News
Daylight Saving Patch for Dynamics CRM
Literally just in time, Microsoft is shipping a patch for its Dynamics CRM 3.0
package that adjusts for the Daylight Saving Time (DST) changeover coming this
weekend.
In a move aimed at conserving energy, Congress decided last year to extend
DST in the United States beginning this year. DST is now set to begin on March
11, 2007 and end on Nov. 4, 2007. For states that observe DST, that causes the
annual "spring forward" event to occur three weeks earlier than usual,
and the matching "fall back" event to be one week later than usual,
resulting in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years.
Therefore, unless updates are applied, the time zone settings for computers'
system clocks may be wrong during those specific four weeks. Both the Windows
operating system and calendar programs need to be updated. For more information,
check out Microsoft's Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center here.
That doesn't take care of critical customer data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM,
however.
Since most CRM records contain date and time stamps, without the updates, activities
that are scheduled during those four weeks will appear one hour earlier than
they should.
The company, therefore, has released the Dynamics CRM 3.0 Time Zone Data Updates
and Dynamics CRM 3.0 Update Time Zones Wizard, which include updates for Dynamics
CRM 3.0 Service Provider Edition (SPE) as well as updates and the wizard required
for installing updated time zone definitions and adjusting dates and times in
Dynamics CRM 3.0 records that are affected by changes in time zone definitions.
After the operating system has been updated with new time zone definitions,
the updates and wizard synchronize Dynamics CRM 3.0 time zone definitions with
Windows and adjust records associated with dates and times in CRM records.
The updates and time zone wizard are available for download here.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.