Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions.
The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different. In case of traditional CRM software (Siebel, Oracle) - the application was designed with platform independence in mind. Microsoft CRM is dedicated to Microsoft technology and so deploys all the Microsoft tools: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk server, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains as backend, etc.
If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM - we are giving you directions in this article.
1. Microsoft CRM SDK - this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples - it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer - you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization. VB.Net examples will be available soon.
2. Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server - you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config - please refer to MS CRM SDK
3. Legacy ASP integration - this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is - you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.
4. Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector - which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn't have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience.
5. Direct SQL touch - in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers - this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But - in real world this is not always true - you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support - but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done.
6. MS CRM Customization tool - this is rather end-user tool and we don't describe it here - read the manual. We've described above the options to use when this tool doesn't do the job
7. Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory. Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it.
About The Author
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Canada, UK, Autralia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.
reliable maid service Highland Park ..Microsoft Great Plains has full-featured Manufacturing suite of modules: Capacity... Read More
Great Plains Software Dynamics, Dynamics C/S+, eEnterprise were written on... Read More
You've finally created databases that you can actually use to... Read More
We will base our prognosis on our Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More
Microsoft Client Relation Management system (Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft RMS... Read More
It's not very often I get excited about a software... Read More
Spyware is like the new technological nuclear weapon on the... Read More
Here is some free software tools to help you build... Read More
When making a decision to buy any piece of software... Read More
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More
Does Microsoft Have any Real Competition? Copyright (c) 2003 Gregory... Read More
Our company, Novaprof Inc., developed unique software - DB Integration.... Read More
Software Engineering is the Systematic Approach for analysis design implementation... Read More
Did you ever give a thought to the number of... Read More
Microsoft CRM was designed to be easily customizable. Microsoft CRM... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions ? Great Plains is designed to meet... Read More
When you visit department stores and see that majority of... Read More
Are you one of those people that keeps track of... Read More
If someone entered your home, uninvited and installed numerous cameras... Read More
Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is... Read More
The most important benefit of XML is its simplicity. Though... Read More
Spyware and malware are large problems for Internet users today... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains could be tuned and setup to fit... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is scaled down Great... Read More
What is IRC?IRC is Internet Relay Chat. It is a... Read More
house cleaning company Lincolnshire ..Three highly respected names in Human Resources have joined forces... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more... Read More
Bar charts, bar graphs, and any other chart or graph... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is now standard mid-market ERP application, serving... Read More
IBM Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange?The severe competition continues for... Read More
One of the things we can be as certain of... Read More
GroupwareEfforts are continually made to manage the unavoidable ad hoc... Read More
In linux, one of great commands for finding out information... Read More
It's no secret that software companies operate in a very... Read More
Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions is emerging as very attractive vendor for... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Remember back in the days where screensavers were the coolest... Read More
The US House of Representatives has recently passed the "Spy... Read More
Microsoft bought Navision, Denmark based software development company, along with... Read More
This is a short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to... Read More
This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More
The COSMIC FP (function point) software quality metric, is no... Read More
Shareware has been fighting the stigma of being misunderstood for... Read More
As Mozilla Firefox nears 10% market share, with well over... Read More
It is possible that if one avoided all sources of... Read More
The destruction of the Soviet Union about 15 years ago,... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains has substantial mid-market share in the USA... Read More
C/SIDE (Client/Server Integrated Development Environment) - The core of... Read More
It would be easy to think, like most people apparently... Read More
Software |