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Understanding what can go offline with the CRM Laptop Client

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    Welcome to Jeff Loucks' blog. All good things have a purpose and this blog is devoted to building business based on solid IT foundations. With sections focused on line of business apps this is both the place to discuss the potential business impact and the technical issues related to using technology as it becomes available.

    You will find sections related to the following business applications

    ~ CRM
    ~ Project Server
    ~ Navision
    ~ Great Plains
    ~ Axapta
    ~ Live Communications Server
    ~ Sharepoint
    ~ Customer Developed Solutions
    ~ Third Party Applications.
    ~ and many more

    We will also have business consultants drop in to give advice on running a small business in a technology era.

    I hope to encourage frequent posts from other MVPs and experts to supplement this blog. Get your feedback flowing and stop back often as the content should keep a steady flow.

    Cheers,

    Jeff Loucks SBS MVP
    Senior Soulition Archtect
    Available Technology
    For Professionals www.availabletech.net

     

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This article covers some default feature of what can be taken offline with the CRM Laptop Client for Outlook. In the first section it discusses what is not available offline. In the second Section it describes the prefined filters for specifying what data can be taken offline. Finally it concludes by indicating where you change the criteria for going offline in Outlook. 
 
First off here is a list of what is Not available offline:
  1. Assigning records (except activities and cases)
  2. Reports
  3. Sharing
  4. Workflow

Cannot be edited offline

  1. Articles
  2. Sales literature
Here is some background about working offline:
 
Selecting Local Data to Take Offline

When you go offline, instead of taking a copy of the whole Microsoft CRM database, you can select specific subsets of data to work with offline. Up to 2 gigabytes of data can be stored on your local hard drive. Data filters define which records are taken offline. You can use a set of predefined filters, such as My Active Accounts, My Active Cases, and My Recent Activities, or you can define your own set of data in the Local Data dialog box using the same filtering methods that are common throughout Microsoft CRM.

A list of the default local data groups provided
Default Local Data Group Description
All open Campaign Activities owned by me Open campaign activities and their children that are owned by you.
All open Campaign Responses owned by me Open campaign responses and their children that are owned by you.
All recent active Campaigns All campaigns that have been updated in the last 120 days.
All recently changed active Lists owned by me All lists that are owned by you, and have been updated in the last 30 days.
Competitors All competitor records.
My Accounts Accounts and their children that are owned by you.
My Contacts Contacts and their children that are owned by you.
My Contracts Contracts and their children that are owned by you.
My Recent Appointments Appointments and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 30 days.
My Recent Cases Cases and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 30 days.
My Recent Emails E-mails and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 30 days.
My Recent Faxes Faxes and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 30 days.
My Recent Invoices Invoices and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Leads Leads and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Letters Letters and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Opportunities Opportunities and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Orders Orders and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Phone Calls Phone calls and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Quotes Quotes and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
My Recent Tasks Tasks and their children that are owned by you, and that have been updated in the last 120 days.
Notes Notes attached to records that are copied to your local data.
Products All products.
Sales Literature Sales literature attached to records that are copied to your local data.
Sales Literature Documents Files attached to sales literature records that are copied to your local data.

The first time you go offline, it can take a significant amount of time to synchronize your computer with the Microsoft CRM server. It is best to plan your first time. While the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook is synchronizing, Microsoft CRM is not available, including all of the Microsoft CRM buttons and menus. You can view the progress of the update in a dialog box. The progress information includes specific information about the quantity of each record type that is updated, and the dialog box displays any errors. After the update is complete, you can continue to work in Microsoft CRM client for Outlook.

To adjust the criteria for Offline Data choose the "CRM" Menu and then modify the setting under Local Data.

Jeff Loucks
Available Technology
availabletech.net
888-474-2237


Posted Jan 25 2007, 07:25 AM by jeffl

Comments

Alex wrote re: Understanding what can go offline with the CRM Laptop Client
on 03-09-2007 7:11

Hello Jeff

Do you know if a shortcut exists to sync ALL crm data to the laptop clients without constantly altering these rules by hand on the clients?

jeffl wrote re: Understanding what can go offline with the CRM Laptop Client
on 03-09-2007 7:55

Alex,

I am not aware of a way to backend or systems wide set the Sync ALL. I would have concerns with this as well. You have to really understand a number of things that can happen if you start pushing local copies of the data to many people. First is the perforamnce issue but that is not the biggest concern if you ask me. Remember that when those laptops come back on line the syncronization time is used to see whos data is the most current so if you have any data that has changed on a laptop it always "wins" the update of records. You can see as you get several laptops out there that having access to all the data could be a real issue.

Be very leary of giving people access to data that they really don't need because they may change it and that could affect the data that someone else does need. This is especially true with business owners.

Good luck and if you find a manner of doing it please post back.

Ian Dawkins wrote re: Understanding what can go offline with the CRM Laptop Client
on 03-12-2007 17:50

Hi Jeff

Very useful - thanks.

I'd also like to sync records (Contacts or possibly Accounts) not owned by me but where I am a Required Attendee on an appointment i.e. a colleague owns the data but wants me to attend a meeting - once offline I have the appointment but not the record details/history etc

Thanks

Ian

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