Whether you’re using Dynamics CRM to manage a sales process, resolve customer issues or conduct marketing campaigns, you’ve probably seen how useful it can be to attach a document to a CRM record. It’s something you can do out-of-the-box with Dynamics CRM but it has some limitations – file size caps, total storage space, accessibility – which is why we believe it’s worth integrating SharePoint with Dynamics CRM.
Logical Linking, Improved Search
It’s always easy to find your own documents but without a well-managed folder structure it can be a challenge to find documents owned by other members of your team. SharePoint integration addresses this issue in two ways.
First, it allows you to store documents where they’re most relevant, rather than in a jumble of nested folders, regardless of file type, naming convention or any of the other issues that come with shared folders. For example, for a single customer you could store quotes on the Opportunity record, price lists on the Account record and signed contracts on Contact records.
Second, the improved search feature of SharePoint makes it much easier to find the documents you need. SharePoint allows searching within .doc/x files and there are tools available to make .pdf files searchable as well.
More Space, Larger Files
By default, the upload limit for files within Dynamics CRM is 5MB. This won’t be a problem if you’re uploading Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, but PDF’s and other design files can easily get bigger than 5MB. With SharePoint integration you can upload files more than 5MB directly into the relevant SharePoint folder and access that file later via CRM.
In addition to the upload limit, Dynamics CRM Online instances only have 5GB of total storage space. You can buy more or use some common methods to manage your data, but that should never be an issue once you’re working with 1TB/user.
It’s Part of Office 365
You don’t need Office 365 to use Dynamics CRM Online and vice versa, but most of the companies we’re working with have embraced both. If you’re like them, there’s a good chance you’ve already got access to SharePoint. The integration between SharePoint Online and Dynamics CRM Online is simple and presents a specific use case, which is the key to avoiding one of those all-too-common failed SharePoint implementations.
by Cody Pierson, Prophet Business Group, GP Partner in Winnipeg
Is It Worth Integrating SharePoint and Dynamics CRM? is a post from: CRM Software Blog
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