In this webinar, our experts showcase a variety of demo use cases of how different components of the...
SharePoint 2010 provides a number of reasons for upgrading/migrating from 2007.
CRM integration is simplified and enhanced.
Creating external lists can now be done using SharePoint Designer and Business Data Connectivity Service
Use a custom column in SharePoint lists that is a look-up to the CRM list.
Figure 1: Customer on SharePoint lists as lookup to CRM Accounts
This also allows workflow to utilize CRM data rather than creating a plugin for many tasks
Reporting and Business Intelligence
Using the same Business Data Connectivity configure at the server, CRM data is available for the myriad of BI tools
SQL 2008 R2 would be recommended to take advantage of tools such as:
Report Builder 3.0
User-friendly wizard to create SQL Reports
New visualizations such as sparklines, gauges, and maps (ex: Customer Location Map)
Excel Services
Publish Excel reports to SharePoint lists
Users view as web part; aggregate for dashboards
PowerPivot
Excel add-in to enhance Pivot table functionality
Use slicers to publish filters to multiple tables simultaneously
PerformancePoint Services
Create Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) for deep data analysis
Dashboard designer for rapid deployment
Cool data visualizations such as Decomp trees
Each of these tools allow for more Self-Service BI
CRM 2011 has native integration with SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component
Auto-folder creation using Account hierarchy
Tighter integration with office – particularly 2010
SharePoint Workspace 2010 – enables off-line synchronization of Documents, lists, even completes sites
Save and publish from Office 2010, manage versioning, access CRM data sources and add-ins such as PowerPivot
In-line editing is much more robust and the ribbon experience mirrors CRM 2011
Considerations:
Not all functionality is available with SharePoint Foundation 2010 (free version)
BI: PerformancePoint and Excel Services require SharePoint server
Complete list of features by edition: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/Pages/Editions-Comparison.aspx
Note: Some functionality can be enhanced from Foundation 2010 with Development (ex: Secure Store can be manually installed and configured using Windows Search Server Express)
Upgrade versus Migration
Clean installations are generally a good practice depending on the customizations
Upgrade will always work but may break some customizations
CRM Integrations and Customizations
Consider Development environment allows for testing of upgrade
CRM List web part for CRM 4.0 is not supported but in most environments will continue to work
Review list of enhancements – there are many new features that required plugins or other advanced customizations
One of my favorite features: Impersonation – perform functions that cannot be done by the calling user:
For more information on CRM and SharePoint 2010 feel free to contact us.
Happy CRM'ing and SharePoint'ing
Great Points! It is refreshing to see a post on how SharePoint to CRM 2011 integration can be used. I hope to see more of these types of posts in the future!