Connector for CRM & NAV Contacts/Accounts Links

n.topalovn.topalov Member Posts: 26
edited 2013-06-18 in Dynamics CRM
Hello,
Currently we are integrating CRM 2011 with NAV 2009 R2 using dynamics connector last version (released feb this year)

Everything works find with the integration, however (maybe because I am more NAV developer) I am facing some concept questions coming to me, relating Customers/Accounts & Contacts and how to link them. In a standard sales activity dealing with CRM what should come first and what should be in NAV.

Example could be:
1. Creating Contact in CRM - it will be moved to NAV
2. After some sales activity we decide to make this contact as customer first in CRM (from wining some opportunity or manually) - Which is best way to create the account (customer) in CRM so it can be linked with the contact? Account comes to NAV ?
3. What changes should be done in CRM in order the link between customer & contact to stay in NAV ? What should we have at the end in NAV ?

My questions are more global and I would like to know how is usually do and which are best CRM practice. I will appropriate any suggestions and real experiance.

Thank you in advance !

Comments

  • n.topalovn.topalov Member Posts: 26
    Just to clarify a lit a bit and give another example...

    1. I create contact in CRM - it is moved as a contact type person to NAV
    2. Contact become account in CRM. I suspect the link in CRM stay with the field Parent customer in contact - the account it is moved as customer to NAV.

    So in NAV we will have 1 contact of type person and one customer. But they won't be linked with the Contact Buissiness Relation table. And what about contact of type company in NAV. Shouldn't every customer have a contact of type company in NAV.

    Thank you in advance!
  • StarkStark Member Posts: 39
    Hi,
    Here is how it's usually work:
    Let's say you got your new prospective Customer:
    Company - Contoso
    Contact person - Stark

    In CRM you create:
    1. Account "Contoso" with type "Prospective Customer"
    2. Contact "Stark"
    3. Add "Stark" as primary Contact to "Contoso"

    Please note, when you create account and contact in CRM, they will not sync to NAV automatically, you have to include then in sync process manually when it will need ("Submit" button on Contact and Account Cards)

    So, at this stage you have just potential Customer in CRM which not exist in NAV.
    About Contact synchronization - since your company using CRM, are you really sure that you need to sync Contact to NAV? Usually nobody care about them except salesreps and it's useless info for ERP.

    When Account changed from prospective to real (after some opportunities), all you need - just "Submit" this Account in CRM, so new Customer will be created in NAV and Account type should be changed from "Prospective" to "Customer".

    Don't forget, NAV has own "CRM" module, where Contacts located (Accounts is there too - just Contacts with type "Organization"). If you're using CRM and going to sync with NAV, this mean that you are not going to use NAV "CRM" module, so I would not recommend establish Contacts sync to mix MS CRM and NAV CRM - no benefits but more head ache.

    In short, you should have separated data:
    MS CRM - All Accounts(prospective and real) and Contacts
    NAV - All Customer (real)

    cheers,
    Konstantin
    http://nav-connector.com/ - blog about Dynamics Connector
  • n.topalovn.topalov Member Posts: 26
    Hello Konstantin,
    Thank you very much for the reply. Your answer helps a lot and give me orientation about standard way of the procedure.

    About the contacts sync - unfortunately we have to use it since we use contact table in NAV as a primary data for other stuffs as Web Portal & E-Shop (store user info).

    So now we have to decide whether we need to keep connection between customer & contact (via Contact Business Relation table) when sync by the connector. Also if we need to have both customer & contact of type company in NAV.

    If yes - we should write some custom code, maybe in the integration web pages in NAV.

    Correct me if I am wrong or you have some other suggestion.

    Appreciate your answer very much.

    10x
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