Microsoft CRM Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Dom

Microsoft CRM Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino – machinery dealership example

by: Andrew Karasev

IBM Lotus Notes with Domino email server is traditional document workflow management solution for large corporate business, where you need audit trail on approval cycle and decision making. Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is very cost efficient solution to automate sales process. It might be surprising, but we see good strata of clients who are willing to deploy and integrate both systems: MS CRM and Lotus Domino. In our opinion these clients are balancing ERP platform risks and trying to protect and deploy investments into Lotus licenses, while deploying new and already leading CRM solution – Microsoft CRM. In this small article we’ll give you the integration example – European division of one of the well known machinery manufacturer dealership network.

• Custom Lotus Database. In our case client had custom database, which was designed back in the beginning of 1990th. Some dealers had Lotus Notes Domino 4.0 and some of them had 6.0 and 6.5. Technical excurse – in Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 you can use Java 2 agents, and it seems to be platform independent (Microsoft Windows Server, IBM AS/400). To synch all the dealerships – the decision was made to upgrade across the network to Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 (to be a bit conservative)

• Domino Messaging. Obviously you have to have just one email server assigned to your url domain, and as traditionally Lotus Domino was the email server – the replacement with Microsoft Exchange 2003 (which is natural choice if you purchase Microsoft CRM) was not an option. With Alba Spectrum Technologies MS CMR Lotus Notes Domino connector you can switch email messaging to Lotus Domino

• Lotus & MS CRM events synchronization. IBM and Microsoft software designers designed CRM & Lotus events differently. Second phase of the project implementation will synchronize appointments, calendar events, etc. between Lotus and MS CRM.

• MS CRM ODBC lookups to Lotus database. As the second phase we plan to implement lookups from MS CRM Account to cases with custom fields and Lotus notes lookup tab. This tab will be realized as web .net application, integrated into MS CRM web interface. This web application will have machine serial number, warranty & service info. As you probably know in MS CRM 3.0 you can deploy custom table in link it to MS CRM object as onetomany. The most important is that it will be synchronized by MS Outlook and will allow you as a salesperson to work offline.

You can always have us help you with MS CRM customization, implementation, support & MS CRM SDK data conversion. Give us a call: 866.528.0577 or 1.630.961.598, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, NonProfit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 02

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Integration with Navision – overview

Microsoft CRM Integration with Navision – overview for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is very good budget alternative to Siebel and actually beloved by Microsoftoriented IT department system. Considering the fact that in many cases Microsoft CRM should somehow fit into and cooperate with existing legacy business applications, integration question maybe the first to place. It is probably good to mention that Microsoft Navision has its own CRM module (and Navision will probably have MS CRM Navision integration tool for MS CRM 2.0 – at this moment we do not know when). We would like to give you, software developer highlight on how you allow Navision data lookup from Microsoft CRM screens: Account (which is customer), contact, lead.

We suppose that Navision is installed with native C/SIDE database, because in the case of MS SQL Server this topic doesn’t make sense

Microsoft CRM web interface is built on .Net architecture and Microsoft CRM SDK is married with .Net. We suggest you to use Microsoft tools to connect to Navision database via ODBC.

Native C/SIDE Database. If Navision sits in C/SIDE database, then create ODBC linked server to Navision via C/ODBC

Configure web.config to enable Microsoft CRM customization

Configure isv.config to place the button or navigation bar on one of your MS CRM customizable forms: Lead, Account, Contact, etc.

Use MS CRM SDK sample code to come into Microsoft CRM Security realm

Create separate Database on the same SQL server where Microsoft CRM is hosted and place heterogeneous stored procedures or views – which will be pulling data from Navision C/SIDE linked server

Program ADO.Net calls and returned dataset processing in Visual Sudio.Net (preferably C#.Net, because Microsoft CRM SDK is C# oriented)

We probably should mention that isv.config buttons allow you to transfer GUID of the Contact, Lead or Account to your integrated web application

Crystal Reports caution – MS CRM has builtin Crystal Reports Enterprise, licensed for MS CRM data access only. So, if you like to integrate web Crystal report into your application – you should resolve licensing issue and check with Microsoft on purchasing full version of Crystal Enterprise. The other way is to separate your Crystal web application and MS CRM by placing them on separate hardware

Additional tip – in your stored procedure use this directive: DBCC TRACEON(8765), which allows working with the data results of variable length returned by C/ODBC driver

Good luck with integration! If you want us to do the job give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Denver, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: [email protected]

This article was posted on February 18

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM for Large Corporation – Security

Microsoft CRM for Large Corporation – Security

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM proved to be reliable solution in the whole spectrum of industries and market niches: transportation & logistics, education, recruiting & placement, supply chain management, pharmaceutical, oil & gas, aerospace & defense, manufacturing, wholesale & retail. When corporation is looking into CRM application to choose from – one of the fist questions is security. In this small article we’ll try to give you the highlights on the most typical questions we are receiving in the security area.

