Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators : Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator (part 1) - CRM Customizations

• Custom goal and goal audit entities

• A script function to retrieve Fiscal Period Reporting settings

• A set of reports for viewing goal and attainment information

• A new role to support the new goal entity

• The addition of the Goal Lookup field on the opportunity form

• Four workflow definitions to handle notifications and approvals of goals

• Documentation of the goal-creation process, reports, and custom entity and installation instructions

The Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator (shown in Figure 1) provides an easy-to-use process to monitor revenue goals and track sales performance against the goals, using a hierarchical approach if desired (VP Sales, then Sales Managers, and then Salespeople). This approach is frequently referred to as goal-based forecasting.

Figure 1. Sales Forecasting accelerator.

Prerequisites and Modifications

The following prerequisites exist for the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator:

• Fiscal settings must be configured within CRM. If not configured, they will not be used by the script, and the goal period will have to be set manually.

This accelerator modifies the following CRM entities:

• Adds new goal entity

• Adds new goal audit entity

• Adds script to retrieve Fiscal Period Reporting settings

• Adds new reports

• Adds new role

• Modifies opportunities

• Adds new workflows

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the \Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the eService accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for licensing, solutions, and installation (and a user guide)

• All required customization files

• Custom reports

Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator Installation

1.	Run the installation executable that you downloaded from Codeplex. At the time of this writing, this is ExtendedSalesForecasting_V1.0_RTW.exe.
2.	After you’ve extracted the files, a wizard is displayed that you can use to configure the accelerator, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator Installation Wizard.

Wizard Step 1: CRM Customizations

1.	Before you can use this accelerator, you must configure your organization’s fiscal year settings within CRM, Settings, Business Management, Fiscal Year Settings. Be sure to review the \Documentation\ Microsoft Dynamics CRM Extended Sales Forecasting Installation_Guide.doc before attempting to configure the fiscal year settings. Note Once the fiscal year settings are set within CRM, they cannot be changed unless a support ticket is opened with Microsoft. You may want to perform testing within a test environment (such as the CRM 4 virtual PC image from Microsoft or test server) before implementing fiscal year settings within a production environment.
2.	Within the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator Installation Wizard, click Step 1: CRM Customizations. The \Installation\Step 1 - CRM Customizations\ folder displays. Copy the extended_sales_forecasting.xml file to your desktop. You’ll perform this step because the default installation directory of the accelerators contains too many characters for the CRM Import Customizations entity.
3.	Within CRM, navigate to Settings, Customization, Import Customizations and browse to the extended_sales_forecasting.xml file on your desktop. Upload the customizations, and then import (see Figure 3). You may receive an alert about localization while importing; it’s safe to ignore. Figure 3. Import customizations.
4.	Within CRM, update the Goal entity so that it is displayed in CRM’s navigation panes. Navigate to Settings, Customization, Customize Entities, Goal and add check boxes to Areas That Display This Entity (for example, Sales or Workplace).
5.	Edit the Opportunity entity so that the new Goal field is displayed. Edit the main Opportunity entity form and add the Goal field (msa_goalid), as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Opportunity customization.
6.	Within the Customize Entities window, select More Actions and then Publish All Entities to publish the new Goal entities and opportunity modification.
7.	Within Settings, Workflow, publish the four newly imported workflows beginning with MSA-Extended Sales Forecasting.
8.	After adding the Goal entity, only the system administrator has access to the entity. Grant access to the security roles of users who need to view the Goal entity. A detailed explanation of how to administer the proper security roles is provided within the \Documentation\ Microsoft Dynamics CRM Extended Sales Forecasting Installation_Guide.doc file.