Special Edition Using Microsoft CRM

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the worst tech book ever
Review: As stated in a previous review, there are publishing errors that unforgivable. For instance layout problems make Chapter 6 almost unreadable.

I got to page 62 before reading anything worthwhile. I could go on. . .

I had grown to distrust this publisher, and now I remember why.

Rating:
Summary: Book needed more beta testing
Review: If you are looking at Microsoft CRM, this book does give a decent overview of some portions of the product. But in areas where additional assistance could really be beneficial (like customizing the application to work with other web apps), it is often much too brief. It does a very poor job of explaining detailed technical configuration tasks, settling instead for common sense advice about working witht users to make sure they accept the solution. A third of the chapters adress just general CRM topics, not anything specific to the Microsoft product.

At its best, the book will point out some areas where Microsoft dropped the ball, such as no ability to validate state abbreviations. But there are too few of these warnings and they are scattered sporadically about the book making it of limited use in evaluating the product.

At its worst, the book has a large number of printing errors that the most basic proofreading effort should have caught. Many diagrams are missing or do not appear with the correct caption. This makes some portions of the book very difficult to comprehend.

In short, this book has been of some value to me because it has improved my understanding of this product. But this book falls far short of being a definitive guide to the software and the sloppy mistakes are irritating.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Microsoft CRM reference
Review: Special Edition - Using Microsoft CRM covers Microsoft CRM from basic functionality through the most complex concepts including workflow, configuration, customization and the Great Plains integration. The book also has a lot of good content on general customer relationship management concepts. The customization chapter includes real examples of using the CRM SDK to customize Microsoft CRM and the book's CD includes accompanying code samples. This book is required reading for anyone implementing Microsoft CRM.

Rating:
Summary: An invaluable introduction ideal for with shows sales
Review: Special Edition Using Microsoft CRM by Microsoft expert Laura Brown is an invaluable introduction ideal for with shows sales, service, and business development specialists with respect to just how to manage small businesses with the sophisticated technology that, until now, has been largely reserved for large corporations with copiously funded resources. Based on Laura Brown's real-world experience building CRM systems, Special Edition Using Microsoft CRM provides all of the expert advice that any MS CRM user would need.

Rating:
Summary: Promises a lot and delivers very little
Review: This book has been hyped up as being the definitive text for Microsoft CRM. In reality it delivers very little. While offering more than the dummies guide to CRM any user can gain more insight into the application using the docs supplied with CRM such as the implementation guide and also just by using the application

Still waiting for an intermediate to advanced text on Microsoft CRM