We are currently deploying CRM 3.0 in a 75 user company. One issue we hadn't
anticipated was the adding of a tracking token to all emails to allow replies
to be threaded to the original activity. I understand that the tracking
token has been made a lot more friendly than the original GUID that so many
had objected to. However, no that the identifier is no longer unique, isn't
it going to present problems as more people implement CRM and there will be
conflicts with duplicate tracking token numbers occurring on non-related
correspondence?

I think the idea of being able to track is a valuable feature, but does it
really have to be in the subject line? Personally, all of our pilot users
see the tracking token as unprofessional, but MS only seems to offer turning
off the feature as a solution. Is there no way that tracking could be
achieved in a less obtrusive way?



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http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssol...oft.public.crm

This topic has been talked about on these groups for close to 3 years now.
The only truly "safe" place to add any tracking information is either in the
subject of the body of the message. You can't rely on attributes in the
message header as you can't guarantee that a clients email client will
return those attributes. Anything in the body runs a risk be being word
wrapped as replied text is indented, so the subject ends up being the safest
place.

Do you know of another product that is tracking email in a similar manner
that isn't using this type of token?

Also, if you are that worried about duplicates, change the prefix of the
tracking token to something specific to the client.

--

Matt Parks
MVP - Microsoft CRM


"Jon Freeman" <Jon Freeman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:53EA539E-B168-4331-85C9-41515077C764@microsoft.com...
We are currently deploying CRM 3.0 in a 75 user company. One issue we
hadn't
anticipated was the adding of a tracking token to all emails to allow
replies
to be threaded to the original activity. I understand that the tracking
token has been made a lot more friendly than the original GUID that so many
had objected to. However, no that the identifier is no longer unique, isn't
it going to present problems as more people implement CRM and there will be
conflicts with duplicate tracking token numbers occurring on non-related
correspondence?

I think the idea of being able to track is a valuable feature, but does it
really have to be in the subject line? Personally, all of our pilot users
see the tracking token as unprofessional, but MS only seems to offer turning
off the feature as a solution. Is there no way that tracking could be
achieved in a less obtrusive way?



----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssol...icrosoft.publi
c.crm

Since it is MS and it is Exchange, I wonder why they don't try something in
the header of the email? Of course there is a chance a proxy might strip it.

"Matt Parks" wrote:

But you don't know what the person you are sending the message to is using.
They could be on Yahoo Mail.

--

Matt Parks
MVP - Microsoft CRM


"Nangard" <Nangard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news123BB1E-B1C5-4619-93D9-25C4880403C4@microsoft.com...
Since it is MS and it is Exchange, I wonder why they don't try something in
the header of the email? Of course there is a chance a proxy might strip
it.

"Matt Parks" wrote:

Thanks for the help on this. We are all using MS products within the company
and most of our clients are the same, so I guess I had forgotten that
everyone else might not be the same. I see why there might be problems using
the headers, but don't know how much conformity/standardisation there is
amongst the way headers are handled by other software. If the ability to
track is lost in, say, 5% of cases then it might be beneficial to try to
track using the headers knowing that 5% of the time it will fail. It's still
better than turning it off completely, which is a very blunt tool.

Cheers


"Matt Parks" wrote:

We use a bug tracking system called FogBugz. It uses a very simple and more
unobtrusive technique to accomplish the same goal.

It uses the subject line, but with a format like this when I reply:

Re: (Case 12345) I have a question about your product

If MS CRM allowed the following, it could solve the issue for most, I believe:
- Shorter IDs
- Selection of where to place the ID, at the beginning or the end
- Delimiters (I.e., I can put in the "(xxx)" format myself.)
- Whether to put spaces in front or after the ID.

For me, I'd like to see something like FogBugz, or something where I can
have the system insert spaces at the end, or at least enclose the token in
parentheses or something.

I find it hard to believe this can't be customized easily. What a freakin'
eyesore ithe token are in their current form!

Dave

"Matt Parks" wrote:

the feedback i get from just about every client large and small is that any
token that appears in the mail is a bad thing. Clients want to track emails
to and from crm- they just dont want visible tokens


=======================
John O'Donnell
Microsoft CRM MVP
http://codegallery.gotdotnet.com/crm


"Dave Todaro" <DaveTodaro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7C39AE27-DE5F-485C-8C1A-A41D326EE944@microsoft.com...

I think you summed it up pretty nicely.

I came up with another possible option posted else where in the forums to
Matt Parks.

Instead of track every email, or no email, or cherry pick individual emails,
why not track every email from a given user.

So i decide to track every email to Johnsmith@acme.com. So every email I
send and receive that has John@acme.com in the to, cc, bcc is being tracked.
It would always be regarding the contact John Smith. If I choose to add an
instance of the email regarding an addional instance (opportunity, case,
etc...) it would be an extra step. But that would make sense because the
same contact sends different emails about different items.

But it would also need the ability to turn off tracking to john@acme.com
later if needed.

"John O'Donnell" wrote:

I work at a marketing company and it's incredibly tacky to have the tracking
token in the subject line. It screams "SPAM" and is not personal at all.
Our clients can see that we're now tracking our communication with them and
have commented "why?" I'm sure MS likes that CRM is advertised for them in
all of the emails we send. We, on the other hand wish we would have known
about this tracking token before we bought the product because we would not
have made the purchase. The solution of turning the tracking code off is not
a solution at all. Tracking our communication is the basis of why we
purchased CRM. Tracking tokens is something everyone needs to know about
before purchasing CRM.
--
Katie


"John O'Donnell" wrote: