Microsoft CRM

[Chris Bedford]

Is anyone else frustrated by Microsoft's mountains of information?

Not just for their CRM product, but *everything* - they don't use one word when 14 will do, and *never*, *ever* produce a simple, step-by-step guide to anything. I think the Marketing guys have gotten a "bit" carried away, because instead of helping they are making introduction and implementation of new products that much harder...

Anyway, semi-relevant rant aside, I have a client who feels it's time to start using a computer-based CRM solution. Now I understand there is no such thing as a simple implementation of something as complex and powerful as CRM, but after searching the MS website for some kind of guide to getting started I am more confused than if I had just started installing (I have a copy of Small Business edition CRM server & client as part of my MS Action Pack subscription).

After finding what looked like some promising documentation - helpfully titled "Implementation Guide" (only after multiple link-clicking) - I unzipped to find I now have 33 (yes, THIRTY THREE!) documents in 5 folders, a total of 1.9 MB of info. I still don't know where to begin!

I also found another 4 documents, totalling 16.6 MB. Two of them are training manuals, one is "using MS CRM", and one is a technical installation guide to circumvent a "known issue". I *still* don't know where to begin...

So can anyone tell me if there is a document somewhere "out there" that gives some form of outline on installing and implementing CRM 3.0? Even if it's just a checklist or skeleton of a guide, at least I can know I'm starting at the beginning without wasting too much time getting stuck in and then finding I have to undo everything I've done and start over...