Wednesday, May 29, 2013

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 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Alex,

    I have installed the CRM connector for Ax12R2CU6 and have also configured the DynamicsAX adapter, but have run into a problem while configuring the CRM adapter settings.
    In the CRM 2011 Instance Adapter Configuration screen, am not getting anything listed in the "Available Organizations" space. Can you please help with this?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete