Sage University have a some live instructor led Virtual Classroom training course taking place that cover Advanced E-mail Management.  These Virtual Classroom courses are designed for SageCRM consultants who are responsible customizing the SageCRM.

You will learn how to set up and configure the e-mail management service to unlock many of its robust features through the use of scripts, rulesets, and templates.

Details of the next course

Title: Customizing SageCRM 6.2: Advanced E-mail Management
Dates: 10th August 2009
Duration: 1 day Virtual Classroom
Location: Sage University

It can be found here on Sage Software University

If you are a development partner attending Insights in Nashville in May 11th-14th, then you could be interested in a session that will provide an introduction to PR.

The session is "GEN14: PR 101: An Introduction to Public Relations" and takes place on Tuesday 12th May. 

If you attend the session you will learn why Public Relations may be the best way to boost your bottom line in a weak economy. A panel of experts, including "Accounting Technology" magazine's Editor-in-Chief Robert Scott, will explain the elements of Public Relations, including what the
media looks for, and then offer practical tips to help you maximize your company's exposure to the market. The panel will also go over all the options for Public Relations through the Sage Co-op Program.

There is an interesting bonus for those registering for the session.  The Sage PR team will offer individual one- or two-hour consulting sessions for each attendee, so a development partner that attends will get value beyond just the session.

You can learn more here:  http://www.sageinsightsconference.com/home/

Sage eSummit is a virtual customer event series for end users of Accpac, Sage CRM, Timberline, ACT! by Sage, and Sage SalesLogix in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands through the months of April and May. Sage Business Solutions had been looking for ways to develop stronger relationships with the customer base and this combined with the notion that a pointy-ended campaign was needed to encourage upgrade and cross sell revenue across the CRM and ERP portfolio, gave rise to the birth of the eSummit. More specifically, it was designed to convince our install base why using the latest Sage technology will drive business revenue and help save money through the current economic climate AND to squeeze the most out of their Sage solution.

The Sage eSummit event for Sage SalesLogix took place on Monday 21 April and went extremely well. For the customers and prospects that were in attendance, they were privileged to 3 fantastic presentations from guest presenters, Larry Ritter, Dave Wallace and Jason Askelson – and there is no doubt that they would have left the event with nothing but positivity around Sage and the SalesLogix product vision and roadmap. The next event is next Tuesday 28 April and is the Sage eSummit for Sage Accpac ERP.  Check out www.sagesummit.com.au for more details.

Some facts for your interest:

Upcoming dates:

• April 28 – Accpac ERP and X3
• May 5 – ACT! by Sage
• May 21 – Sage CRM
• May 27 - Timberline

 There are 3 sessions to each event:

• Session 1 provides a roadmap and product vision of the particular solution and how the current version fits into that roadmap
• Session 2 explains how to drive business performance and revenue with the latest version of the solution.
• Session 3 explains how the latest version of the solution can help them save money.

We have been working hard trying to make it easier for you to find the information you need amongst the different articles on the DPP site.  One way of finding an article is to use the tag cloud on the right handside of the screen to drill down amongst the topics.

Every article and file posted is marked with one or more tags. The tags are mainly single words and are listed alphabetically. The more frequently a tag has been used to mark an article the bigger it will appear in the cloud. The tags are hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag. To find an article that discusses creating XML feeds using ASP pages, click on ASP, then on the next page click on XML.  

You can also use the search box at the top right of the screen.  There is an algorithm in the site search that weights each article according to their user allocated rating to change the way they bubble up in the search results.  It only takes a 'click' to rank an article from "poor" to "excellent" and over time the user ratings will make the articles rated as the higher quality float to the top of the search.

To rate an article you will need to use Internet Explorer.  Just click on one of the stars in the little panel that appears next to the title of the article. You can see from the image below the ratings show on the aggregated listing of blog articles.

You can also choose a rating when looking at an individual article.

So get ranking!

On Tuesday April 21st 2009 Microsoft is deploying Internet Explorer 8 via the Microsoft Windows Update service.

Sage CRM only supports the following  browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x & 7.x.

We would advise customers to use versions 6.x or 7.x only of Internet Explorer however if customers are forced to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 it is highly advisable that they run Internet Explorer in ‘Compatibility Mode’ to prevent any issues with CRM occurring.

The following Microsoft Knowledge Base article details how to enable compatibility mode within Internet Explorer 8.0:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956197/en-us

Sage CRM will support Internet Explorer 8 from version 6.2c onwards.

Softline Accpac are running an instructor led training Developer Training class at their Johannesburg offices.

This is an intensive five day course covering the essential skills needed for Solution Providers to customize an implementation including new entities, extensive scripting of business rules and workflow.  The course will fully explore the COM and webservices APIs.  Ample time will be made for real life case studies and examples. 

Title: Sage CRM Development skills
Dates: 22nd - 26th June
Duration: 5 days Instructor Led
Location: Conferencing @ Softline

If you are interested in attending the training then please email Jodi Kramer (jodi@accpac.co.za).

Note:  Sage is known as Softline in South Africa.

Sage (UK) Ltd currently provides a classroom based Sage CRM v6.2 Developer course (level 3) at our offices near Reading.  The UK training team are currently investigating the possibility of offering this as a Virtual Classroom course using a blend of anytime and realtime learning together with hands-on labs.  This comprehensive developer course aims to teach the skills required to customise Sage CRM systems to meet customer specific CRM requirements.  The course covers everything from adding a new entity, creating workflows right through to adding a custom self service web portal on the customer’s website.

Please let the UK team know if you or your colleagues would be interested in attending a Virtual Classroom Sage CRM Developer course by emailing to partner.training@sage.com.   A full course overview is available on request.  For anyone wishing to attend the live classroom course the next date is 1-4 June 2009.

This article has been edited 21st April 2009. 

This article has been prompted by a request to clarify who can have access to the Advanced Customization Wizard, this is also sometimes called the Entity Wizard.

The Advanced Customization Wizard provides a quick and easy method for creating custom main entities in Sage CRM. The Advanced Customization Wizard works in conjunction with the Component Manager. Creating a new custom entity involves using the Component Manager to install the Advanced Customization Wizard component.   You can read more about the Advanced Customization Wizard in the online help. 

The Advanced Customization Wizard can be provided free to any customer or partner so long as their installation of Sage CRM has the Extensibility Module.

The Extensibility Module (Also called the Enterprise Integration Server) may be priced separately in some OpCo regions.  For example in the US, Sage 100 didn’t include Extensibility but Sage 200 did.  In the UK the “Standard” license included the Extensibility Module, but not CTI or Web Self Service.  

To check whether your install of Sage CRM has the Extensibility Module you need to go to

Administration -> System -> System Behavior

In the "License key information" panel at the bottom of the screen you will see either the words 'Extensibility', 'Enterprise Integration Server'.  A 'Developer' license automatically includes 'Extensibility'.

Development Partners can download the Advanced Customization Wizard from the Resources section of this website.

Other visitors will need to get the Wizard from their local account managers.

Very occasionally I get told by a partner that when they access this website and try and log on from a particular machine they get an error which doesn't appear when they logon from another machine.  I have only seen this error in Internet Explorer.  If the error occurs you can typically still access the site using another browers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari or Chrome.

This error is caused by an error in the cache, possibly a mismatch of the IP address or old password information in the cookie.

There are three simple workarounds you should try if you encounter this problem within Internet Explorer 7.x

1. Click the Refresh button in the toolbar or activate the Refresh keyboard shortcut (on Microsoft Windows computers, either F5 or Ctrl-R).
2. If that doesn't work, try Ctrl-F5 (i.e. hold down the Control key and then press F5); this shortcut is documented as always refreshing the page from the Internet, regardless of what is in the cache.
3. Delete all cookies.

Delete all cookies 

• From the Tools menu in the Toolbar
• Select "Internet Options"
• Click the "Delete" button on the "General" tab
• Click the "Delete Cookies..."
• Confirm that you want to delete all cookies in the temporary folder.
• Click OK to close the dialog box and return to the browser.
• Close Internet Explorer and return to the DPP site.

Sage North America are running an instructor led training session at Sage Insights in Nashville.

This advanced session is for SageCRM Certified Consultants only. In two and a half days, you will learn how to configure and customize Workflow, set up and utilize E-mail Management, create and manage a Self-Service Web site, perform customizations using JavaScript, and dig deeper into SageCRM v6.2 than ever before. This is a bring your own laptop, hands-on session. Registrants will receive a detailed list of prerequisites and hardware requirements in advance of the event.

Title: Customizing SageCRM 6.2: Workflow.
Dates: Saturday and Sunday 8:00am - 5:00pm, Monday 8:00am - 12:00pm
Duration: 3 days Virtual Classroom
Location: Insights 2009, Nashville, TN 

The Developer training that is run for DPP members uses the Sage UK webex servers.  http://sageuk.webex.com. To avoid missing any WebEx based training courses you may need to make sure you have set your timezone preferences on the Webex site. 

When you visit the site make sure that you notice your settings.

If this does not your time zone then click the link indicated and set the correct options.

Once you have choosen your time zone, this will be stored as a cookie on your PC meaning that in future the display of Webex scheduled times will be correct and you won't over look any training session that you want to attend.

Sage University have a some live instructor led Virtual Classroom training course taking place that cover Workflow.  These Virtual Classroom courses are designed for SageCRM consultants who are responsible for customizing the SageCRM client. Delegates will learn how to generate a workflow component through the understanding the terminology, creation, and cloning of a workflow in SageCRM.

There are special rates available until 31st May 2009. 

Title: Customizing SageCRM 6.2: Workflow.
Dates: 30th March to 31st March 2009. 
           27th April to 28th April 2009.
           29th June to 30th June 2009
Duration: 2 days Virtual Classroom
Location: Sage University

If you are a partner in the UK and not a member of the Development Partner Program you can get access to high quality intructor led classroom training from the UK Education team.  The next 4 day training session is running at the beginning of June in Sage's Winnersh offices. 

Title: Sage CRM Developer Course
Dates: 1st to 4th June 2009
Duration: 4 days Instructor Led
Location: Reading (Winnersh)
 
Contact the UK training team for more details including fees. (partner.training@sage.com)

If you are a partner served by the Dubai office then you may be interested in learning about some training that is planned for April. 

Title: Sage ACCPAC CRM (Level 1)
Dates: Sunday 26th April to Thursday 30th April. 
Duration: 5 days
Location: Dubai

If you are interested and would like to know more then please contact Lamia Karanouh in the Dubai office.

Using JScript in Sage CRM for non-coders - Tuesday, March 17th 2009

Do you have colleagues who don't know their else from their while loop?  Perhaps you are a little unsure of coding.  This is a free seminar for members of the Development Partner community.

Jscript is the scripting language used inside Sage CRM for both internal and browser programming.  This session is aimed at consultants working with Sage CRM and who are new to Jscript or JavaScript syntax and wish to fully understand how scripting can be applied in CRM.  It will cover syntax and the use of objects.   The session will cover some basic concepts of programming as well as being a fast track revision of wider topics.  This seminar assumes familiarity with Sage CRM but not coding!