MSCRM 2011: Creating a Custom Activity Type

CRM 2011 allows interactions with Contacts and Leads to be recorded as activities. Following are some of the activity types that are available right out of the box:
            ·        Phone Call: Use this to record a received or initiated telephone call.

·        Task: Use this to record a to-do or follow-up item.

·        E-mail: Use this to record a received or sent email message.

·        Letter: Use this to record the mailing of a physical letter or document.

·        Fax: Use this to record a received or sent facsimile.

·        Appointment: Use this to record a meeting or appointment. Many companies use appointments to track conference calls or online meetings, in addition to face-to-face meetings.

CRM 2011 allows you to define a custom activity type. For example, if we want to include a custom activity to record interactions through text messages and then report on, analyze and view them on a par with the out-of-box CRM activities, we can define a new custom entity as an activity type.

When creating a custom entity that you wish to have function as an activity type, the following steps should be performed:

1.     Check “Define as an Activity entity”.

2.     Check   “Display in Activity Menus”.

3.     Save and Publish.

Once you create a new entity as an activity type and save it, all the standard ‘Activity’ type relationships and fields are also created.  The following fields are automatically included on a Custom Activity Entity:

·        Subject

·        Required Attendees

·        Optional Attendees

·        Regarding

·        Priority

·        Start Date

·        Due Date

The ability to “Mark Complete” and “Close” the activity are also automatically provided.

Some of the constraints that are imposed by a custom activity entity are as follows:

·        You cannot configure different security settings for different custom activities. Therefore, if a user has access to create any activity, they would also be able to create a custom activity.

·        You cannot use custom activities as part of a quick campaign or create campaign activities with them.

·        Custom activities cannot synchronize into a user’s Outlook tasks the way that phone calls, letters and tasks do.

·        You cannot configure custom activities to be regarding a specific entity type.

·        All custom activities have a primary attribute named Subject.

Custom activities are new in CRM 2011 and are a powerful feature that allow users to create functionality that more closely match business processes.