Active Directory. Microsoft CRM uses Active Directory users and its security is built upon Windows domain security. We heard complains about this tight integration. If you compare MS CRM with Siebel, for example – you will see, that Siebel security is built on the CRM level and Siebel can be installed on Windows and Unix/Linux platforms

Vertical Security, Roles. If you are thinking about vertical security, say assign more rights to manager, versus salesperson, this should be done on the role level. We first talk about vertical security, to give you conception of the matrixtype of security, realized in MS CRM

Horizontal Security, Teams. At this moment (MS CRM 1.2, MS CRM 3.0 is due in September 2005) team can include users only, not other teams, however, if you share the object with the team – you can share it with multiple teams. This is the place where collective security begins. Imagine, you have Worldwide product line – widgets and you have several regions: Europe, Pacific, USA, Australia & New Zealand, China. In gadgets team you have product manager, who should see all the sales worldwide, also you create regional teams for European, America, Australian etc markets and then make gadgets manager as team member of all these teams

Secured Reporting. When you, as European market manager run report on the gadgets sales – you see only records in your security realm. This statement is true even if you have customization, done in MS CRM SDK: C# or VB.Net.

Presentation Level. If you use MS CRM Web or Outlook clients – these are just two types of presentation level clients. Microsoft CRM schema sits in MS SQL server database, so if you deploy MS CRM SDK to modify/customize your CRM – both presentation clients will get the custom interface

Messaging. Microsoft CRM deploys MS Exchange. However you can improve MS CRM Exchange connector to catch emails by addresser email or domain, also you can deploy Lotus Notes Domino as email server – check with Alba Spectrum Technologies

Integration with MS Great Plains. Microsoft CRM integrates with GP customers, SOP Orders & Invoices. You can have custom integration, by calling Great Plains objects (customer annual sales info, employee’s payroll summary, etc.)

Good luck and you can always seek our help in customization, implementation, integration and support. Call us: 18665280577 or 16309615918, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 04

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Development

Microsoft CRM Development

by: Andrew Karasev

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 enduser tool and we don’t describe it here read the manual. Weกve 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.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 06, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Custom Development

Microsoft CRM Custom Development

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions to traditional CRM vendors, such as Siebel, Onyx. Microsoft CRM customization techniques are very diversified and based on the whole spectrum of recent Microsoft technologies. The main terms you should know are: Microsoft CRM SDK 1.2 and Visual Studio.Net 2003. And of course you should be familiar with all the legacy internet technologies, such as HTML, XML, XSLT, JavaScript and be good C#/VB/Net developer.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK – this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net examples – it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is all web services based calls, if you are C# .NET developer – you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred customization scenarios and this should be easily upgradeable customization.

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

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 make job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool – you can feel free to use this – this is rather enduser 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

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving Chicago, Los Angeles, San Franciso, San Diego, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Mexico (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 19, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePo

Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePoint Document Gateway

by: Boris Makushkin

MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including Microsoft Office documents: Words, Excel, etc. The document workflow was perfectly automated about 10 years ago in Lotus Notes Domino. In this small article we describe the solution based on MS CRM integration with MS SharePoint.

Microsoft CRM is new player on CRM applications market and it is gaining its market share. Having different paradigm in its design (it stakes on Microsoft OS and technologies and completely disregards alternative platform, such as UNIX, Linux, Oracle, etc. based). Microsoft CRM market is very diversified: from small (5 users) to large (several hundred MS CRM User licenses) and it serves variety of industries: Transportation, Logistics, Lawyers, Pension Funds, HighTech, and many others. Deploying technologies, like Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains and Navision in close future makes CRM a beloved system for Microsoft oriented IT departments.

