The cost of spending time on optimizing your Microsoft dynamics CRM solution can take quite a long time for
a small benefit of a second or half a second on some forms.

In a CRM system there are lots of forms you can look at improving the performance of, so where should you
start. The main forms you should concentrate on

1)      The slowest forms

2)      The most used forms which are slow

Common reasons of slow form loading

The main culprits of slow loading forms are :-

1. Busy Javascript onload functions
2. Too many subgrids
3. Lots of oData/fetchXML queries
4. Tabs, sections and fields not needed on the form

To start the code optimization, the first step is to find the bottlenecks. The next step is to get a benchmark to see how they were loading, to get an average we loaded the
form 5 times and the results were quite varied.

Make a list of worst performing forms and had a quick look at them and make some quick notes

1. How many unfiltered OData retrieves
2. How many OData calls, where they retrieving the same set
3. Number of ribbon buttons
4. potential fields/functionality which could be removed by change of business process
5. Size of JavaScript on load function.

Use Fiddler

One of tools you can use to analyze the slow loading of a form. It’s a great tool to see what calls are
being made from the page, how long they took and how much data they were bringing back.

Looking at the fiddler logs I was able to investigate the OData queries and find

1. Which OData calls took the longest
2. Find OData calls which were not filtered
3. Find OData calls which were retrieving the same data
   multiple times
4. general loading times of sections of code

F12 Debugger

1. The F12 debugger is such an awesome tool for debugging Javascript.  I put in a break point in the onload Javascript and walked
   through the code.
2. We are using two main methods to find slow loading code
3. Looking at the code
4. Stepping through the code

How to improve performance of Form load.

1. Ask the customer to re-evaluate the fields and
   functionality on the forms.
2. Improvements can come from moving fields and subgrids
   into unexpanded tabs where the loading can be delayed until the tab is
   expanded.

Subgrids

Subgrids take time to load and the more subgrids you have on a form the longer it will take to load.

Form load time can be saved by putting the grid in an unexpanded tab, this will not load the grid on
the form load but will load it when the user expands the tab.

Remove unwanted/unused fields

CRM Developers have to review and re-design their code then
I think CRM Forms and entities should be reviewed to remove the need of unused
fields.

OData queries

OData queries are a great way to retrieve data from related fields but if a form has a lot of them they can slow it down.  If
you use OData queries makes sure they are as lean as possible by filtering them.  

Below are some tips for using OData queries

1. ALWAYS filter your OData queries to retrieve only the
   fields you need.
2. Group OData queries to avoid multiple OData queries.
3. Cache the return data in a JavaScript variable if
   different functions need the same data.

Common Libraries

CRM makes it easy for CRM Developers to write the same piece of code in every JavaScript file on every
entity and the same code in multiple plugins.  Code duplication is bad practice, it increases not only the possibility of bugs (e.g. updating code in one place but
not the other duplicates) but also increases time to fix a bug because you have to make the change in all the places the code is.

1. Stop writing the same function in each JavaScript file for each different form.
2. Create common libraries then it only has to be written once (and well) and then used again and again.
3. The advantage of writing code once and used in many places is easy to maintain, debug and extend and you only need to
   test it once. If there is a bug you only have to fix it one place.
4. Sometimes it takes more time to generalize a method but in the long run it will save you time.
5. If you optimize this code it will save time in all the CRM forms it’s used.
6. Always filter queries There is no use for getting all the fields back in a query because you never use all the
   fields.
7. There are lots of retrieve code in CRM, it can be found in plugins and JavaScript but make sure the developers filter,
   always.
8. Split loading times

Evaluate if you need all the data and checks to be done on the form load.  It’s possible you could move some of the functionality to

1. Unexpanded tabs
2. Onchange events

Unexpanded Tabs

You can put a subgrid in an unexpanded tab and load the subgrid when the tab is expanded.  If you have optionsets or other
fields which need to be calculated using retrieved fields then these can also be triggered on expanding the tab. This saves time from the form loading.

This would also save time if the tabs included Maps and iFrames.

