There is a strategic approach to move much of the core technologies to the cloud versus traditional approaches of buying software, hardware/servers, and managing them on-premise.  Microsoft's big push to go to the cloud with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011 is a great solution for small/medium to large enterprise organizations. 

However, if you are looking for a complete cloud solution soup to nuts there are a couple of holes I have noted todate.  However, with the ability to purchase services and plugins via the marketplace many of these holes maybe filled quickly by other Microsoft Partners and the CRM support community.

One to note is the abscence of a cloud solution for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Email Router. The email router allows for auto tracking of emails going in and out of the CRM platform.  One essential benefit is to setup an admin user's profile linked to workflows to send automated emails out using an email engine vs. relying on that particular users Outlook plugin to be up and running. 

I have found a couple of hosting partners that will host the email router for customers who want to go completely to cloud vs. having to install this on a desktop/server that they must own and manage. 
Copyright © 2014 Dave Neal

High performing sales teams and their managers are constantly striving for continuous improvement.
The answer to this relentless journey is to create an organizational culture established over time and reinforced daily that focuses squarely on the customer by the entire enterprise.

This unique organizational design is known as a TSO or Total Selling Organization™.
Here are 10 questions “world class” sales organizations (TSO) are asking themselves:
1.    Is your sales team meeting its goals?
2.    Why is your best sales professional successful?
3.    Why are certain team members not achieving their goals?
4.    Are you evaluating sales performance (activities) that lead to closing or just numbers after the fact?
5.    Is each sales professional filling their pipeline with new appointments and prospects weekly?
6.    When was the last time your team received formal sales training?
7.    Do we have a coaching /mentoring process in place?
8.    Are you following your company’s best sales practices consistently?
9.    Do you track the sales process in a CRM system?
10. When was the last time a sales professional was terminated for poor performance?
As you evaluate the answers to these questions, consider that high performance selling is not an accident or an art form, but rather a series of consistently applied scientific sales practices committed to by management and each sales professional.
Copyright © 2014 Dave Neal

If a form in your instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 includes javascript, you may get the following error message in IE 9 when opening the form:

A problem with this webpage caused Internet Explorer to close and reopen the tab

This problem occurs because of an issue with Java Version 6 Update 22 and Java Version 6 Update 23 that was exposed by recent changes in the Internet Explorer 9 rendering engine.

To resolve this issue, download and install the latest version of the Java. To do this, visit the following Java website:

http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

For more information you can visit the link below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506617

In this KB article, Microsoft also offers a temporary workaround: Run IE 9 in Compatibility View, which can be set per website. See the KB article for the details.
Copyright © 2014 Dave Neal