Quick Take - The CRM Connector For GP

As many of you know, early December 2006 marked the re-release of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

With this re-release, organizations are able to leverage the Connector to integrate their CRM and GP environments more quickly and at a lower cost than is required for typical enterprise application integration (EAI) projects.

Following is a quick summary of what I have learned about the Connector based on research and implementation experience.

To download the re-released Connector Guide, go here. (Note: To download the Connector Guide, you will need to be an active Microsoft Customer or Partner). Along with the Connector Guide, Microsoft also recommends reviewing the Connector Guide Release Notes.

A Summary of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP

- CRM Candidates: Microsoft CRM 3.0 Professional or Small Business Edition

- GP Candidates: Microsoft Dynamics versions 8.0 and 9.0

- Versions Supported: English Only (i.e., USA, AUS, CAN, NZ, SING, S. AFRICA, UK)

- Additional Licensing Required: Yes (1 CRM user for integration and 1 SQL 2000 CAL for the CRM integration user)

- Additional SQL Server Requirement: As briefly referenced above, SQL Server 2000 is required by BizTalk 2004 to handle messages between CRM and GP. (Note: No other version of SQL Server can be used with BizTalk 2004.)

- Deployment Scenarios: Microsoft recommends a three server deployment where each component (CRM, GP and Connector) lives on its own separate server. If a two server deployment is necessary, the Connector should be installed on the server running GP. Microsoft also supports a single server deployment leveraging Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition BUT does not recommend this scenario for organizations with more than 5 concurrent CRM and GP users.

- Additional Knowledge Requirements: BizTalk Server 2004 (Partner Edition), eConnect (versions 8 with SP4 or 9), Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ)

- Additional Knowledge Required (if Customizing CRM-GP Integration): Visual Studio .NET 2003 and BizTalk Server 2004 SDK

- Connector Tool Descriptions: Settings and Administration Tool (for basic Connector setup including the ability to select specific CRM and GP entities to be published for integration), Data Synchronization Tool (for data migration, synchronization, and correlation between CRM and GP), Integration Monitor (for monitoring integration points between CRM and GP)

- Integrated CRM-GP Entities: Customers/Accounts, Contacts, Items, Products, Orders, Invoices (Note: 1. any of these entities and the standard field mappings they contain may be modified using the Connector Tools described above, and 2. organizations may also customize the standard Connector mappings using Visual Studio .NET 2003 and BizTalk Server 2004 SDK)

- Basic Information Flow: Quotes are created only in CRM which can be converted to Orders in CRM. Orders created in CRM can be submitted to GP. Orders can also be created in GP or received from CRM which can be converted to Invoices only in GP. CRM can only read Invoices from GP. (For more information on the standard information flow and field mappings between CRM and GP, please read the Connector Guide.)

- Known Limitations: The CRM Connector For Dynamics GP has a number of known limitations which are documented. For more information on these limitations please refer to the Connector Guide.