Microsoft Dynamics Connector (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter) in Master Data Management Scenario

Microsoft Dynamics Connector (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter) in Master Data Management Scenario

 

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to explain what Master Data Management capabilities are provided by Microsoft Dynamics Connector in particular related to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter. Please note that in the previous articles I described how to implement Master Data Management scenario for Microsoft Dynamics using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services.

 

Challenge: There is number of options available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 which have Master Data Management capabilities. The challenge is to understand usage scenarios and how to apply them properly. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter allows you to synchronize data between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations.

 

Solution: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter, an additional adapter for use with Connector for Microsoft Dynamics, allows you to synchronize data between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations. The adapter supports communication between two endpoints that exist on any authentication/hosting environment (on-premise, online, IFD, etc.) This means that you can leverage this new adapter to move Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 data between test and production servers or from on-premises to the cloud.

 

Scenario

Microsoft Dynamics Connector with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter can be used in some Master Data Management scenarios when Microsoft Dynamics CRM business data has to be synchronized between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations. For the sake of simplicity in this document I’ll consider usual Master Data Management entities such as Customers and Products.

 

Walkthrough

 

For the purposes of this walkthrough I installed Microsoft Dynamics Connector with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter. In this scenario I’ll be using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, so I also subscribed to free trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-free-trial-overview.aspx

 

Now let’s review Adapter Settings required for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter

 

Adapter Settings – Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Destination

 

 

Please note that after you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter you will see the following adapters available:

<![if !supportLists]>-          <![endif]>Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Source

<![if !supportLists]>-          <![endif]>Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Destination

 

Adapter Settings – Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Source

 

 

Please note that you have to provide Integration account credentials which is different from Administrator account credentials, that’s why I created brand-new integration@usmf.onmicrosoft.com user in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

 

Please also note that Online trial allows you to create one organization, that’s why for the sake of demo I’ll set up both Destination and Source to point to the same organization “Microsoft”. But obviously for real synchronization you would set up 2 different organizations, for example, Source = “Microsoft1” and Destination = “Microsoft2”  

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter Configuration – Get Organizations

 

 

Here’s a quick diagram which explains how the business data is synchronized between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations  

 

<![if !vml]><![endif]>

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Configuration – Entities

 

 

Now we have to select and configure entities which will be enabled for synchronization. In this instance I’ll select Account and Product entities

 

Please see the full list of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 entities available for configuration below  

 

Entity	Description
Account
Activity
Address
Appointment
Article
Article Template
Business Unit
Campaign
Campaign Activity
Campaign Response
Case
Case Resolution
Competitor
Competitor Address
Connection
Connection Role
Contact
Contract
Contract Line
Contract Template
Currency
Data Map
Dialog Session
Discount
Discount List
Document Location
Duplicate Detection Rule
Duplicate Rule Condition
E-mail
E-mail Attachment
E-mail Template
ERP System User
Facility/Equipment
Fax
Field Permission
Field Security Profile
Goal
Goal Metric
Internal Address
Invoice
Invoice Product
Lead
Lead Address
Letter
Mail Merge Template
Marketing List
Note
Opportunity
Opportunity Close
Opportunity Product
Opportunity Relationship
Order
Order Close
Order Product
Organization
Phone Call
Price List
Price List Item
Process
Product
Publisher
Queue
Queue Item
Quick Campaign
Quote
Quote Close
Quote Product
Recurring Appointment
Report
Report Related Category
Resource
Resource Expansion
Rollup Field
Rollup Query
Sales Literature
Saved View
Scheduling Group
Security Role
Service
Service Activity
SharePoint Site
Site
Solution
Subject
System Chart
Task
Team
Territory
Unit
Unit Group
User
User Chart
View

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Adapter Configuration – Progress  

 

 

Then the system will go ahead and configure selected entities for Microsoft Dynamics Connector

 

Now let’s set up an integration between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations in Microsoft Dynamics Connector

 

New Integration

 

 

And again I use the same Source and Destination just for the sake of demo

 

As the result new integration will be created

 

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

 

 

The next step will be to add Maps for Accounts and Products synchronization

 

New Map

 

 

Please note that Accounts and Product entities are available in the list because we configured them earlier. Let’s create and review the details of Account to Account map

 

Account (Source) to Account (Destination) map

 

 

Please note that you will have access to all fields for Account entity in order to set them up for synchronization

 

Map destination field – How do you want to map to Account

 

 

You can map fields directly by “Mapping to source field” or you can apply any kind of data transformation by “Using a function” if necessary

 

Map destination field – Map a source field to Account

 

 

In case you want to map a source field to Account you will select the field from the dialog or type the name of the field in

 

Account (Source) to Account (Destination) map – Result

 

 

As the result, for example, Account field in Destination will be mapped to Account field in Source

 

As you can see Microsoft Dynamics Connector with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter standard can be effectively used to synchronize master data between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations

 

Summary: This document describes how to use Microsoft Dynamics Connector with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter in Master Data Management scenarios for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. In particular I explained how to configure synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics Connector for two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations as well as define a map for particular types of business data which includes Customers and Products. Microsoft Dynamics Connector provides a robust and extensible platform for data synchronization in Master Data Management scenario for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 which allows us to synchronize records, do any kinds of data transformations, etc. as required. Please note that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter is designed to synchronize business data between two Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organizations and it doesn’t provide full-fledged Master Data Management capabilities (Content, Relationship, Access, Change, Process), that’s why please review my other articles on how to implement Master Data Management scenario for Microsoft Dynamics using SQL Server Master Data Services.   

 

Tags: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Dynamics Connector, Instance Adapter, Source, Destination, Master Data Management, Accounts, Products.

 

Note: This document is intended for information purposes only, presented as it is with no warranties from the author. This document may be updated with more content to better outline the issues and describe the solutions.

 

Author: Alex Anikiev, PhD, MCP