When you invest in a data integration system, you need to make sure that it is future-proof; what I mean is that it should be able to support your organization’s needs today and in the many years to come. For example, if you have integrated Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics NAV or GP, you might be worried about the introduction of OData with Microsoft Dynamics 365. What will happen when you want to upgrade your system to 365? Well, if you are using the RapidiOnline integration solution, this should not cause you any problem.

What is OData?

OData (Open Data Protocol) is a standard protocol for creating and consuming data. The purpose of OData is to provide a protocol that is based on Representational State Transfer (REST) for create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations. OData applies web technologies such as HTTP and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to provide access to information from various programs. Microsoft initiated OData in 2007 so it is not surprising that is it become an important part of their newly released 365 solution. OData is an interesting way to integrate as it provides the following benefits:
 
•         It lets developers interact with data by using RESTful web services.
•         It provides a simple and uniform way to share data in a discoverable manner.
•         It enables broad integration across products.
•         It enables integration by using the HTTP protocol stack.

Read also: Is your data integration future-proof?

Should you worry about your integration?

Should you worry about moving to Microsoft Dynamics 365 when you have integrated your Dynamics solution (NAV, AX, or GP) with Salesforce? Well, if you are using RapidiOnline the future looks pretty good and you can expect your upgrade to go smoothly.

Simply, this is how it works within RapidiOnline: when we write to Microsoft Dynamics 365, we use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Web Services or OData. RapidiOnline supports both reading and writing of data (insert and update) using Odata. In on-premise environments (or hosted) we typically read data from the SQL database directly it's fast and RapidiOnline can make the required SQL queries;  full-blown SQL filter syntax including Select In, JOINS. In Microsoft Dynamics 365 multi tenant environments often it's not allowed to access the database directly, and that is why we read data via OData instead.

You can read more about our Salesforce – Microsoft Dynamics 365 integration by downloading our solution overview (below) or you can get all the details about how we use OData in the Rapidi Wiki pages here.

Read also: Integrate Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Read also: The future of Microsoft Dynamics integration