Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: Share

 Boris Makushkin

MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including Microsoft Office documents: Words, Excel, etc. The document workflow was perfectly automated about 10 years ago in Lotus Notes Domino. In this small article we describe the solution based on MS CRM integration with MS SharePoint.

Microsoft CRM is new player on CRM applications market and it is gaining its market share. Having different paradigm in its design (it stakes on Microsoft OS and technologies and completely disregards alternative platform, such as UNIX, Linux, Oracle, etc. based). Microsoft CRM market is very diversified: from small (5 users) to large (several hundred MS CRM User licenses) and it serves variety of industries: Transportation, Logistics, Lawyers, Pension Funds, High-Tech, and many others. Deploying technologies, like Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains and Navision in close future - makes CRM a beloved system for Microsoft oriented IT departments.

Let's go right to the topic.

Major issue with storing documents in MS CRM in the form of attachments to Activity is inability to work on these attached files in cooperation with other colleagues, who do not have to use CRM. When several service people serve requests from the same client this is required. Currently you can use alternative way when you store office documents in the folders of your file system and when modifying document, you save it and reattach to CRM. This is inconvenient, because first it requires all your editing users to have CRM licenses, which delays CRM implementation.

We seem increasing popularity of document storage systems, like Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle Files, etc. Such systems, being implemented gives you time savings, related to documents revisions and versioning, approval cycles and workflows, web access through web-portals systems and the like.

The target of our product is Microsoft SharePoint integration with MS CRM for document storage. Let's take a look at the high level technical realization details:

• Main modification from the MS CRM side is standard system behavior change when you open attachment in Activity. Standard unmodified CRM suggests you to store documents in the file system. Modified version sores document in SharePoint Document Library (the required library is subject for setup by MS CRM system administrator) or keep it in MS CRM as is (for documents of minor importance). From the moment of saving the document in SharePoint Document Library it is not stored in MS CRM CRM will now store only the link/reference to the document. Also you are given the ability to open and modify the document at the place of opening, which speeds up MS CRM user performance substantially.

• Table, storing the links to the documents sits in separate database and doesn't deal with MS CRM tables (you know that you are banned to do structure changes in MS CRM db)

• Document saving into MS SharePoint process occurs in MS CRM and with its assistance SharePoint bridge, which does addition and update for the existing document into destination Document Library with MS SharePoint Web Services calls

• Upon the addition into Document Library, MS CRM SharePoint bridge registers the document in the special table for the future data extraction or notification mechanism registration

• Then, interested users can work with the documents just using MS Office 2003 or other programs/editing tools, assuming these tools have access to MS SharePoint

• Feedback is provided by MS SharePoint Event Handler component. This is special handler, inspecting document change status, transferred from MS CRM to document storage (SharePoint), and report Activity owner on the changes with home page notifications (User home page in MS CRM). User in turn can review the history of the document editing - who, when and where is the change

• Opening Activity, where document is "attached", and in fact placed into MS SharePoint Document Library, and pressing opening button, MS CRM user gets live version of the data

• This approach allows you seamless work with MS CRM document in the whole informational space of your company

• Additional enhancements to this product might be document library management directly from MS CRM (web interface - meaning remotely), administrative interface for MS Sharepoint documents revision, ability to create reports on the document storage status, rights/access management (Author, Reader, Contributor etc) from MS CRM, portal pages integration into MS CRM to name a few.

Happy programming, implementation, customization and modification! If you want us to do the job call use 1-630-961-5918, 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Oracle, Navision, Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia, Europe and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Oracle, Unix, Microsoft CRM SDK, Navision, C#, VB.Net, SQL developer.

BorisM@albaspectrum.comKeyword Prices Decline 3.0% in the First Quarter of 2005Tommy Maric

An analysis of webs most popular 20,000 keywords by TopPayingKeywords.com, found that keyword prices dropped 3.0% from January 2005 to April 2005 from an average bid price of 58.9 cents to an average bid price of 57.1 cents. The 20,000 most popular keywords are distributed in pricing as follows:

Keyword Price# of Keywords
$20.00-$49.9920
$10.00 - $19.99123
$5.00 - $9.99660
$3.00 - $4.99923
$1.00 - $2.993,918
$0.50 - $0.992,259
$0.25 - $0.492,115
$0.15 - $0.241,584
$0.10 - $0.142,962
$0.05 - $0.09592

Note that there are 4,379 keywords in the Top 20,000 keywords which have either a zero price or do not have three active advertisers.

Keyword pricing is critical for internet advertisers and also webmasters as expensive keywords allow them to maximize their profits using Googles Adsense program.

According to Dave Lavinsky, President of TopPayingKeywords.com, With the overall decrease in keyword prices this quarter, it is important to know which keywords remain profitable. What may not seem evident is that in fact many keywords enjoyed a large appreciation in value and now we have over 800 keywords in our database that are worth $5.00 or more.

There were many large increases in the value of certain keywords. The keyword shiva for example, went up 935% from a price of just $0.17 to $1.76. Medifast also made a giant leap in value increasing from $1.50 to $6.98. This surge in value is most likely due to increased consumer awareness of the Medifast brand and increasing competition among retailers.

With information changing so quickly it is important to keep abreast of the current value of keywords. The value of these keywords can change dramatically over a very short period of time making a once profitable website quickly unprofitable. For instance, the keyword Vioxx declined by 50% from $16 to $8 from January to April 2005 as the value of Vioxx litigation clients decreased. Keeping informed and up to date is of great importance to webmasters looking to turn a profit.

Tommy Maric is the manager of TopPayingKeywords.com. TopPayingKeywords.com is designed to help webmasters maximize their profits using Googles Adsense program. Through extensive research, TopPayingKeywords.com continues to develop up to date databases of the most popular keywords and their accompanying prices. For more information, please visit http://www.toppayingkeywords.com.tommy@toppayingkeywords.com