Dynamics CRM and SharePoint – Better together
A few weeks ago over a sushi lunch with a SharePoint MVP–turned ISV Partner services executive, I mused about the evolution of SharePoint application development. It seems a natural extension of the inherent core strengths of the SharePoint platform. Initially touted for portals and document collaboration, SharePoint has long been the proving ground for “now that we’re here, how else can we use it?” This ideal is now supported by a tremendous ecosystem of custom .NET developers as well as third-party add-ons for workflow, forms, reporting, dashboards, business analytics, digital signatures, and privacy and security enhancements—all designed with the intention of extending SharePoint to provide a richer application experience.
The premise seems simple now. Once users began to collaborate in real time on a document, the natural next request became: how do we automate approvals on this document? Add a workflow, and an application is born. The emergence of InfoPath to provide prepopulated data in a form enabled further capabilities. Metadata tags became the grandfather for data analytics.
The result today has been to leverage a collaboration platform that excels in managing unstructured data custom code or plug-ins to try to wrangle structured data as well. This is even more true in the government arena than in the commercial space: the public sector mantra has been to extend existing software through custom code. Where is the out-of-the-box Microsoft response for case management, workflows, and data consolidation?
Interestingly enough, the answer has existed for almost as long as SharePoint itself: Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The marketplace’s oversight is understandable. Isn’t this a tool for customer relationship management? How is a platform for managing leads and customer engagement an answer to the gaps in SharePoint application development? If we think of “customers” as “accounts,” “marketing” as “correspondence management,” and “customer service” as “case management,” the concept begins to emerge. The same entities that manage structured, one-to-many, or many-to-many connections can manage all sorts of other relational data. The synergy between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint is highly complementary: use Microsoft Dynamics for the structured data, SharePoint for the unstructured data, and blend them for a holistic user experience.
There are numerous examples of how Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been implemented for government use alongside SharePoint. With this combined technology, federal, state, and local organizations can provide services to citizens and constituents, while minimizing development costs and mitigating both internal and external security risks. The primary solutions are case management, citizen services, grants management, and licensing and permitting. Microsoft Dynamics enables the tracking of cases and records, while SharePoint enables the document management and collaboration capabilities that are already familiar. And the solution is delivered to the user through the Outlook application, via mobile device, and has a consistent “Office” look and feel.