OnChange Events

For some functionality it might be possible to delay some code and remove it from the form onload to a field onChange event.

Javascript files

1. You can minify Javascript files which shrinks the size of the file and load quicker
2. There may be some performance gains from combining 2 or more Javascript files into one Javascript file
3. Plugins/Workflows
4. Similar to moving Javascript functionality from OnLoad to OnChange events it may be
   possible to move some functionality to Workflows and plugins on the save of a
   record.  In general plugins run faster than JavaScript.

There are many kb articles and blogs about email router configuration and troubleshooting. I tried to collect them all and put them together. Hope this is useful.

Configuration

While we all know what is an email router. Here are the details about how to configure it.

1) With Office 365 Exchange Online.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2708706

2) With Exchange On-Premise.

 How to configure an incoming profile

1. Start the E-mail Router Configuration Manager. To do this, click Start, click All Programs,
   click Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router, and then click Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Configuration.
2. Click Configuration Profiles, and then click New.
3. In the E-mail Router Configuration Profile dialog box, type a profile name. For example, type Incoming Email.
4. For the direction, select Incoming.
5. For the email server type, select Exchange Version (2007/2010). The value for Protocol automatically changes to Exchange Web Services, and the value for Authentication
   Type automatically changes to Windows Authentication.
6. In the Server field, type the complete URL for the incoming email server in the Exchange Web Services (EWS) URL format (https://<fqdn>/EWS/exchange.asmx).
7. To get the Exchange Web services URL, on Exchange PowerShell run the following command :- Get-webServicesVirtualDirectory | fl
8. Make sure you are able to access web service url from the system where you have installed Email Router.
9. In the Access Credentials list, select how the email router will gain access to the Exchange server. Preferably “Other Specified”.
10. On Advance TAB set the port no to 443. For Exchange 2007 onwards  SSL is required.

Tip: - Instead of typing a URL, you can select the Use Autodiscover option to use the Autodiscover service to obtain the Exchange Web Services URL. (If Autodiscover is setup and working properly)

 
     11.   Click OK.

In the E-mail Router Configuration Manager, click Publish.

Give Application Impersonation permissions to the account used in Incoming profile :-
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dn722376(v=exchg.150).aspx

How to configure an outgoing profile

To configure an outgoing profile for Exchange Online, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router, and then click Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Configuration.
2. Click Configuration Profiles, and then click New
3. In the E-mail Router Configuration Profile dialog box, type a profile name. For example, type Outgoing Exchange E-mail.
4. For the direction, select Outgoing.
5. Select SMTP. The Protocol value can be Windows Authentication or Clear Text.
6. In the Server field, type the FQDN of outgoing email server.
7. Make sure you are able to Telnet to port 25 using the IP address of the SMTP server.
8. In the Access Credentials list, select how the email router will gain access to the Exchange server. Preferably “Other Specified”. This account should have “send as” or “send on behalf” permissions
   on all other mailboxes which are CRM users.
9. Once done setup a receive connector in Exchange to relay the email messages from Email Router. https://support.microsoft.com/kb/915827

Note When using an on-premises version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can select User Specified. If you select this option, each Microsoft Dynamics CRM user must follow these steps to grant the email router access to the
Exchange mailbox:

a. Open the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web client.

b. On the File menu, click Options.

c. In the Set Personal Options dialog box, click the E-mail tab.

d. Select Allow E-Mail Router to use my credentials to send and receive e-mail on my behalf.

e. Have the user type his or her user name and password.

                   
        10.     Click OK.
        11.    In E-mail Router Configuration Manager, click Publish.

Note When Delegate permissions are used in the email router, users must be set up to enable the email router to "send as" or "send on behalf of" the owner of the mailbox. To do this, follow
these steps:

1. Open the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web client.
2. Click On the File menu, click Options.
3. In the Set Personal Options dialog box, click the E-mail tab.

Select allow other Microsoft Dynamics CRM users to send email on your behalf.

 3) Configure email router with POP account.

