Solutions in MSCRM 5.0

In this blog we will find what microsoft is going to offer us with it's newly introduced concept called: 'Solutions in MSCRM 5.0'.

In CRM “4” we create entities, forms, reports, etc and then deploy those components into a customer’s implementation.

Solutions can be thought as providing to CRM the same sort of capabilities that Windows has with its capability to add and remove programs and features.

It allows components (entities, forms, reports, etc) to be layered on to the base system but also on top of other solutions (i.e. when there are inter-dependencies). It also provides a way to protect the intellectual property of the components in your solution. Moreover it includes versioning and change management

ISVs that build on the CRM platform will now have the ability to package up their applications same as you would package up windows applications into MSIs.

UI for creating publishers (e.g. ISVs) and solutions is coming up with new stuff in form design like drag and drop and sub-grids. More over the lookup attibute can be created very easily now. This one will save a lot of time and effort.

A new feature is also being introduced called global lookups or option sets. This is certainly going to make ISV solutions much easier to manage. This will allow you to create pick lists that can be reused across many entities. There are many ISVs that have been doing this by creating their own entities but in many cases that leads to an unused number of entities.

Some of the new features are also being introduced in the page model like new way of presenting commands across the top of a form which saves user clicks.

Dashboards on CRM data can be created using SharePoint. End-users will appreciate the new inline charting (including pie, bar, funnel charts, etc).

Connections can be added to entities and it provides a way to sort-of tag entities and build unstructured relationships among entities in the system.