Letกs go right to the topic.

Major issue with storing documents in MS CRM in the form of attachments to Activity is inability to work on these attached files in cooperation with other colleagues, who do not have to use CRM. When several service people serve requests from the same client this is required. Currently you can use alternative way when you store office documents in the folders of your file system and when modifying document, you save it and reattach to CRM. This is inconvenient, because first it requires all your editing users to have CRM licenses, which delays CRM implementation.

We seem increasing popularity of document storage systems, like Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle Files, etc. Such systems, being implemented gives you time savings, related to documents revisions and versioning, approval cycles and workflows, web access through webportals systems and the like.

The target of our product is Microsoft SharePoint integration with MS CRM for document storage. Letกs take a look at the high level technical realization details:

Main modification from the MS CRM side is standard system behavior change when you open attachment in Activity. Standard unmodified CRM suggests you to store documents in the file system. Modified version sores document in SharePoint Document Library (the required library is subject for setup by MS CRM system administrator) or keep it in MS CRM as is (for documents of minor importance). From the moment of saving the document in SharePoint Document Library it is not stored in MS CRM – CRM will now store only the link/reference to the document. Also you are given the ability to open and modify the document at the place of opening, which speeds up MS CRM user performance substantially.

Table, storing the links to the documents sits in separate database and doesn’t deal with MS CRM tables (you know that you are banned to do structure changes in MS CRM db)

Document saving into MS SharePoint process occurs in MS CRM and with its assistance – SharePoint bridge, which does addition and update for the existing document into destination Document Library with MS SharePoint Web Services calls

Upon the addition into Document Library, MS CRM – SharePoint bridge registers the document in the special table for the future data extraction or notification mechanism registration

Then, interested users can work with the documents just using MS Office 2003 or other programs/editing tools, assuming these tools have access to MS SharePoint

Feedback is provided by MS SharePoint Event Handler component. This is special handler, inspecting document change status, transferred from MS CRM to document storage (SharePoint), and report Activity owner on the changes with home page notifications (User home page in MS CRM). User in turn can review the history of the document editing who, when and where is the change

Opening Activity, where document is กattachedก, and in fact placed into MS SharePoint Document Library, and pressing opening button, MS CRM user gets live version of the data

This approach allows you seamless work with MS CRM document in the whole informational space of your company

Additional enhancements to this product might be document library management directly from MS CRM (web interface meaning remotely), administrative interface for MS Sharepoint documents revision, ability to create reports on the document storage status, rights/access management (Author, Reader, Contributor etc) from MS CRM, portal pages integration into MS CRM to name a few.

Happy programming, implementation, customization and modification! If you want us to do the job – call use 16309615918, 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Oracle, Navision, Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia, Europe and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Oracle, Unix, Microsoft CRM SDK, Navision, C#, VB.Net, SQL developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 10

by Boris Makushkin

Microsoft CRM Programming Techniques – overview fo

Microsoft CRM Programming Techniques – overview for developer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM is the CRM answer from Microsoft and it will have all the Microsoft Business Solutions muscles behind.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK – this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net examples – it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is all web services based calls, if you are C# .NET developer – you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred customization scenarios and this should be easily upgradeable customization.

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

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 make job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool – you can feel free to use this – this is rather enduser 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

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job give us a call 18665280577! [email protected]

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, Colorado, Texas, New York, Georgia and Florida, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 11, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Integration with Oracle – overview f

Microsoft CRM Integration with Oracle – overview for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is very good budget alternative to Siebel and actually beloved by Microsoftoriented IT department system. Considering the fact that in many cases Microsoft CRM should somehow fit into and cooperate with existing legacy business applications, integration question maybe the first to place. We saw multiple cases when company uses Lotus Notes/Domino, and replaces portion of it with Microsoft CRM and wants to use Domino email server, connected to Microsoft CRM. Also large number of legacy applications (legacy doesn’t necessary mean they are not supported – rather company is trying to get CRM solution fitting its budget). Here we would like to give you some technology highlights on how you can have lookups from Microsoft CRM into Oracle system. Oracle might be custom database, designed for the business, such as cargo tracking system for freight forwarding company, or even Oracle Financials.

Microsoft CRM web interface is built on .Net architecture and Microsoft CRM SDK is married with .Net. We suggest you to use Microsoft tools to connect to Oracle database via ODBC.

