How to Easily Manage Documents with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Integration

One Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 feature that can really improve productivity and streamline your business processes is its native integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Many people have questions about exactly how this works and how it could help them.  So, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team released a helpful video demo that gives a quick overview of Dynamics CRM 2011 and SharePoint 2010 integration.

In case you can’t view the video right now, or would simply prefer to read about Dynamics CRM and SharePoint integration, I thought I’d give you a synopsis of what’s covered.

The demo begins with showing how easy it is to add a new document to the SharePoint repository from within Dynamics CRM 2011.  To do this:

Click “Add” as shown in this screenshot.

Then click, “Browse” and select the document you’d like to upload.

Once you’ve found the file you want to add, click it, then click “Open” and “OK” At this point the file will be uploaded and accessible via SharePoint.  The beauty of this feature is that it offers an easy way for you to share documents with others in your organization that do not have access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

You may be asking yourself, “What if I upload a document directly into SharePoint?  Will it be accessible through Dynamics CRM 2011?  Yes, absolutely!  Just upload the document as you normally would.  Then, go back to Dynamics CRM, and you’ll notice the new document has been added to the top of the SharePoint document repository list, as is shown in the screenshot below.

If you’d like to take advantage of this seamless integration between Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, there are a few quick steps you’ll need to follow to set it up.  These are:

1. Click “Settings” in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2.  Then select “Document Management Settings”

3.  Then, you can create a SharePoint document folder simply by adding a URL and selecting the entities that you’d like to appear in that folder.

4.  Once you’ve done that, click “Next” and on the screen that follows, you will choose a folder structure based on whatever entity makes the most sense for you.

5.  Click “Next”

6.  Click “OK”

7.   Finally, click “Finish” to create the new SharePoint document folder.

This is just a quick overview of some of the SharePoint integration features available in Dynamics CRM.  As you can imagine, the tight relationship between these two systems makes it much easier for your team to collaborate, regardless of which of these Microsoft programs they are more comfortable working in, SharePoint or Dynamics CRM.

If you’d like to learn more about Dynamics CRM and the many ways it can help make your organization more productive, contact us today!