Dynamics CRM Integration Options

See below for Dynamics CRM connector offerings

Integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM with External eCommerce Solutions

Maximize Business Potential while Keeping Costs Down

Dynamics CRM integration to external eCommerce software enables small to enterprise-level organizations to deliver personalized and individualized experiences for end users that can dramatically reduce overhead while enabling scalability and improving customer satisfaction. In practice though, the Dynamics CRM integration to additional systems can be intricately complicated and there are many pitfalls along the way that aren't just technical in nature. A number of issues are related to how the project itself is planned and mapped out upfront, where the experience level of the selected integration partner or provider is an influential factor for success. The other vital ingredient is the underlying technology and capability of the integration platform your chosen partner delivers and uses.

The integration itself is comprised of various components that need to work together efficiently. One of the biggest challenges with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration to other eCommerce platforms is how it presents lots of different options and possible capabilities. The Dynamics CRM uses, in most scenarios, the REST-based web services or a SOAP set of endpoints. That’s where the partner’s expertise comes into play, to not only advise on the appropriate steps but also be able to implement the desired functionality. An ideal provider should have successfully delivered projects of similar capacity to what you're planning to accomplish. During evaluation, consider whether your potential partner has leveraged a CRM system, or specifically Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with its particular associated workflows, APIs, and business logic.

What follows is the deployment of Dynamics CRM contents within the external eCommerce platform, taking into account the specific business logic and the external web API framework with its REST endpoints. The business logic is usually extensive, therefore it’s not just dumb data being transferred between the systems. Having a fundamental understanding of how these systems work is critical so that there's more context with the full picture of how the integration would optimally go. When working with a strong partner like Clarity, who possesses a robust depth of general and specialized knowledge, they’re able to bring to bear on the project of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to an additional eCommerce integration.

In the scenario of choosing a highly skilled partner, your business ends up saving a lot of time in the long run, compared to otherwise running into major challenges or issues that are avoidable with adequate experience and past successes. Another key area is the actual technology that you're using and specifically the implementation of that technology. In many cases there are a lot of viable solutions but it's typically best to look for an integration platform that's scalable and adaptive. It should be able to meet the requirements of an organization as it adapts and grows over time, so that it's highly capable of scaling up or scaling out to provide a reliable and redundant integration. To elaborate, the platform should be using a queue-based model or some other form of persistence, along with enabling extremely catered business logic where needed.

Exploring the Available Entities for a Superb Integration

Achieving a Unique Rules and Logic Implementation

An advanced integrator uses standard off-the-shelf integration capabilities with core concepts of architecture, where some of the components can be overridden and extended as needed. The concept essentially boils down to getting the best combination of possible scenarios; out of the box functionality that is totally customizable to the very finest level of detail, in alignment with your business needs. This allows your organizational workflows, processes, and customer demands to be perfectly matched. Within the actual integration between Dynamics CRM and another eCommerce solution, some of the common entities include the product catalog system, which can be a one-way or two-way integration. Most of the time it's a one-way integration from Dynamics CRM to the external platform and includes:

  • Categories
  • Products
  • Attributes
  • Associations
  • Relationships
  • Variants and kits
  • Meta information
  • Imagery data
  • Consistent updates to pricing and inventory
  • Custom fields and entities that are related to core entities

An intelligent integration involves the ability to carefully drill down and reach the aforementioned data. Moreover, special care must be exercised to preserve data that's unique to another eCommerce software. Whenever the marketing or product information management team extends and enriches the content, with media files like imagery, documents, video, HTML, or SEO information, everything should remain unaltered. In spite of pricing and inventory data being constantly updated from the Dynamics CRM platform, the enriched content is preserved during the integration. It is also possible to incorporate multiple sets of data, by connecting another ERP system with its own inputs which Dynamics CRM will manage, such as customer and account information. In many cases, the customer and account data is a bi-directional, or two-way, integration and it's going to include:

  • Addresses
  • Shipping and billing addresses
  • Contacts and a hierarchy of contacts
  • Sets of users, associations, and roles that tie back to external eCommerce systems to indicate permissions
  • Customer-specific pricing dataTax information, tax rules, tax logic, and tax exemptions
  • Credit limits, location-specific credit limits, and pricing data.
  • Purchased Products
Supplementary Options and Directions for your Integration

Utilizing More Data to Optimize Business Workflows

Further possibilities allow for taking the Dynamics CRM data on invoices and quotes and making them available within the external eCommerce platforms, so that an end user can complete a purchase in another eCommerce solution from an invoice or quote that originated in Dynamics CRM. Whenever a user is completing an order within another solution, the order information is usually a one-way, or unidirectional, sync from an external eCommerce system to Dynamics but it may also be bi-directional. At a minimum, that order information from the external eCommerce software into Dynamics CRM is going to cover:

  • Line item details
  • Product tax classes and tax data
  • Shipping data
  • Fees
  • Customs and duties
  • Discounts at the item order or shipping level
  • Detailed payment and transaction data
  • Split shipping or split payment information

In some instances, there may be a support request that goes out and needs to be tied back into Dynamics CRM. That can include replacements, refunds, and any other kind of support or request for assistance. For those occasions, the shipping and fulfillment status may be used once the order is placed. So, the fulfillment might begin in the warehouse as the order is being picked, packed, and processed for shipment. Whenever a shipment goes out, the tracking information becomes unavailable and is updated during the course of the shipment. In the end, all of that information is really pertinent for providing self-service and support for users by enabling them to see where their items are. Customers can get an understanding of expectations and potentially reach out if they need any kind of support or assistance during the process.

Location data presents an additional set of information that could prove valuable for business operations. The actual location data can often be quite useful to integrate between eCommerce platforms and Dynamics CRM because an omnichannel capability might be necessary. This would allow for inventory transfer between a set of warehouses, distribution centers, storefronts, and possible events or seminars. Through the use of proximity search, you could identify inventory that might not be available in the closest location but is transferable or available for immediate pickup from another location.

Finally, the integration allows for a general improvement around fulfillment from different warehouses in various locations, so that shipment costs and overall business overhead are optimized. It’s attainable to customize and integrate essentially any entity and field within these systems. The underlying goal behind the Clarity Connect platform is to offer the baseline capability and then collaborate with your team to identify the needs and best practices to support the execution process. We prefer a multipronged approach which is based on our extensive experience with eCommerce solutions and Microsoft Dynamics CRM platforms.

How Can Clarity Help

Dynamics CRM to external eCommerce Integration Specialists

We look forward to providing you and your team with a complimentary needs analysis, along with a proposal for your upcoming project to integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with an additional eCommerce solution. We also welcome you to click on any of the links you see on the site and discover more helpful information. If you have a topic or question that you don't see covered on our website, feel free to click on the Ask the Experts link. One of our tech specialists will promptly respond in detail to your inquiry. We're always happy to offer you a free and extensive response regarding our technical and overall process areas for your upcoming integration project of Dynamics CRM to your existing eCommerce system.