Create ODBC linked server to Oracle in Microsoft SQL Server enterprise manager. Again – it is safer to begin from Microsoft .Net side (linked server will be exposed in ADO.Net). Microsoft should support its components in the future and interplatform connection should be standard ODBC

Configure web.config to enable Microsoft CRM customization

Configure isv.config to place the button or navigation bar on one of your MS CRM customizable forms: Lead, Account, Contact, etc.

Use MS CRM SDK sample code to come into Microsoft CRM Security realm

Create separate Database on the same SQL server where Microsoft CRM is hosted and place heterogeneous stored procedures or views – which will be pulling data from Oracle linked server

Program ADO.Net calls and returned dataset processing in Visual Sudio.Net (preferably C#.Net, because Microsoft CRM SDK is C# oriented)

We probably should mention that isv.config buttons allow you to transfer GUID of the Contact, Lead or Account to your integrated web application

Crystal Reports caution – MS CRM has builtin Crystal Reports Enterprise, licensed for MS CRM data access only. So, if you like to integrate web Crystal report into your application – you should resolve licensing issue and check with Microsoft on purchasing full version of Crystal Enterprise. The other way is to separate your Crystal web application and MS CRM by placing them on separate hardware

Good luck with integration! If you want us to do the job give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Denver, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: [email protected]

This article was posted on February 18

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Data Import FAQ

Microsoft CRM Data Import FAQ

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM has builtin conversion tool, however you should probably first try third party conversion tool, such as Scribe. It is relatively expensive and has bunch of importing capabilities, that you might never use and need. Scribe allows you to map objects in source and target, when source is ACT! for example. If you are just realized the need to load data into CRM – please research Microsoft CRM import tool and Scribe. Here we will describe other option and possibilities

Master records import – you can import via MS CRM integration tool. Tools>Import and select contacts or leads

Duplication dilemma. In version 1.2 as well as in 3.0 (as far as we know) you do not have duplication check and you can import duplicate leads or contacts.

MS CRM SDK custom data migration. If data import is critical and you have reasonable budget for the migration – you can appeal to MS CRM customization partner who specializes in the complex data import. In MS CRM SDK you can program duplication check, special rules for security settings. We have to stress here, that this is not one thousand dollars project and if you are small company, you should stick to Scribe or native MS CRM import tool

Large Scale MS CRM implementation. For corporate business security might have top priority and migration should be programmed in MS CRM SDK.

Some technical tips. Postcallouts. In MS CRM 3.0 which should be released in earlier 2006 there are socalled precall outs (in version 1.2 we have only postcallouts). Precallout should allow to check for duplication, based on your duplication recognition criteria and cancel record if it is duplicate contact, account or lead

If you have a need in large scale data import, you can always have us help you with MS CRM SDK data conversion. Give us a call: 866.528.0577 or 1.630.961.598, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, NonProfit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 28

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange,

Microsoft CRM Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange, Integration, Crystal Reports overview for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market. 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 doesnt 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 enduser tool and we dont describe it here read the manual. Weve described above the options to use when this tool doesnt 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.
Happy customizing, modifying and developing! If you want us to do the job give us a call 18665280577! [email protected]

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, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 30, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Implementing Microsoft CRM: setup and configuratio

Implementing Microsoft CRM: setup and configuration – notes for IT specialist

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is webbased CRM application, deploying all the spectrum of recent Microsoft technologies. We’ll try to analyze different needs and implementation scenarios attributed to specific industries and business types, based on our experience.

First we would like to emphasize the increasing role of inhouse IT department in the strategic decision making. Looking back to the history – it is probably fair to say that initial CRM applications market issues, such as low successful implementations percentage could be attributed to traditional Sales style of those years – selling to the top, when charismatic salesperson was trying to jump over the head of IT people and press business owner or top executive guy. Microsoft in our opinion never used this technique and it’s CRM implementation is not possible (except when you host it in hosting centers) without everyday IT department involvement. MS CRM works in concert with MS Exchange, Windows Active Directory, SQL Server, BizTalk (integration with Great Plains and in the close future Navision). Utilizing this broad spectrum of Microsoft servers and technologies leads to easy Microsoft CRM acceptance and adoption by IT department (usually the one, having several MS certified professionals and DB administrators). Microsoft oriented IT group easily understands Microsoft CRM setup, tuning, customization, integration and initial data import.

