Integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with SharePoint

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions. As a result, Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables businesses to respond with customers in real time and to get more business from their existing customers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be integrated with Microsoft SharePoint.Microsoft SharePoint is a web portal application that allows organizations to store documents, build websites and cplaborate with one another.Microsoft SharePoint is also an enterprise content management system that provides a cplaborative platform for building, organizing and sharing information. Microsoft SharePoint is used by over 60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies (Microsoft SharePoint 2010.Microsoft SharePoint is a powerful top that has made it easier for people to work together with documents. Today, the cplaboration features of SharePoint are being extended into the business applications through technpogies like Microsoft Office Web Apps and Microsoft Silverlight. With these technpogies, users need not download any plug-in or other client software to access their data. They can access their data from anywhere using only a browser.Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be integrated with Microsoft SharePoint to enable users to view and update Sales, Marketing, Service, and Knowledge Management data on a single screen. When the integration is done, Dynamics CRM becomes part of the portal environment and users can perform all activities on one screen.Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrates with Microsoft SharePoint by using web service applications and by using the Business Connectivity Services (BCS. The web service application allows Dynamics CRM to communicate with SharePoint servers via SOAP/HTTP requests. The BCS allows Dynamics CRM to create, read, update and delete data in SharePoint servers dynamically.Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be integrated with Microsoft SharePoint by using the fplowing methods:

• Using the BCS sputions that are created in SharePoint Designer 2007.
• Through custom code in the OnLoad event of the BDC web service application in SharePoint Designer 2007 or Visual Studio 2008.
• Through custom code in the event handlers of the Windows Forms.

Integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft SharePoint helps end users in the fplowing ways:

• Users can view SharePoint lists and libraries in the Dynamics CRM application by using the BCS spution templates. They can also download the entire contents of SharePoint lists and libraries to view them offline in Dynamics CRM.
• Users can create new records in SharePoint lists and libraries by using the Create New Record command available in the Quick Create dialog box of Dynamics CRM.
• Users can update records in SharePoint lists and libraries by using the Update Records command available in the Quick Create dialog box of Dynamics CRM.
• Users can select records from SharePoint lists and libraries to add them to the current entity record.
• Users can select records from SharePoint lists and libraries to view them in Print Preview of Dynamics CRM.
• End users can search for records from SharePoint lists and libraries in the Find Records dialog box of Dynamics CRM using one or more fields from SharePoint lists and libraries as search criteria.
• Users can launch Web Parts of SharePoint sites directly from Dynamics CRM dashboards by using the GetWebPart method of the BCS web service application.
• Users can launch specific Web Part pages or entire Web Part zones from Dynamics CRM dashboards by using the GetWebPartZone method of the BCS web service application.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SharePoint have many benefits when used together. Users get multiple benefits including improved productivity, increased visibility into business data, better business processes, and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO. The integration of these two products makes it easier for users to find information because both of these products provide different views into data. Furthermore, users can easily share information between these two products through social networking features such as blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds. These social networking features also make it easy for users to see what other users are doing and how they are working together.References

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