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Youngland QuickBooks Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector provides a real-time integration for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Intuit QuickBooks. It has been developed by Youngland Computing Inc. to seamlessly integrate key data across the two platforms.
Youngland QuickBooks Microsoft CRM Connector adheres to software development standards and guidelines established by both Intuit and Microsoft under their respective platforms to promote reliability and upgradeability across versions.
Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector allows customer, item, and price information from QuickBooks to be transferred regularly and spontaneously to Microsoft CRM, giving you access to up-to-date information from QuickBooks. For example, salespeople can enter orders in Microsoft CRM using customer data from Microsoft CRM or Intuit QuickBooks.
This document covers design aspects and features that will help you:
Traditionally, there have been three approaches to the integration problem.
Manual integration is the simplest approach. It is also the most expensive over time. A sales document might only take 5 additional minutes to enter it into two systems, but over the lifetime of the software this can become an enormous labor expense. Manual integration is also prone to clerical error which not only costs time to re-enter the data but also requires time to correct the erroneous data and any problems that may have emerged as a result of it. Finally, manual integration is not time sensitive. Business processes may be held up while waiting for manual integration to occur. As volume increases, the problem becomes more and more visible.
Offline integration resolves many integration issues. Clerical errors and labor costs are reduced. But time sensitivity issues are not resolved. You are still left waiting until the integration occurs. Worse still, there is no way to know if the data being entered in one system will be valid in the other until the integration runs – which may be after large volumes of it has been entered.
Real-Time integration is the gold standard. As soon as data is entered in one system it synchronizes with the other system. Immediate action can be taken on time sensitive data. Problems in user-input in one system become apparent immediately, and avoid time wasted propagating the error. It is the most seamless of the three methods.
Disparate systems not only struggle with the issue of integration, but also of synchronization. In the past, the answers to enterprise application integration (EAI) problems were often complicated and costly. Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector aims to provide an answer for the integration problem using a real-time model. Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector, combined with innovative solutions, provide the ability to easily automate and streamline the flow of a company’s internal business data. With Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector, business processes can be put in place at costs far lower than would be possible by paying developers to create custom communication applications. Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector enables internal data exchange that is more accurate and efficient than can be achieved by manual processes.
Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector uses a queuing system to integrate the two systems. A queue based system provides a scalable solution to multi-user environments. Without a queue, each additional user logged into Microsoft Dynamics CRM or QuickBooks would dramatically increase the resources used by the integration. Changes made to integrated data in either system would have to be processed in parallel. Under a queue system, changes are processed in serial on a first-come, first-serve basis. This ensures that adding additional users or volume does not require a directly proportional increase in resources.
Under normal circumstances changes will be available in the other system in 3 to 60 seconds.
The primary service of Youngland QuickBooks CRM integration is to provide ongoing synchronization of data between Intuit QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Youngland QuickBooks CRM Integration also offers the following additional services:
A set of administration tools allows end-users to configure which data should be moved between the systems, and business-logic settings.
Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector works by establishing a mapping system between linked entities. For example, the customer entity in QuickBooks can be mapped to the account entity in Microsoft Dynamics. With this mapping in place, changes to each entity can be synchronized.
Within each entity, specific fields are chosen to be mapped. By default Youngland QuickBooks CRM Connector selects the most commonly used fields to synchronize.
Youngland QuickBooks CRM Integration is built on top of Microsoft .NET Technology. The integration supports the synchronization of data between business applications by providing the following:
The process begins when an event occurs in one of the two systems. For example, after an account has been created, Microsoft Dynamics CRM triggers an event to signify the account has been changed. The Youngland QuickBooks CRM Integration monitors this event, reads the changes and publishes the data changes to a Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ). The data is sent out as a message in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.
To publish data out of QuickBooks, a slightly different mechanism is used. This process also uses Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ); however the data change event triggered by QuickBooks is monitored from each QuickBooks User workstation and on the Server (users operating QuickBooks via Remote Connection or physically sitting in front of the Server).
The queue handles the communication between different computers (workstations and the servers). A message published in a Domain-level queue is accessible across the network. This is how a change made on Sally’s laptop eventually makes it way to the appropriate server.
In summary, data publishing occurs differently in QuickBooks than in Microsoft Dynamics CRM because of the differing architectures. The result, however, is the same: Data changes are published to a message queue which can be accessed across the network.
Once the data has been dropped off onto the queue, QuickBooks or Microsoft CRM itself no longer plays a role in the integration. That is, QuickBooks or Microsoft CRM considers the action as “fire and forget”. Youngland’s Connector utilizes an integration engine and a message receiving system. This receiving system is used to pick up data from the queue.
After the pickup the data off the queue, the Youngland Integration preprocessor analyzes it. The preprocessor determines whether it needs more data from the source system and, if so, queries for the necessary records.
An example would be the creation of a new account in Microsoft CRM. The account is sent out to the queue, where the preprocessor picks up and then examines the data. The preprocessor determines that it needs all the addresses related to that account and queries back into Microsoft CRM for all of the addresses. Once all information has been obtained by the system, the message is sent by the Integration Engine.
The Integration Engine and data mapping are the heart of Youngland QuickBooks CRM Integration. It is crucial to the integration, because it is within the engine and mapping that much of the transformation occurs. It consists three pieces of information: one outbound document (an XML file), one inbound document (also an XML file), and a XSL file map or object model based map mechanism that dictates how the outbound document is transformed into the inbound document.
The integration to external applications is known as “silent”. That is, every time an order or invoice moves to another system (QuickBooks or Microsoft CRM), the user is not notified that the order is being sent to another system. The silent integration is by design; the user does not need to be concerned that data is moving to the other system. However, Youngland recognizes that need for a mechanism that will enable users to verify the status of those entities that have been integrated.
To accomplish this verification on all entities that can be integrated, Youngland Integration provides a Console Administration Application. The Console displays internal integration logging messages. Every action taken by the integration leaves a footprint in this log. It is useful for detecting errors and verifying integration actions.
Last Updated: Thursday, February 16, 2012; at 12:43:37 PM
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