Overview
Engagement Cloud for Microsoft Dynamics is a powerful integration that enables you to synchronise data between your Engagement Cloud account(s) and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
The CRM connectivity form is used to capture the credentials that allow connectivity and also test connectivity.
When the Engagement Cloud for Dynamics connector is installed, several new entities are created and some existing entities are extended. If you’d like to know what changes are made to Dynamics as a part this integration, please do refer to this article.
Before we can proceed to provision your account(s), we ask you to complete the MS Dynamics Connectivity form which gives our engineers the essential information required to technically carry out the provisioning.
If you secure your Microsoft Dynamics CRM with a firewall, then you'll need to white-list the IP addresses given under 'Dynamics CRM connector' for the relevant region in this article.
If you are looking to learn more on the data synchronisation process between Dynamics and Engagement Cloud please refer to this article.
Non-production (Sandbox)
We do provide an Engagement Cloud Sandbox account with any new Dynamics Connector, so we’ll firstly ask you information regarding your non-production environment. Once you’ve run your tests on this environment and are ready to use a connector to your production, the CRM connectivity form for the production system needs to be completed and submitted.
The Sandbox connector can remain as long as required and could be used for on-going testing and development if required.
If you’d prefer to skip this step and directly integrate your production environment, please let your project manager know.
Customer Details
In this section of the form you’ll see the name of your company and the email address of your Digital Marketing Specialist. If any of these details are incorrect please reach out to us.
Connected Engagement Cloud Account(s)
In this section you’ll see the Account Name, Account Email Address and Account Id (s) of the Engagement Cloud Account that will be connected to your CRM, during the provisioning they will be created within Dynamics . This section of the form is not editable. If any this data is incorrect please reach out to us.
Contacts
Access to the form is restricted to only the email addresses listed as business and/or technical contacts. Any other person will NOT be able to view or edit the CRM connectivity form until they have been added.
- Business Contacts - Are the persons in your organisation that need to be informed on the progress of the integration.
- Technical Contacts - Are the persons in your organisation or your CRM consult that need to provide the technical information required to submit this connectivity form. The technical On-boarding call will be arranged with these contacts.
Enter all names, email addresses and phone numbers into the fields provided. To add additional contacts, click the 'Add business contact' or 'Add technical contact' button
Installation Requirements
In this section you will choose who is responsible for installing the managed solution and a suggested date as to when it should be installed by. The installation and setup is conducted in two parts:
- Installation of the managed solution
- Provisioning of the connected account(s)
*Provisioning normally happens within 48 to 72 business hours once this form is submitted. We will do our best to meet your suggested date, but these dates are subject to change.
During installation and provisioning, users can continue to access Dynamics and Engagement Cloud.
Installation Approach
There are two installation approaches listed:
Customer/Consultant conducts installation (standard method)
You or your CRM consultant installs the managed solution. When this option is selected, you’ll see a link to the selected downloadable package. After the managed solution is installed, and connectivity checked, the form should be submitted. Once submitted, dotdigital engineers will provision the system within 48 to 72 business hours.
The 'Connector Service Account' on the form, it is used to confirm remote connectivity and then used to get the current CRM metadata. During the provisioning we give this account the role of 'Email Campaign Connector Service (System Use only'. This role allows the account to access and update all of the entities that are used by the integration.
The provisioning of the system by dotdigital includes the following steps:
- Engagement Cloud account(s) is(are) connected
- Standard Synchronisation and Data Mappings (email address, first,last and full name) are applied.
- Synchronisation tests are conducted
- Technical on-boarding call is provided
During provisioning (usually about 40 mins) , the service account may require temporary administrator/customiser access.
dotdigital conducts installations and provisions the system
This option requires dotdigital temporary administrator/customiser access to a CRM. This Connector Service Account is used to read the current CRM metadata and existing customisations and to confirm remote connectivity.
Installation and provisioning include the following steps:
- The managed solution is imported. Changes to CRM include new entity metadata, 4 security roles, new forms, configuration data and changes to the site map to allow access to the new Email Campaign information, which is added to the Marketing section.
- Engagement Cloud account(s) are connected.
- Standard Synchronisation and Data Mappings (email address, first,last and full name) are applied.
- Synchronisation tests are conducted.
- Technical onboarding call is provided.
Suggested Installation Date
Suggest a day when you would like the installation to be performed. Provisioning normally happens within 48 to 72 business hours once this form is successfully submitted.
We will do our best to meet your suggested date, but these dates are tentative and subject to change.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Settings
Select the appropriate access method, CRM version and URLs to allow connectivity to your CRM.
Web Service Access Type
This section is used to identify how your Dynamics CRM can be accessed by the integration. You’ll see the below options available to you in the drop down:
- Microsoft CRM online
- Microsoft CRM Online (Office 365)
- Internet Facing Deployment (IFD) - If you host your own Dynamics CRM, you can use this method to connect it to the Engagement Cloud for Dynamics connector. Please refer to this article to learn more on Internet-facing deployment (best practice)
- Partner Hosted - Your organisation may not have a public-facing IFD environment and may already use a reverse proxy solution to publish internal web sites to the Internet. Please refer to this guide on how to use a reverse proxy
- Direct Access (external IP) - This approach involves your Dynamics CRM Server being directly accessible from the Internet and will use standard Windows authentication to access the CRM system. This option is not usually recommended without secure firewalls being in place and SSL connectivity. Please refer to this article on to direct web service connection via an internet connection to a public IP address (port forwarding)
Dynamics CRM Version
Choose your Dynamics version from the drop-down. To identify your organisation's Dynamics version, login in your CRM then:
- Click the “Tools/Settings” icon (upper right)
- Click “About”
- The About window displays the version
Dynamics CRM versions currently supported are:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 365
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
CRM Web Application URL
The CRM Web Application URL is the web address that is used to access your Dynamics CRM. For example, your Web Application URL might look like:
https://yourorganisationname.crm4.dynamics.com.
CRM Discovery Service
Enter your Dynamics CRM Discovery Service URL. To identify your organisations Discovery Service URL, login to your CRM then:
- Click the 'Settings' menu item
- Select Customisations
- Select Developer Resources
The integration requires a service account in Dynamics for the API interaction. Some customers use a full user license so we can assist in diagnosing issues and carry out investigations should the need occur. All CRM records created and updated by the Engagement Cloud service will be associated to this CRM user account.
In the fields provided, enter the CRM Connector Username, CRM Connector Password. The domain is only only applicable for certain connectivity types, it is visible only when it is required.
Passwords
All passwords for this user should be non-expiring, as this is an on-going service account.
Once the CRM settings and Service Account sections have values, select the Save button. This can be used at any time to establish values, no actions will be triggered when the save button is used.
After the data entered has been saved click the Fetch Organisations button to verify connectivity to the organisation.
If connectivity is successfully established the form will display the available CRM Organisations and the CRM Organisation Service URL.
Select the Click here to verify service account connectivity button. If successful a success message is displayed. If it is not successful, an information box will show where data is missing or possibly incorrect.
After the success message is displayed the form can be submitted by selecting the Submit button located at the bottom of the page.
Any Notes or special instructions should be included in the Notes / Other Consideration interface. This can include a request for call prior to any work being carried out.