Thank you to Shannon Mullins, Chief Revenue Officer of Arbala Systems; Microsoft MVP of Business Applications, for this guest blog post.

The buying and selling process has been flipped on its head in the last 18 months, making it more important than ever that sales and marketing have visibility into other aspects of the business. Beyond the unification and collaboration this creates, putting these functions at the center of your business and Dynamics technology strategy supports a more seamless customer journey, sales process and funnel nurture process. Tactically, tailoring your Dynamics solutions to support these functions could mean greater visibility and synchronization of customer lists, pricing lists, orders and items, quotes and more.

To foster this unification and visibility, it is always important to keep in mind integrations with other systems, such as CRM systems like Dynamics 365 for Sales, when configuring ERP systems. These integrations are made so much easier with the Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 Platform. Using the power of the Microsoft Power Platform and Dataverse, Dynamics 365 has a built-in integration between the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (ERP) and Dynamics 365 for Sales (CRM Platforms).

With a built-in connector, which uses automatically created permissions and roles, the Dataverse connector can allow users to sync records all the way from quote to cash, including contacts, customers, items, products and more. Recent improvements to the connector include automatically creating the service account permissions and connections and running the services through job queue entries inside Business Central. Users of the tool can also choose to automatically create orders or have them created manually inside BC, using the Dynamics 365 Sales Order list page. Both options give a lot of room for improvements in integrations.

If the Dataverse tool seems like the next best step for your business, you can follow the set up steps on the two windows inside of Business Central:

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connection Setup

2. Dataverse Connection Setup Window

Tests for the set up and configuration should be done and are recommended to be done in a sandbox before moving to production. For more information about the Dataverse connector, please visit: Integrating with Dynamics 365 Sales – Business Central | Microsoft Docs

Key takeaway: A best practice for Dynamics users is to leverage all the relevant integrations available to make business operations and customer experiences as seamless and efficient as possible. The best place to start is by evaluating any pain points your organization is feeling internally and then working to alleviate any challenges with appropriate integrations. The right integrations will boost collaboration, visibility and efficiency company-wide.

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Shannon Mullins is the Chief Revenue Officer of Arbala Systems and a Microsoft MVP of Business Applications. She has over 20 years’ experience across a wide variety of disciplines and products, including accounting, information technology, professional services, insurance, healthcare, mortgage lending, distribution, manufacturing, project management and deployment and implementation of CRM and ERP systems. Shannon has a deep understanding of the functional aspects of projects, process automation and system design, and the reporting needs and requirements for complex ERP systems. Shannon is a former controller and accountant and holds a master’s degree in Accountancy. She currently resides in Nashville, TN and is a Microsoft conference speaker and presenter for Dynamics Communities and Microsoft.