So far I’ve covered a few of the new features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 that are going to make it a lot easier to manage your projects within IPM. With customisable dashboards to show you snapshots of information about your project in the one screen, to conditional formatting to change the appearance of certain items in a list so they stand out, the new version of IPM definitely looks exciting for project managers. So I thought, why not treat you with a few more new features?
For a start, the 2011 version of IPM will have role based forms and field level security. Role based forms mean you can adapt and change the form users will see depending on their particular security role. For instance the project manager may be able to view the form in its entirety, whereas you may restrict all the financial information for other users. You can also make a whole form only visible to certain user roles, so users only see the parts of IPM that are relevant to their job.
Similarly, field level security lets you restrict access to certain fields on a form. This is good if you want to hide confidential or sensitive information on a particular form, but still want the rest of the form visible to others in the organisation. Simply set the security level on each particular field and only people with that security level will be able to see it.
Finally, another small feature is customisable lists. We understand this one probably won’t have you singing from the rooftops, but it is a nice addition that further adds to the software’s flexibility and will be something you’ll appreciate once you start to use it. With this feature, you can choose which columns you want to display on any list in IPM. So if you really need to focus on the due date of an RFI, for example, you can have that column right up the front and visible when you first look at your list of RFIs. Someone else may not need this column so much, so they can choose to hide it, or push it further down the end. Again, something that seems relatively simple but it hasn’t been possible in IPM before, so we know you’ll appreciate it in this version.
If you’re interested in seeing other ways the face and usability of IPM is changing (for the better of course!), please don’t hesitate to contact us for a free demo.