Link to CRM tables from external application

[edwardwill]

My client has a mission-critical application that was written in
Microsoft Access sitting on a SQL Server database. It is basically a
Quotation management system. The client wishes to install CRM and I'm
investigating how to migrate the Customer data from their Quotation
system to CRM. I'm pretty confident I can do this without too much
trouble (having identified the relevant tables in CRM - AccountBase
and ContactBase). However, I then want to link directly to the CRM
tables from within the Access application. Normally I'd do this by
setting up a DSN and using it to pull in links to the required
tables. I've set up a DSN to connect to the CRM data, but when I try
to link to the tables they don't appear in the list of available
tables.

Has anyone any experience of using ODBC to link external applications
to CRM?

Thanks

Edward

 

[Rob Mottram]

There is no problems reading data from the CRM database using ODBC, but you
can not update any data that way. It is not supported, and could easily cause
issues.

Once you have created and ODBC connection to the correct table, you should
have a large number of SQL Views starting filtered..... These are the views
you should access. So filteredaccount is the view for the account information.

I have done this a number of times with out any issues.

Have a look in the CRM SDK for filtered views.

Hope this helps

Rob

 

[edwardwill]

There is no problems reading data from the CRM database using ODBC, but you
can not update any data that way. It is not supported, and could easily cause
issues.

Once you have created and ODBC connection to the correct table, you should
have a large number of SQL Views starting filtered..... These are the views
you should access. So filteredaccount is the view for the account information.

I have done this a number of times with out any issues.

Have a look in the CRM SDK for filtered views.

Hope this helps

Certainly does - many thanks!

Edward

 

[Larry Linson]

There are lots of Customer Relationship Management packages. There's no
guarantee, unless the vendor of the CRM package makes it, that you'll be
able to access their data tables from Access via ODBC or other protocol.

And, without even the name of the CRM package you are using, it's really
going to be difficult for anyone to offer suggestions.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

 

[ChrisC]

My opinion only...
Sounds like this is a migration route to just using MSCRM, and a
change management issue.
Perhaps you should rather consider a fast switch-over after ensuring
MSCRM has all the functions and reports you need.
Likely to be cheaper and more robust in the longer term.
Chris
http://mscrm4u.blogspot.com

 

[edwardwill]

There are lots of Customer Relationship Management packages.  There's no
guarantee, unless the vendor of the CRM package makes it, that you'll be
able to access their data tables from Access via ODBC or other protocol.

And, without even the name of the CRM package you are using, it's really
going to be difficult for anyone to offer suggestions.

 Larry Linson
 Microsoft Office Access MVP

The fact that this was posted on the microsoft.public.crm group should
give you a hint.

 

[edwardwill]

My opinion only...
Sounds like this is a migration route to just using MSCRM, and a
change management issue.
Perhaps you should rather consider a fast switch-over after ensuring
MSCRM has all the functions and reports you need.
Likely to be cheaper and more robust in the longer term.
Chrishttp://mscrm4u.blogspot.com

I agree, but the Quotation package is a very feature-rich application,
and I can't see management accepting the need to migrate.

 

[Larry Linson]

If you come asking for help, you should make it easy for people to help you.

I read it in comp.databases.ms-access where you crossposted it, and am not
in the habit of going to the newsgroup header to try to figure out what
people are posting about.

Finally, condescending responses to people pointing out difficulties in your
questions aren't going to improve your chances of getting good help from
people in CDMA, should you need it in the future.

For good suggestions on effective use of newsgroups, see the FAQ for CDMA at
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm.

Larry Linson

There are lots of Customer Relationship Management packages. There's no
guarantee, unless the vendor of the CRM package makes it, that you'll be
able to access their data tables from Access via ODBC or other protocol.

And, without even the name of the CRM package you are using, it's really
going to be difficult for anyone to offer suggestions.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

The fact that this was posted on the microsoft.public.crm group should
give you a hint.