Were you aware that our developers are up to some awesome stuff? They are! In fact, our developers produce so much cool material that future blog posts are going to start highlighting examples of how we’ve helped our clients become the best little ol’ businesses or organizations they can be. Hopefully, this will provide you with some inspiration; sometimes it’s hard to understand just how many things can be done to a single website to make it – and your entire business – perform better. To get started, we’re going to talk about our client CPAmerica, and their integration with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. To get the low-down on this project, I spoke with one of our back-end developers. The Need for CPAmerica’s CRM integration CPAmerica is a vast, resourceful membership organization for Certified Public Accountants. They provide networking and consulting services, and foster the sharing of information, new techniques, and best practices among their members. Pretty cool, right? But given the nature of the organization, they had a major problem: they needed a secure way to transfer member information between their CRM system and their front-facing website. Why? Because a CRM system is essential for managing contacts and keeping an organization, well, organized. However, it’s also important that members see the information they need, and that nobody wastes their time or overhead by trying to manually copy information between the website and the CRM system. The Technologies We Used When CPAmerica approached Clarity with their problem, our busy little elves went right to work. Using XRM web services, we performed an integration between MS Dynamics CRM and the DotNetNuke web platform. Since CPAmerica manages all of their contacts within CRM, it was important for us to build a way for that information to automatically display on the DNN platform, while keeping more secure user information on lock in the CRM system. We also developed a few interfaces that allowed the data transfer to work the other way, too; in other words, every time a member updated or changed their information on the CPAmerica website, it would automatically get updated in the CRM system. To do this, we used primarily C# coding for the back end, and built out the front end using jQuery and Javascript. Other Bells and Whistles Although this post focuses on the CRM integration, it’s definitely worth mentioning that we did some really cool other stuff for CPAmerica. For example, we developed custom modules for the DotNetNuke website via Xmod-based interfaces, like an “Events” module that allows events to be created, updated, and accessed by website members, while attendance records can all be passed to the CRM system. The Events system leverages custom forms coded in HTML/CSS, controlled by C#. We also integrated a locator map, designed a custom member directory, and built out a document/file-sharing library for CPAmerica members. So, How’d it All Work Out? Beautifully! CPAmerica’s members can now see their stored information and update it when they need to, while the organization itself can keep track of everything through the CRM system. The website also now has a functional, attractive, and highly user-friendly interface. At the end of the day, CPAmerica was very happy. And we are too. Happiness makes the world go round, doesn’t it? Find out more about Clarity VenturesSee our Enterprise Web portfolio