NEW CRM to GP Templates

Great things take time, and many of our partners have been waiting for the new SmartConnect templates for integrating CRM and GP. You are now able to roll out a fully working, ready to go, two way, real time, CRM to GP integration in just 2 hours.

Now before you get too excited, that 2 hours assumes that you have CRM, GP and SmartConnect all installed and working perfectly (and use the World Online!!). The complexities that may turn 2 hours into 2 days lie around redefining the data source to your environment, setting security and troubleshooting other environmental nuances.

The templates contain 34 SmartConnect maps and 8 CRM customizations. Why so many you may well ask? This is as a result of more than 400 implementations and the knowledge our customers have brought to the process. The primary template functionality is real time account integration together with Order integration CRM to GP, and Invoice integration from GP to CRM.

Knowing GP as well as we do at eOne we have taken the time to make sure the templates will fit in the real world, and work for our customers. We have provided customizations to CRM that were much needed to provide a truly streamlined integration with GP. Here are a few of the things we have done to help CRM and GP work together better:

• maps that keep the payment terms in GP synchronized with CRM, as there is no point having sales people invent new terms in CRM that do not exist in your accounts system.
• Adding a salesperson entity to CRM which is populated from GP, and allowing this salesperson to be linked with specific CRM users.
• Having custom tabs for an accounts 30,60,90 aged trial balance reports.
• Having custom tabs for item quantity information

The key workflow for the templates is as follows:

• All master information will be updated real time as it changes in GP, but can also be run manually for initial data loads. For Example: Payment Terms, Shipping methods, salespeople, Unit of Measure, Pricing, Currency's, Exchange Rates etc.
• Inventory and pricing is managed in GP and pushed to CRM when updated.
• Customers created in GP are pushed to CRM real time. Accounts created in CRM are pushed to GP only in the relationship is set to Customer.
• Orders processed in CRM are pushed to GP when the create invoice button in CRM is pushed. If the Customer does not exist in GP at this point it will be created along with all its addresses.
• The CRM order screen is then disabled (grayed out) and this order cannot be edited.
• The order fulfillment happens in GP and when the order is transferred to invoice and then posted - the invoice record is pushed back to CRM.

What can be changed in the Templates? Everything. The templates are a starting point for an integration and can be modified in any way you need. If you need updated order information pushed back to CRM every hour - before it is fulfilled you can. If you only process invoices in CRM (no orders) then that is possible too. If you need to push data into separate GP databases - np problems.

We anticipate that a very small number of customers will use the templates without modifying them, and that is not because they are bad templates but rather that CRM and GP can be configured in so many different ways. This means it is important to document the needs for a specific integration, match them against what the template functionality and identify the things that need changing.

To learn more and download the templates for use

Not all our partners want to learn CRM or SmartConnect in detail. This is where you can call on us to help. The eOne consulting team are available to help you make the changes you need. Whether it be a simple map change to add some more fields, or a complex set of custom integrations to meet a customer's needs we are able to assist with consulting resources. Who better to get involved than the team who wrote the software and know it inside and out. For consulting assistance please contact our resident SmartConnect Guru Chris Dew