Archive for category Sharepoint

Managing Documents in Microsoft CRM

Posted by Cory Fellers in Dynamics CRM, Sharepoint on April 9th, 2010

One of the most common questions we get from users is how to store sales and service documents in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These documents could be sales related like quotes, work orders, purchase requests, proposals, etc or service related like field service reports, error logs, or other documentation related to a case.
The answer to the questions, of course, is the often missed upload attachment featureCRM Documents .
Unfortunately this feature does not work for most Microsoft Dynamics CRM document storage needs, for the following reasons.

  1. There is no version control or document management features
  2. There is no ability to search the text of documents that are stored
  3. The documents uploaded are stored in the notes section and not intuitive to find
  4. Storing documents in MS-CRM will bloat the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database possibly causing performance problems

A better solution is to leverage Microsoft SharePoint for document management within Dynamics CRM. In this way, you get all of the document management features of SharePoint without leaving CRM.

While building such an integration between CRM and SharePoint is a fairly simple exercise, one of Microsoft’s ISV partners has devloped a simple and free version. Statera offers Stratus, a web-based Dynamics CRM and SharePoint integration platform.

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Planning for Dynamics GP and SharePoint Integration

Posted by Elizabeth James in Dynamics GP, Sharepoint on August 5th, 2009

During a recent implementation of Business Portal for Dynamics GP 10.0 for a customer, we inevitably encountered the question of where the Business Portal content should reside. Before we dig in, here is a little bit of background…

Background
Business Portal for Microsoft Dynamics GP delivers browser-based, role-appropriate access to Microsoft Dynamics GP information and processes and can be installed on Windows SharePoint Services or Office SharePoint Server. We implemented Business Portal for our customer as a way to extend the reach of their Human Resources and Payroll information in Dynamics GP to all 2,200+ employees. Employees are now able to log into the company’s intranet to view their HR profile, submit changes such as enrolling in benefits, updating education records and emergency contact information, and view their pay stubs as a way to save on paper costs associated with distributing paper copies.
 
Our customer already had a company intranet built on Office SharePoint Server 2007. They had one web application housing one site collection with many sites and subsites. All of this was contained within a single content database.
 
With the implementation of Dynamics Business Portal, you have many options when it comes to planning for and managing the content storage in SharePoint. For example, you can install Business Portal into an existing site collection or a new site collection. In SharePoint you can have one or many site collections per content database. The final decision on how best to manage the content storage of a Business Portal solution is ultimately made by balancing the business, legal, and IT considerations that surround your organization.
 
This article is not intended to cover the best practices for managing SharePoint content databases in terms of database size limits and scalability. A lot of factors are involved in that type of discussion, such as number of existing sites, expected short and long-term growth of the company, sites and content, as well as your company’s backup and recovery plan.
 
What we will cover is one scenario for planning for and managing your SharePoint content databases as it relates to a Dynamics Business Portal implementation. Read the rest of this entry »

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SharePoint 2010 Preview

Posted by Cory Fellers in Sharepoint on July 10th, 2009

Microsoft recently released a preview of some of the new functionality that will be released with SharePoint 2010, due out in the first half of next year. Many new features were announced that will boost productivity and information access for Business Managers, IT Professionals and Developers.

Some of the key new features include:

Ribbon Interface – A streamlined new user interface based on the Ribbon functionality released in Office 2008.

Silverlight Web Part- Lets you quickly and securely integrate Silverlight applications and rich media.

Rich Theming- Allows you to skin your SharePoint site using your favorite Office client themes.

Business Connectivity Services – Allows you to connect Line-of-Business applications, web services, and databases in a user friendly way enabling users to interact with and update data easily via the web.

Visio Services- Share data linked diagrams in real time, even for those who don’t have a Microsoft Visio client.

Central Administration- Everything is at your fingertips with a streamlined administration experience, including the addition of the Ribbon to make configuring and managing your server farm quicker and easier.

Best Practives Analyzer- provides extensible rules based engine that monitors farm health and can automatically fix many configuration and performance issues

Visual Studio SharePoint Tools- New tools built into Visual Studio 2010 for creating packaging and debugging SharePoint solutions, including Web Parts and Business Connectivity Services Entities.

You can learn more about the soon to be released SharePoint 2010 via the following online video demonstrations:

General Intro:
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Overview-Video.aspx

Developers:
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Developer-Video.aspx

IT Pros:
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/IT-Pro-Video.aspx

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