Importing Data into the MSCRM Application - Part 2

There are several data exchanges for bringing data into MS CRM periodically or just having it access external data storage. Based on your business needs the best approach for data migration should be determined:

1.    Native MSCRM Imports & Data Migration Manager can be used when the data load is less and business logic is minimal. This can be used for one time migration and for periodic end user imports.

2.    Custom application tools can be used when the data load is moderate and to accommodate the business logic through extension.  This will be used when the number of entity objects is less in number for first time and ongoing migrations. These tools can be automatically started via a job scheduler.

3.    SSIS can be used when the data load is huge and to accommodate the business logic through extension. This will be used when the number of entity objects is more in number and for during the first time and ongoing migrations. The SSIS jobs will be created and scheduled to run for the day to day migration. 

InfoStrat, a Microsoft Federal Partner that does a lot of IT consultation to U.S. government has published a white paper on Data Migration & Systems Integration for MS CRM last month. You can access it here. It evaluates some widely used tools for specific customer considerations of data migration and systems integrations: the Biz Talk Server, Scribe, Simego Data Synchronization Studio, among others.

You can utilize a service best suited for your needs especially if you need to consolidate data from multiple sources, cleanse it, transform it and load it into the MSCRM. The most common data migration functionalities desired by most customers but not limited to, are:

• Cleanse the data to match the data with CRM entity objects
• Creation of data maps for entity objects
• Data mapping of source objects with MSCRM entity objects.
•  Duplication rule for entity objects during data import.
• Implementation of functional business rules during the imports.
• Microsoft supported way of associating the relationship between entity objects during the migration.
• Automated jobs for day to day integration.
•  Auto association of CRM owners with the respective CRM entity records during the imports.

You will be completing the task of importing sample data into the test environments, designed per you customer’s data requirements during this 'Design' phase.

Update:

This sample data import also assumes the import of business units, users, teams to the MS CRM application. Besides, Email router or Outlook configurations will make sense only when you have some sample data in your application though we saw them in the 'Analysis' Phase to review all the installation related configurations together.
My friend Andy Schultz explains the CRM Security Model thoroughly and how you can stretch its capabilities to work for your business situation, in his blog here. Kudos to his storytelling writing style!:)