      1. You need to get the configuration settings from POP service providers like Gmail etc.

      2. In almost every case these are the same settings which you will use to configure outlook client.

Enable Email Router Tracing

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2862024

More details about Profiles / Authentication Type / Access Credentials / Forward Mailbox

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699786.aspx

Incoming Email Configuration Issues

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699737.aspx

Email Router Demystified- Know the Limitations.

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2012/12/12/email-router-demystified-know-the-limitations.aspx

Email Router Demystified - Troubleshooting part 1

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2015/01/02/email-router-demystified-troubleshooting-part-1.aspx

Email Router Demystified - Troubleshooting part 2

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2015/01/16/email-router-demystified-troubleshooting-part-2.aspx

Email Router Performance Based error messages

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2013/09/06/crm-e-mail-router-performance-based-error-messages.aspx

Email Router Configuration XML Explained.

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2008/07/02/email-router-configuration-xml-file-explained.aspx

Install Email Router on Multiple Computers

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699708

Large Scale Email Processing at Microsoft.

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2007/07/20/large-scale-crm-email-processing-at-microsoft.aspx

While I was working on USD integration with CRM, I had installed and configure USD with
my CRM online instance and wanted to share the same details. Although these
information are available online but I thought it would be good if I put them
together.

Before you can install and deploy Unified Service Desk for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you must
identify the CRM instance on which you want to build and deploy the
configuration. While you can use a new CRM instance, Unified Service Desk works
best when the CRM customization is mostly complete. Unified Service Desk
controls the call center agent’s view of Microsoft Dynamics CRM by manipulating
windows, injecting JavaScript, and so on. If major changes occur to the CRM
environment after Unified Service Desk is deployed, it might cause your Unified
Service Desk configuration to no longer work as required. While Unified Service
Desk configuration often comes later in a CRM implementation, having Unified
Service Desk in mind when designing your CRM environment is beneficial.

Unified Service Desk installation and deployment is done in phases where initially you set up a
development environment to configure agent applications using one of the sample
Unified Service Desk applications as the base. Next, you test how your
configurations appear and work using the Unified Service Desk client
application by connecting to the CRM instance where you configured Unified
Service Desk. Next, you deploy the customized Unified Service Desk
configuration on to a production instance of CRM, and the client application,
along with any files and assemblies required for your customizations, to your
agent’s computers in your organization.

System Requirements for Unified Service desk.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn646882.aspx

1. Install the Unified Service Desk client on the development computer

a) Download: - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=43110

    For 32-bit version of Windows, download the UnifiedServiceDesk-i386.exe file.

    For 64-bit version of Windows, download the UnifiedServiceDesk-amd64.exe file.

b) Double-click the downloaded file to extract the contents
into a folder.

1. After the files are extracted, the Unified Service Desk client installer starts automatically. If
   it doesn’t, navigate to the extracted folder and run the
   SetupUnifiedServiceDesk.exe file to begin the installation.
2. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
3. On the End-User License Agreement screen,
   accept the terms in the license agreement by selecting the check box, and then
   click Next.
4. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
5. On the User Registration screen, click Next.
6. The Installation Prerequisites screen displays the status of the
   prerequisites check on your computer. You will not be able to proceed with the
   installation if the prerequisites listed in the screen are not met. Click Next.
7. On the Destination Folder screen, specify the
   folder where you want Unified Service Desk client to be installed. You can also
   specify whether you want a desktop shortcut or a quick launch icon to be
   created for the Unified Service Desk client. Click Next.
8. On the Ready to install screen, click Install.
9. The next screen displays the
   installation status of the Unified Service Desk client. You are prompted to
   authorize the installation as a result of User Account Control (UAC), Click Yes.
10. A confirmation message
    appears on successful installation of the Unified Service Desk client. Click Finish to exit the installer.

