In case you didn’t know, Dynamics CRM 2011 has a basic mobile web site built into the product. You access the mobile site by adding /m to your CRM URL, like this:
Which will produce a web page that looks like this:
Here is what a view looks like:
and finally, record detail:
Now that we’ve seen it work, let’s look at how to make it work.
Configuring the Mobile Experience
Configuring Dynamics CRM 2011 for mobile use is a multi-step process, which is as follows:
Step 1: Enable mobile support for the Entity
The first step is to actually enable mobile support at the Entity level, which you accomplish by checking the Mobile Express checkbox on the Entity’s information page:
Click the Save button to record your changes.
Step 2: Update the Mobile form
Dynamics CRM 2011 includes a mobile form, as you can see from the Forms view:
Double-click the Mobile Information form to open it in the form editor.
If you are familiar with the normal CRM form editor you will notice that this is not it. Actually, you really can’t do much with the form besides select what fields will be displayed.
This is accomplished by adding or removing fields from the Selected Attributes list on the right side of the dialog.
Like other CRM forms, you can assign roles to the form to show this only to certain types of people, if you wish.
Step 3: Publish your changes
After you have finished editing the mobile form, publish the Entity and your changes will be available to users.
Conclusion
That is about it for Mobile Express. It provides basic HTML-level access to CRM data through just about any mobile device.
However, should you need offline capabilities or a richer user experience, you might try a solution from a third-party vendor such as CWR Mobility, among others.
