CRM MVP Mitch Milam returns as a guest blogger. You can read more from Mitch at his blog.
One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do with CRM is to automatically generate a welcome message when a new user is added to CRM. With the enhanced workflow capabilities of CRM 4.0, we now have that ability.
Creating an Email Template
The first step in this process is to create a new email template that will be used to
1) Navigate to: Settings, Templates, Email Templates.
2) Click the New button.
3) Select a Template Type of Global then click OK.
4) We’ll create an email that looks much like this:
Within this email you’ll add whatever information you feel a new CRM user will need to get started. Include the URL for the CRM system, references to documents, procedures, etc.
5) To personalize the message, we need to add fields specific to the user. Place your cursor in after the salutation ( Dear ), and click the Insert/Update button on the toolbar to display the Data Field Values dialog:
6) Click the Add button to select add a data value, then select a Record Type of User and a field of First Name:
7) Click OK with done.
8) Insert the word User in the Default Text field to provide a default value for the field:
9) Click OK to return to the template editor, where you see the data field that has been inserted into the email body:
10) Click the Save and Close button to complete the editing of the template.
Creating the Workflow
Now for the really cool part of the process: Creating the workflow, using the following steps:
1) Navigate to: Settings, Workflows.
2) Click the New button to create a new workflow.
3) Enter the name of the workflow and set the Entity to User:
4) Click OK to continue and the Workflow definition dialog will be displayed:
5) Set the following properties:
a. Scope: Organization
b. Start when: Record is created
c. Available to Run: On demand
6) Click the Add Step button then select Send Email.
7) Enter the name of the step: Send welcome email.
8) Change the Send e-mail field to Use Template.
9) Click the Set Properties button to display the template dialog box:
10) We’ll set the following properties:
a. Select the template New CRM User.
b. Select the user that the email will originate From.
c. The To field will be inserted by using the following steps:
i. Place your cursor in the To field.
ii. Set the Form Assistant Look for values to User.
iii. Click the Add button.
iv. Click the OK button to add the value to the To field.
11) Click the Save and Close button.
12) Click the Publish button to publish the new workflow rule.
13) Click Close to close the workflow rule.
That pretty much does it. The next time you add a user the email will be send automatically. You can also run this workflow on existing users to send the same email.