How and What if… Salesforce – Microsoft Dynamics integration solution Q&A

So you have decided to integrate Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics. You have done some research and realized that there are several options out there that can cover your needs. You’ve read about these solutions, but remain a few questions. In this article, I’ve tried to gather some of the questions I get when talking with companies like yours. We could probably add many others to the list, and by all means, get in touch with me if you have specific concerns or questions. I’ll happily add them to this list.

How do you ensure secure data transfers?

Data transferred with RapidiOnline is SSL encrypted and transferred in binary format, packed and compressed by the RapidiConnector. The Rapidi Connector is a unique technology that ensures data communication between RapidiOnline and your on-site systems is secure.

Deployment of RapidiOnline and our RapidiConnector is straightforward and simple. Besides opening one outbound port, you don’t need to change anything in your network or firewalls to deploy RapidiOnline and the RapidiConnector. No inbound ports need to open in your firewall. This ensures the highest level of security and also makes it very easy to get started.

This ensures not only secure, but also fast data communication. Our encryption follows the newest TLS standard, and all data is processed end-point to end-point in memory directly, with no intermediate storage. No customer data is stored on any Rapidi server. Any sensitive configuration data is only stored on an encrypted-basis.

Read also: Data security: does data integration put your data at risk?

How often do I need to transfer data?

How often you need data transfers depends very much on your business profile and processes, as well as how often you update data in your systems. With RapidiOnline, you can set transfers according to your subscription. The intervals can be daily, hourly, every 10 minutes, 1 minute, or triggered to match your company’s specific needs.

What if a field gets updated simultaneously in Salesforce and in Microsoft Dynamics?

I get this question quite often. Frankly, the likelihood of two people updating simultaneously the same field in both Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, for example the address or phone number, with conflicting information is quite unlikely. But it could happen. If you are using RapidiOnline, you do not need to fear this kind of conflict. You can decided which system is the master of the record, and there will not be any conflict.

What if I am not sure what data transfers my company needs?

With today’s technologies, setting up Salesforce – Microsoft Dynamics integration projects is a seamless experience, one that can be done without changing a single line of code in your programs. No need to fear that your company will lack bandwidth to implement the integration thoroughly. For example, in most cases, when we implement a Salesforce – Microsoft Dynamics integration for our clients, the entire work is usually done within 3-8 man days in total depending on the scope, so it’s much easier to implement than most people think. In fact, the trickiest part is probably to decide what you should integrate! Therefore, I have collected a list of the most common Salesforce – Microsoft Dynamics integrations:

1. Account-customer
2. Contact-contact
3. Product-item
4. Item price-product price
5. Quote-order
6. Sales order-sales order
7. Sales history (invoices and credit memos)
8. Payments

You can read more about these integrations here.
With RapidiOnline you get all of the integrations from 1-7 as out-of-the-box standard, customizable integrations with an implementation effort of typically 4-8 man days depending of scope and need for additional transfers or customizations.

How do I build the best data integration architecture?

A company can easily have a need for up to 10-20 integrations between different systems, and I often get asked what the most logical way to make these systems synchronize is. How they can perform the best data integration architecture. It could, of course, be appealing just to integrate pretty much all components with each other, but this is not really manageable in the longer run.

I’ve been working on creating a generic reference framework for mid-market companies that want to have a high performing system setup, at the lowest possible cost. Usually, I start by distinguishing primary systems from secondary systems. Primary systems are operational systems which carry business processes. Secondary systems are feeding information into the primary systems. You can read more about the full approach in this article where I have collected advice and best practices. It is a good starting point for defining your data integration strategy.

Read also: Salesforce-ERP integration: evaluate your options

Read also: What should your salesforce.com - Microsoft Dynamics integration look like?