It is not a secret that rational way to implement new computer business system lays in the method of evolution, suggesting intelligent integration with existing legacy systems and stepbystep old pieces replacement. Microsoft CRM fits to this approach – it has open to anyone MS CRM SDK and experienced C# or VB.Net programmer should be capable to program the integration or interface to other system.

We are giving you typical setup and integration scenarios, attributed to specific industries below

Freight Forwarding / Transportation. Companies in this industry usually already have efficient cargo delivering tracking system. MS CRM links several systems into one and plays the role of the initial order entry and customer order status requests with the interface into above mentioned cargo tracking application. You should program such an interface with MS CRM SDK and ADO.Net programming

Distribution and Wholesale. Multiple companies have legacy ASP or JSP web sites with new or existing customers order entry logic. Typical need is transferring these orders to Microsoft CRM in the form of activity, placed in the order taker on duty queue. You can solve this with multiple techniques. Consider HTTP handler, called from ASP/JSP legacy application, reading MS CRM user credentials from INI file and thus penetrating into MS CRM, where you in turn use MS CRM SDK constructions.

Pension Funds and Financial institutions. Considering conservative decision making – there is often the requirement of clear and complete audit to verify past decision making. MS CRM plays this role by automatic logging all the documentation and especially all the incoming and outgoing emails to/from clients. You need MS CRM Exchange connector customization

Large Enterprises. You can frequently see different kinds of corporate policies, requiring using such applications as Oracle eBusiness Suite, or Lotus Domino document workflow and email server. In the first case you need heterogeneous database integration with MS CRM, he second case can be resolved with combining MS CRM SDK and Java Agents programming (from the side of Lotus Notes/Domino).

Happy implementing! We are always here: 18665280577, 16309615918, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com )– USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Illinois, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 26

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM for Corporate Business – working off

Microsoft CRM for Corporate Business – working offline

by: Andrew Karasev

If your company has regional and worldwide operations, you might already realized that it is very hard to get decent internet connection in your remote locations. In this small article we will try to give you highlights on how to implement Microsoft Business Solutions CRM for worldwide operations with restricted internet connection.

Outlook Client. This was very bright idea from Microsoft side to have outlook client as a presentation for Microsoft CRM data. Outlook has such nice features as synchronization and then working offline. If you have outlook client for CRM – you can download your customers, leads, contacts, and event properly programmed custom features, then work with them and finally synchronize them back to MS CRM database

MS CRM Integration. As the task itself it is not difficult or challenging one. You can deploy MS SQL Server linked server to show your third party or even heterogeneous data on MS CRM screens. However, when we are talking about enabling working offline – we should get different approach. Your third party system should feed data into MS CRM database – through MS CRM SDK custom utility. In CRM itself you should stick to MS CRM user defined fields. If you take this direction – MS CRM custom features will be taken by Outlook client and synchronized with local machine. Your third party data could reside as it was mentioned in heterogeneous platforms: Oracle, DB 2, Sybase, Lotus Notes Domino, SAP, Pervasive SQL 2000, Ctree or any ODBC compliant database.

Typical Industries. The most popular industry to deploy MS CRM as we saw so far is Transportation & Logistics, where MS CRM is usually integrated with Cargo/Shipment tracking database. Other industries, deploying CRM are: Education, Recruitment & placement, publishing & advertising. MS CRM is getting market in such industries as aerospace & defense, wholesale & retail, pharmaceutical, oil & gas, biotechnology, medicine/hospitals, nonprofit

Customization Tools. Visual Studio.Net is the first to mention, where you can create web application for MS CRM in VB.Net or C#.Net. Then you should use Crystal Reports Enterprise to expand reporting functionality. You use MS SQL Server scripting to pull the data from third party system (but not to update data in the CRM – you should use MS CRM SDK for this purpose

Self Implementation. This was surprising discovery for us about 3 years ago. Microsoft CRM deploys all the spectrum of Microsoft technologies: MS Exchange, Active Directory, fulltext search, BizTalk, XML streams, .Net – and we see that Microsoftoriented IT departments take an initiative and implement MS CRM with minimal outside help

You can always appeal to our expertise to help you implement Microsoft CRM for your company. Give us a call: 16309615918, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 07

by Andrew Karasev