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CRM Integration with SharePoint 2010

Post Author: Joe D365 |

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


Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

One comment on “CRM Integration with SharePoint 2010”

  1. 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!

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