Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook considerations

Hi,

I am sharing here some considerations to bear in mind about CRM 2011 Outlook Client. I am not covering here software and hardware pre-requisites as this is already pretty well explained in the Planning Guide and if you speak Spanish, I have also talked about it in elblogdeDynamicsCRM.com .

So, here some things I suggest you to bear in mind:

Deployment

• Remember that manual installation for each client computer requires the user to have admin privileges on that computer.
  • Other deployment mechanisms such as Group Policy does not require admin privileges but they are suitable of you have to install many clients (at least more than 15).
• Remember that some pre-requisites need to be met before installing and some of them may take several minutes to be installed and may require computer restarts. Be you and your users prepared for this.

Synchronization

• Despite now with CRM 2011 it is possible to set up more than one organization, only one organization can be designated to be synchronized.
• Going offline is only available for the synchronizing organization.
• Tracking items only works with the synchronizing organization.
• Outlook objects synchronization with CRM objects (Contacts, tasks, meetings, etc.) only occur with the synchronizing organization.

Offline Support

• If using a computer shared by several users (each user having his/her Outlook profile and CRM), only one user can be configured to work offline.
• Only one organization can be used offline (the synchronizing one).

Upgrading from CRM 4.0

• MS Dynamics CRM 4 Client for Outlook can be used with Dynamics CRM 2011 Server. This compatibility is provided in order to make administrators´ life easier so they/we do not have to upgrade all clients at soon as server is upgraded. Nevertheless, it´s important to consider the following:
  • To avoid client reconfiguration, CRM 4.0 URL and CRM 2011 URL must be the same. Possible ways to achieve this are:
    • Use the same computer name as CRM 4.0 Server for the new CRM 2011 Server. (during installation, the new server shouldn't be accessible by client computers)
    • Use a new name for the CRM 2011 server and make changes to your DNS in order to point old CRM 4.0 computer name to the IP of this new computer.
    • If using a host header in IIS, use the same as CRM 4 and also update DNS.
  • Users that need offline access, will be required to upgrade to CRM 2011 Client for Outlook.
• To upgrade Outlook client, 4.0 Client base language and 2011 base language must match.
• Remember that CRM 4.0 Client is only available in 32 bits. In-place upgrading Outlook client is only allowed for the 32 bits Edition.
• If you want to install 64-bits Client, you will need first to:
  • Uninstall previous CRM 4.0 client
  • Install a 64-bits edition of Office 2010

Hope you find these considerations useful,

PP [twitter: @pabloperalta ]