Dynamics CRM Connector

18 Nov 2014

Microsoft Dynamics is all about empowering people and organizations to have better experiences with their enterprise business applications.

In this post, we’ll be looking at the Dynamics CRM connector for Dynamics AX, NAV and GP and how it’s opening new doors for combining relational and transactional information in a simple, effective way

As you know, combining relational and transactional data in a meaningful way is one of the most daunting challenges companies face, when providing relevant data to their users and customers.

Most organizations regard the scope of any enterprise business project as being outside the bounds of what they or their applications are capable of accomplishing. Thus while a certain percentage of their needs may be met by the core functionality of an application, others can only be met by customizing the product.

In the event that those specific needs require relational data for their ERP applications, or ERP transactional data in the customer management systems, there are few options beyond creating intensive integrations. With the Dynamics CRM Connector though, makes it easy to share relational and transactional data in a reliable and extensible manner.

The first edition of the Dynamics CRM Connector offers the following functional integration options (shown in the table below). These ten out-of-the-box mappings cover the most commonly used integration points between relational and transactional data, and should have you covered for the standard data types you would typically need to sync.

If however you need a different type of integration for syncing over data that’s not covered in the Dynamics CRM Connector’s out of the box mappings, you can use the CRM Connector’s graphically-oriented Software Development Kit (SDK) to build your own custom integration, either by using one of the provided extensible templates, or by creating your own from scratch.

Since the Dynamics CRM Connector is also compatible with entities that customers have created using the Extended Dynamics CRM framework, it allows for the integration of ERP data with xRM driven line of business solutions that specifically relate to their areas of expertise, allowing for a virtually unlimited number of possibilities for Microsoft Dynamics customers.

Due to these features, the Dynamics CRM Connector is used by more than 8000 Dynamics ERP/CRM customers worldwide.

Dynamics CRM Connector – Technical Highlights

Below are some highlights from the features provided by the Dynamics CRM Connector as well as the hardware and software requirements for running the Connector on your system.

Transaction Management: The Dynamics CRM Connector provides both exception logging and the ability to re-submit failed transactions. It also enables administrators (with proper security permissions) to access the log files describing the errors and possible resolution steps. The Connector also provides a notification mechanism for automatically contacting the appropriate party in case a transaction or system failure has occurred.

Transactional transformation: The Dynamics CRM Connector also provides the ability to add logical processing to in-stream transactions. These can be in the form of Boolean logic.

System Requirements: Hardware and software requirements for Dynamics CRM Connector are the same as the requirements for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERPs, i.e. Windows Server 2003 SP2 or 2008 and SQL Server 2005 or 2008 as well as .NET 3.5 sp1.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and a Microsoft Dynamics ERP are also required and the integrated companies must use the same base currencies in order for the integration to work.

Language Support: Although the Dynamics CRM Connector UI is in English only, the Connector can connect Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERPs that both use a common base language.

Application Support: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM support team is the primary support team for this product in North America.

Multi-Currency: The Dynamics CRM Connector provides Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV with multi-currency support as featured in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Communication Protocol: The Dynamics CRM Connector utilizes standardized web service integration that also allows for configurable data transformation in stream.

About Folio3 Dynamics Services

FDS (Folio3 Dynamics Services) is a dedicated division of Folio3 that specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics NAV and Dynamics GP based development, customization and integration services. Our main focus is on Enterprise Mobility. We firmly believe that opening up Microsoft Dynamics AX and other products to iOS Android, Windows 8 and Windows Phone users will have a huge impact on organizational agility and productivity.