MS Dynamics-CRM intigration with Sharepoint 2010 - Key Points

We had  inquiry from one of our client for dynamic workflow development task.I did some research on this and come to the conclusion that its very time consuming to provide the tool for creating dynamic workflow using graphical workflow designer for sharepoint. There are some third party tools  available in market which are closer to this requirement but not enough to fulfill the exact requirement. After some more finding  and discussing with some SMEs I decided to advise the client to use the MS dynamics graphical workflow designer tool which comes with MS dynamics CRM 2011 and MS Dyanamics can also be integrated with share point 2010.While doing this I also explore what the key points that organization can achieve by doing the share point 2010 and MS Dynamics integration. And those are explained as below.

MS dynamics is designed in such way that it tightly get integrated with share point 2010 in case of the document management.When we install Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SharePoint Server integration is enabled by default with basic document management features like...

• Document version tracking :History tracking
• Integration of SharePoint with Outlook such that a document can be saved directly from mailbox
• Collaborative tools: Improve team productivity
• Security :content integrity
• Well known windows user interface for quick speedup
• Workflow : Easy management

Graphical Workflow Designer is a powerful, flexible and windows- based tool which not only offers you the ability of designing your workflows graphically, but also provides you with the capability of seeing the implemented workflow and tracking each step separately in a graphical setting

Below are some features pointed out which make ease of workflow implementation.  

• See your processes in a grid with the capability of searching in that view and changing the view itself.
• Assign, delete, Activate or deactivate the workflows or dialogs.
• Create a new empty workflow (In GWV. you can only create a new workflow or dialog but you cannot add, delete or change any steps. These capabilities are only available in GWD).
• View your workflows and Dialogs in a graphical environment.
• Zoom in and out the display page.
• View your process with a full screen display.
• Print your processes (The print option is not available in the trial version).
• View each step’s properties.
• View and change each workflow’s properties( i.e. workflow name, scope and etc.,)
• Open the workflow you are working on or other workflows in MSCRM.
• View implemented workflows and dialogs and track the progress of each step in a graphical setting with the colorful display of steps that were successful (green color) and those that failed (red color).
• Is completely Web-based and users can work with it from inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• View your workflows and Dialogs in a graphical environment from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (Open in GWD button on CRM