Integrating Dynamics CRM With ecommerce A four-part overview on security, redundancy, and performance MS Dynamics GP ecommerce integration In running a successful ecommerce business, it is important to follow best practices. Specifically, the goal is to improve and maintain consistency and a high level of reliability. Failing to follow best practices could lead to negative consequences for your business, including poor integration, customer frustration, and eventually losing customer orders during integration. Fortunately, these scenarios can all be avoided with proper integration from the outset. integration means pushing and pulling secure, sensitive, and internal information between your external, public facing website and your CRM. In order to comply with best practices, your MS Dynamics GP ecommerce integration should have: High levels of security Redundancy High performance Each of these play a vital role in ensuring that your business builds a strong foundation and runs smoothly. A fault in any of these can have huge effects on business and scalability. High Level of Security A great security infrastructure is a necessity in safeguarding both business and customer information. Ways to implement security best practices include isolating data to a specific IP address, making sure the transfer of data occurs over a secure socket layer (SSL), having methods of authentication, and having multiple layers of security. Redundancy Redundancy is essential during moments of emergency. If a server goes down, data will not be available to customers. To prevent this, methods of queuing data must be put in place so that if a data transfer fails, multiple attempts to retransmit will be made until the data is received. High Performance Performance fundamentally boils down to speed and reliability. When sending data over a wire, there is typically a twenty to thirty second latency. The best way to address this issue is to scope down data into small packets and cache it (temporarily store it) so that it can be called again later when needed. Having a real time feed of information is also crucial. This will make operations smoother for both the business and the consumer. eConnect is a connecting platform that streamlines the entire integration process. Without it, numerous, unnecessary issues my arise when upgrading Dynamics GP. These three concepts play key roles in every ecommerce business, so it is important to understand their purposes and how to go about applying them in your business. In this four-part series on MS Dynamics GP ecommerce integration Best Practices, we will discuss each of these points in more depth. Clarity Can Help If you have any questions or would like to learn more about applying these practices, contact us today. We offer free consultations to guide you toward improving your business.