Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Cookbook Released

Microsoft Dynamics CRMThis is not a book I have written, but rather one that, like the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide, I have done some technical reviewing on behalf of the publisher, Packt Publishing. This is basically assisting the publisher to verify that the content of the book is technically accurate and can be successfully followed. Well, while I was working on the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook I was also doing technical reviewing of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Cookbook by Dipankar Bhattacharya;

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Cookbook

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide

Microsoft Dynamics CRMWhile working with Packt Publishing on the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook (which can be pre-ordered direct from Packt Publishing) I was approached to do some technical reviewing of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM book; the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide by Danny Varghese which has now been published;

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications (MB2-868) Certification Guide

This book covers:

  • Introduce yourself to the certification exam and helpful exam taking tips
  • Learn about marketing automation and its application to your organization
  • How to enable an efficient and accurate sales process
  • Service your customers and get metrics to make sure your customers are truly happy
  • Schedule and plan for resource allocation if needed while servicing your customers
  • Prepare for the MB2-868 certification exam with a mock 75 question exam

If you’re intending to get certified on Microsoft Dynamics CRM then this certification guide will be a great tool for preparing.

How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Integrate Data

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the seventh post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first six posts covered the prerequisites, installation, adapter configuration, creating a new integration, preparing data for integration and synchronise picklists.

Now that the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics has been installed and configured, the data has been prepared for integration and picklists synchronised, the next step is to start running the integrations.

As an example, I’m going to step through the process of integrating the Unit of Measure Schedules from GP into the CRM Unit Groups.

In the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics (Start menu » All Programs » Microsoft Dynamics » Microsoft Dynamics Adapter » Connector for Microsoft Dynamics) navigate down to the UofM Schedule to Unit Group node (Home » Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 \ Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 » Fabrikam, Inc. \ Fabrikam, Inc. » Maps » >UofM Schedule to Unit Group);

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Synchronise Picklists

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the sixth post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first five posts covered the prerequisites, installation, adapter configuration, creating a new integration and preparing data for integration.

One of the things that needs to be done before integrating Microsoft Dynamics GP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is to synchronise the CRM picklists with data in GP. This can be done using the supplied Microsoft Dynamics CRM Picking Sync utility which is installed along with the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics.

There is no menu item created for this utility, so you will need to open Windows Explorer and navigate to the installation folder (%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Dynamics\Microsoft Dynamics Adapter) and double click the Microsoft.Dynamics.Integration.GpToCrmPicklistSync.exe;

Windows Explorer

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Preparing Data for Integration

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the fifth post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first four posts covered the prerequisites, installation, adapter configuration and creating a new integration.

In this post, I’m going to highlight an issue which bit me when I was creating this series of posts using the Fabrikam, Inc. demo company.

This isn’t an issue I’ve encountered in the wild, so to speak, but it is a difference in how Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM handle Unit of Measure Schedules and Unit Groups respectively.

Microsoft Dynamics GP allows for Unit of Measure Schedules to have two UoM details of the same name. For example, the Fabrikam, Inc. Unit of Measure Schedule Wire contains Spool defined as both 100.00 Foot and 33.33 Yard;

Unit of Measure Schedule Setup

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Create A New Integration

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the fourth post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first three posts covered the prerequisites, installation and adapter configuration. This one will show the step-by-step process to create a new integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics 2011.

To create a new integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, open the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics from the Windows Start menu (Start menu » All Programs » Microsoft Dynamics » Microsoft Dynamics Adapter » Connector for Microsoft Dynamics).

To create a new integration, click the New Integration button on the toolbar;

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Configure Adapters

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the third post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first two posts covered the prerequisites and installation. This one will show the step-by-step process to configure the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics 2011 adapters.

To configure the adapters, open the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics program (Start menu » All Programs » Microsoft Dynamics » Microsoft Dynamics Adapter » Connector for Microsoft Dynamics) where you will be presented, on first run, the Adapter Settings utility which will be on the Activate new adapters page.

Enter the Integration Account (in my case DOMAIN\DynamicsConnector) and password and also the URL for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Discovery Service.

The account being used for the Integration Account needs to be a valid CRM user with organization level read privileges for SystemUser (I usually do this by creating a role only with this one security privilege) on the organisations you’re going to integrate into. This user will be added to the following security roles by the configuration utility (which I’ll cover in a moment);

  • System Customizer
  • Dynamics Integration (this security role is automatically created)

The URL for my system is http://azc-crm1:5555/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc (your address can be found in Dynamics CRM under Settings » Customise » Developer Resources);

Adapter Settings - Activate New Adapters

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Installation

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis is the second post in the series on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP; the first post covered the prerequisites.

When the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP setup utility is run, the first window is just a welcome screen, so click next;

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics - Welcome to the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics Setup Wizard

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How To Install Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP – Prerequisites

Microsoft Dynamics GPOver the last two or three weeks I’ve been doing a series of posts on how to install the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics (prerequisites, installation, configuration, verification , security configuration, Management Tools installation and Management Tools configuration) leading up to this series of posts on how to install the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP in order to link Microsoft Dynamics GP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP is the major prerequisite for installing the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics.

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Connector for Microsoft Dynamics GP

Microsoft Dynamics GPConnector for Microsoft Dynamics is a tool available from Microsoft which allows Microsoft Dynamics CRM to be integrated with one of the three Microsoft Dynamics ERP products; AX, GP and NAV.

Being a Microsoft Dynamics GP focused blog, it is the integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP I’m going to take a look at over the next couple of weeks or so depending on how quickly I get the posts written and published.

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics provides a two way integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP with the below diagram showing the entities which can be integrated from one system to the other;

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

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