Topic: ‘Scribe’

Usually when people talk about integrating GP and Microsoft CRM they think of using an integration tool like Scribe to move the data back and forth.  For items like Accounts and Addresses that is usually OK to do.  The issue comes with integrating items like Orders, Invoices, Payment, Returns, etc.  CRM handles these items differently than GP and when you are in a fast paced environment sometimes the syncing doesn’t happen fast enough.  Because of this we have built custom web pages in CRM that pulls the data directly from GP.  The pages are links in the Account Entity Screen and displays the data related to the specific Account.

There are three different kinds of links available to you when connecting your source to your target inside of Scribe Insight: Data Links, Fixed Value Links, and Lookup Links.

Data Links: the most common type of link, ‘data links’ connect basic fields inside of your source with basic fields inside of your target. For example, if you want to connect the Phone Number field inside of your source, an XML file for example, with the Main Phone field inside of the CRM Company record, you would want to use a data link. You will be simply taking the data that is inside of the XML file and populating it inside of the Main Phone field in CRM.

Fixed Value Links: a little bit different, ‘fixed value’ links will be standardized for that particular field. So for each record that is imported using Scribe, the value will be the same. Let’s say you are importing a list of 5,000 Leads into CRM that all need to be noted as “Campaign 101: Lead Import” inside of the Topic field. From inside of CRM once they’re imported, you will search for all Leads imported with that particular Topic and add them to a Marketing List. By adding a Fixed Value formula in the target, you can make sure that the Topic is the same for each record.

Lookup Links: these links allow you to find matching records inside of the target. So if you are doing an Update/Insert inside of your DTS package, the lookup link allows you to properly perform the “Update” step. Once a record is found based upon the lookup, it will be automatically updated (this properly prevents duplicate records from being created inside of the CRM system).

The Scribe User Guide has more information about data links and properly transferring your data into CRM from various sources. Want to know more about how to migrate your existing data into your CRM system? Click here to visit the Scribe website and check out their information on CRM integrations.

Use the Microsoft Dynamics® CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP to integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP data. For example, you can integrate Microsoft Dynamics GP customers with Microsoft Dynamics CRM contacts giving you access to up-to-date customer/contact information in both systems.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP is intended to be used in an implementation where Microsoft Dynamics CRM is used to manage business contacts, track leads, enter sales orders, and perform other sales and marketing activities. And where Microsoft Dynamics GP is used to perform accounting functions, manage your company’s chart of accounts, and maintain customer, vendor, item, employee, and other records.

Within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP, separate adapters are used to identify a source system (where data is read from) and a destination system (where data is written to). The source adapter reads data from the source system. The destination adapter writes the data to the destination system.

Record types that are integrated are referred to as “entities.” Some entity information can be integrated only one way between the two systems. For example, a Product that is entered into Microsoft Dynamics CRM cannot be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP as a Sales Item, but a Sales Item that is entered into Microsoft Dynamics GP can be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a Product.

You can use this product to integrate the following entities in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Adapters

Adapters are used to connect the runtime to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services. This connection is used for reading and writing data from one application to another application.

The following adapters are provided:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 adapter
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 adapter
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 adapter

Transformation engine

At its core, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP moves data from one system in one format to another system, in a different format. The adapters provide or supply the data from the source and destination systems, and the transformation engine changes the data from one format to another. The change that is made by the transformation engine is determined by the map that is associated with the type of data that is being moved. For example, to move a Microsoft Dynamics GP customer record to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM account record, the transformation engine creates a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Account object based on the transformation that is defined in the CustomerToAccount.map file for the Microsoft Dynamics GP customer entity and sends it to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter.

 Map templates

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP includes a series of map templates that provide default field mapping between source and destination entities. You can create and edit new maps from the templates. You may need to do this to meet specific business needs or to ensure that any customizations that you may have made to your source or destination systems are considered. Map template files are stored at the installation location in the Templates folder and have a .map file

 Availability

This adaptor is only available thru your partner and is available at no charge. Installation and implementation can be quoted base on specific requirements where applicable.