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This process helps you maintain consistent and accurate data across both platforms, enabling better segmentation and personalisation.
To successfully sync your entity data from Microsoft Dynamics to Dotdigital, it's important to understand the relationship between entities and how they map to contacts, leads, or accounts. This process involves configuring the mapping so that key fields in your chosen entity appear on the corresponding contact, lead, or account records in Microsoft Dynamics. This ensures that the data is correctly linked and can be utilized effectively within Dotdigital.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
We recommend you consult your CRM administrator to identify which entities you can synchronize and determine the appropriate fields to use for your integration.
This process creates custom insight data records. Learn more in Insight data overview.
1. Choose an entity to sync
In Microsoft Dynamics, go to Settings > Email Accounts.
Select the account you want to sync data from, then select the Scheduled Sync Settings tab.
Select Insight data sync.
To set up an insight data sync, select Add new.
Expand the Entity drop-down menu, and choose the entity you would like to sync to Dotdigital.
If you want to Only sync active entities, select the check box.
If you want to Only sync entities for subscribers, select the check box.
Select Save.
2. Set entity fields
Define a contact, lead, and account field to store the insight data against in Dotdigital.
Expand the Contact, Lead, or Account field drop-down menu, and choose the fields that links your custom entity back to the contact, lead, or account entity.
To add fields to the insight data collection, expand the Entity fields drop-down menu, and choose the field you want to add. The field's data type (string, number, date, etc.) automatically pulls through to Dotdigital. Then select Add field.
Select Save.
3. Link entities (optional)
If you want, you can link additional entities. By default, the Contact, Lead, and Account fields are linked to the email address chosen in the previous step. These additional linked entities will appear as nested objects within the same insights collection.
This is useful when you want to transfer or sync important data needed for segmentation or personalisation that is not already present in the main entity you are working with. You need to specify the names of the two fields that connect the two entities. In other words, indicate which field or ID in the main entity should be linked to the corresponding field or ID in the other entity.
In the diagram above, Quotes is a related entity to opportunities. To sync those across, you must choose the fields that link them (for example, opportunityid).
To add a new link or mapping:
Select Add new.
Expand the Entity drop-down menu, then choose the entity to create a link for.
Select Save.
Expand the Link from field name drop-down menu, and choose the field that links from your source entity.
That's like 'Quotes' in the example diagram above.Expand the Link to field name drop-down menu, and choose the field that links to your destination entity.
That's like 'Opportunity' in the example diagram above.Expand the Entity fields drop-down menu, and choose the fields you want to sync.
Select Save.
To enable the sync, select the Enabled check box. Then select Save.
Understanding entity relationships
To effectively configure your synchronization, you might need to understand the relationships between entities in your Microsoft Dynamics system. For detailed information about entity relationships, see Create and edit 1 (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) relationships in Microsoft’s documentation. Alternatively, consult with your CRM administrator or development team for guidance specific to your implementation.
Example: Nested data structure in insights collection
