Mobile Express for Dynamics CRM 2011 - Part 1

While I was getting familiar with the new features in Dynamics CRM 2011, I thought I'd look into the Mobile Express module. Not much has been posted about this yet, probably because 2011 is still in beta and subject to change. In this post I will give you the basic information needed to access Mobile Express for 2011.

Step 1 - Install Mobile Express
There is no installation required, it comes as part of the base product for free.

Step 2 - Configure Mobile Express Forms
As the CRM Administrator, go to Settings>> Customize>> Entities>> "Account">> Forms. In CRM 4.0 there was only 1 form available in this list, now there are 2 by default. The Main form used by desktop clients and the Mobile form used by mobile devices. You can edit the existing Mobile form to change the selected fields. You can also decide which entities are exposed to Mobile Express in the general options area for each Entity.

Option to expose the Entity for Mobile Express



Forms Listing

The Mobile form designer allows you to select the available fields, set the ordinal position on the form, and even mark some as ReadOnly if required. You can also give your Form a label and description (for internal use only)

Field Selector

Step 3 - Publish and Set Security Permissions

Each of the User Roles that define in Dynamics CRM (Settings>> Administration>> Security Roles) has the ability to set it's own "Go Mobile" privilage. This will control if the user with that Role can access the Mobile client.



Security Role "Go Mobile" Permission



When you are finished selecting all of the Entities and Fields that you want to be part of the mobile solution and security roles are set, simply Publish the customizations and access your CRM Mobile Express client from your favorite web enabled mobile device.

What is the URL???

The same way that Mobile Express for Dynamics worked in CRM 4.0 (and SharePoint) you simply add an "/m" to the end of your internet facing URL. I am using CRM 2011 Online for this demo.

An example of the url would be  https://contoso.crm.dynamics.com/m and I would hit that from my mobile device (Win7, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, etc) using the built in web browser. You use your standard CRM credentials (Windows Live or Network Username/Password).

What does it look like?

Check my next blog entry for that ;)

Cheers,