2. Deploy a sample Unified Service desk Package using Package Deployer.

1. Navigate to the
   <ExtractedFolder>\USDPackageDeployer folder, and double-click the
   PackageDeployer.exe file to run the Package Deployer tool.
2. In the Connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM
   screen, provide authentication details to connect to the CRM instance where you
   want to deploy the package. If you have multiple organizations, and want to
   select the organization where you want to deploy the Unified Service Desk
   package, select the Display list of available
   organizations check box. Click Login.
3.  
4. If you have multiple organizations and chose to select the organization that you
   want to connect to in the previous step, the next screen displays the list of organizations. Select a CRM organization to connect to, and proceed.
5. On successful authentication, the next screen displays the packages available
   for deployment. Read the description to determine the package that you
   want to deploy, select the package, and then click Next.
6.  
7. The next screen displays detailed information about the selected package and the things that will be
   installed on your CRM instance. Review the information, and click Next.
8. The Ready to Install screen displays the package selected for
   deployment and name of the CRM organization where it will be deployed to.
   Review the information, and click Next.
9. The next screen displays the validation status of the
   package selected to be deployed. After the validation completes successfully,
   click Next.

       10. The next screen appears only if you selected a package other than the Base package in step 7.

            If you selected the Base package to deploy, jump to the next step.
            In this screen, specify the location where you want to copy the files or
            assemblies that define the custom functionality implemented in the selected
            package. This is required for rendering the custom functionality in the Unified
            Service Desk client application. In this case, we copy the files to the C:\USD folder.

       11. After completing the package deployment, you must copy
             these files (If CRM 2013 SP1 Product update package) to the Unified Service
             Desk client application installation directory which
             is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM USD\USD, by default. You will be
             prompted to overwrite some files; accept to overwrite the files.

       12. To configure any other client machine for USD. Install Unified Service Desk client on the system.

             Follow the previous step.

       13. Verify If you have these 3 solutions installed in CRM.

       14. If you have deployed the CRM 2013 SP1 with Product Updates package, you must manually activate the following
             records in the Service Management area (Settings > Service Management) that are created by the package:

3. Run the Unified Service Desk Client, and connect to the CRM instance where the Unified Service Desk package
is deployed to verify if it runs successfully.

      1. Start  the Unified Service Desk client by double-clicking the application shortcut on
          your desktop.

      2. In the Unified Service Desk sign-in page, provide authentication details to connect to
          your CRM server. If you have multiple organizations, and want to select the
          organization where Unified Service Desk is deployed, select the Display list of available organizations
          check box. Click Login.

     3. If you have multiple organizations, select the organization that you want to connect to.

     4. The Unified Service Desk splash screen appears. The screen displays the information about the configuration
         data being read by the client in the background. Next, the main window appears
         that prompts you to enter your CRM server credentials.          

        Type in your credentials, and then sign in to the Unified Service Desk client application.

    5. Below is the screen shot of the data synched in USD from CRM.

4. Troubleshooting Package Deployment Issues.

The Package Deployer tool provides logging support to record detailed information about
errors that can occur while signing in to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance
using the tool and deploying packages. There are three log files generated by
the tool that are available at the following location on the computer where you
run the tool:
c:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PackageDeployer\<Version>.

1. Login_ErrorLog.log: This provides information about the issues that
occurred while signing in to the CRM instance using the tool.

If there are any issues while signing in, a message appears on the sign-in screen of the tool with a link to
this log file stating that an error occurred while processing the sign-in
request and the user can view the error log.

You can click the link in the message to view this log file.

The log file is created the first time you encounter any sign-in issues in the tool. Thereafter, the log file
records information about any sign-in issues.

2. PackageDeployer.log: This provides detailed information about each
task performed in the tool during the deployment of the packages. You can view
the log file from the tool by clicking the View Log File link at the bottom of
the screen.

3.ComplexImportDetail.log: This provides detailed information about
the data imported in the last deployment using the tool.

Each time you deploy a package
using this tool, the existing details from the log file are moved to a file
called CompelxImportDetail._old.log in the same directory, and the
ComplexImportDetail.log file displays information about the latest import done
using the tool.

Configure
Diagnostics Loggings for Unified Service Desk.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn633607.aspx 

Unified
Service Desk Walkthroughs

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn749502.aspx

I hope this is helpful.