trial instance.
In addition, in order to subscribe to a 30-day trial, you will need a Microsoft account (formerly called Live account). You can obtain one by going to https://signup.live.com/.
The Create an account page presents you with a signup form. In the User name area, make sure to click on the Get a new email address link to have a new address created, as shown in the following screenshot:
At the time of writing, you have a choice to select between www.outlook.com and www.hotmail.com for your newly created e-mail address. The selected username is validated, as it must be unique.
Once your account is created, you are logged into your new account and can see the welcome e-mail. At this point, you can use this account to create your 30-day trial for Dynamics CRM Online.
Note
If you do have an existing Microsoft account, you do not need to create a new one. You can create multiple trials for both Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365.
Steps to Setting up an Environment
While this book will provide step-by-step instructions to be followed, it is strongly recommended to have an environment available to supplement the material you will be reading, and to become familiar with the platform. In order to minimize the footprint and to allow everybody to start quickly, I have opted to present all the topics based on a Dynamics CRM Online 30-day trial organization.
Opening a free 30-day trial of Dynamics CRM Online
In order to open your 30-day trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you will need to go through a wizard-driven process.
First of all, navigate to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252780
You are presented with a three-step wizard process that allows you, in a very simple manner, to sign up and provision a brand new organization.
At the top-right side of the page, you will find an option to add this to an existing subscription. If you start by creating your Office 365 subscription first, you can proceed here to add Dynamics CRM Online to your existing subscription. Follow the Sign in link to authenticate to your existing Office 365 subscription, as seen in the following screenshot:
Because we are creating our Dynamics CRM Online organization first, we will ignore this option and move on to filling in the required form fields. The first option you need to select is the Country. Pay close attention to the note underneath, this is one of the options that cannot be changed afterwards.
As stated in the description, this selection defines the region and implicitly the data center used for hosting your organization.
Fill in the rest of the information on the form and click on Next when ready.
Note
Company name on this form does not define the organization URL, you will be prompted for this information in the following step.
Step two of the wizard collects information about the username and organization URL you want to use. It also collects your initial password. Enter the desired username, organization name, and password, as seen in the following screenshot:
Click on Next once you are done filling in this section.
When defining the organization name for the URL, validation is performed to make sure this URL is unique. If the URL is not unique, you will be asked to provide a different organization name. Select a name that is not as common, until you find a unique one. The following screenshot shows the validation message you will receive if a non-unique value is entered.
Once a unique organization name is selected, your login user name is presented with a green check mark, as seen in the following screenshot:
Moving on to the last step of the wizard, you are asked to provide a phone number for verification. You will receive a text message with a code to be used to continue the signup process. Alternatively, you could select the Call me option and wait for a representative to validate your signup process. The selection screen looks like this:
The next screen requires you to enter the code provided by text message. Make sure you provided the correct phone number.
Tip
If you provided the incorrect phone number or did not receive the code by text message, click on Try again to have another code sent to your correct phone number.
When done, click on Create my account.
The following screen provides you with the user name you have selected, the URL of the Office 365 sign-in portal, and a status message. It's probably a good idea to take a screenshot of this for future reference.
When the process completes, the page is refreshed with the option to bookmark the sign-in page and a ready status message, as seen in the following screenshot:
Click on the You're ready to go… link to proceed.
Tip
By the time this book is published, the account and organization created for these screenshots will be long expired.
The next step takes you to the initial preconfiguration of your new organization. There are a few additional details required before you can start playing with your new organization.
This new screen asks for the default Language, Country/Region, and Currency. This information is very important, as it will define the default configuration values for your organization. The currency will become the default currency. While additional currencies can be later added to the organization, the default will always remain the one you selected during this configuration step.
Click on Finish when complete.
The Getting set up… screen is presented while the backend provisions your organization based on the configuration values you have provided.
While waiting for this to process, you can turn your attention to your e-mail. You would have received an e-mail from Microsoft Online Services Team giving you details on the organization that is being provisioned for you, your account details and additional information about the service and expiration of the trial period. The e-mail is shown as follows:
Going back to our sign-up page, the process has completed and we are presented with a final page including an option to bookmark the sign-in page in case you haven't done it before, as well as the URL of our newly created organization.
