RSMUS.comIn Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you now have the ability to create Queues and Queue Items for almost any entity. Rather than being limited to having a single user own the Queue or Queue Items, Dynamics CRM 2011 now allows entire Teams to own a Queue or Queue Item. If a User belongs to the Team, then that User is allowed to work all the Queue Items within that Queue – owned by the Team.
Take for example a company with 10 locations around the nation and one centralized call center. You want the users at one Location to only call customer records owned by that Location. But for the centralized call center, you want some customer service agents to call on Locations 1-5 customers, and some agents to call on Locations 6-10 customers. What you need is the ability to:
- Allow multiple Dynamics CRM users work off a long list of customers owned by that Team
- Limit users to only view and work on Location 1 customers
- Have customer service agents focus on multiple locations, not just one
In order for Dynamics CRM to allow multiple users to work off one list (Queue) of many customers (Queue Items), you want the created Queue Item to be owned by the entire Team. Once a Queue Item is created (manual or workflow) and assigned to a Queue that is owned by a Team, only the users belonging to this Team is allowed to view and work the Queue Items
In this example, the user at Location 1 would be added to the Location 1 Team, resulting in any record owned by Location 1 Team to be viewable and workable by that user. Once a Queue Item is created with the owner of “Location 1 Team”, ONLY users belonging to the Location 1 Team will be allowed to view and work the Queue Items. Users at other locations will never see Location 1Queue Items because they are not a part of the Location 1 Team.
If we take the above practice of adding users to a Team and apply this to the customer service center, we would go through the same process, but assign multiple Location Teams to one user. The customer service agent would be added to the Location 1, Location 2, Location 3, and Location 4 Team. This results in the customer service agent having the ability to view and work the multiple teams he or she has been assigned to.
By adding Users to Teams and allowing Teams to own a Queue or Queue Item, we utilize all the benefits of queues in addition to give user’s access records specific to his or her responsibilities. The security model for Queues in Dynamics CRM 2011 is flexible and can be as simple or complex as need for your business, so consider creating a hierarchy to help plan the Team structure and Queue/Queue Item ownership.
By: Bill Caldwell – Colorado Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner
