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Dynamics CRM: Portal Capabilities

Answered Dynamics CRM: Portal Capabilities

  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:40 AM
     
     
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    Hello Community,

    I have a project scenario where there are more than 100 system users in that around 10 would be CRM users and rest are users who work outside the company premises in different locations (80 users). Those 80 users do not need to have the entire CRM access whereas their need is to create/update/view and see reports for only 1 entity or if possible one or more entities (Ex: Contacts).

    In this case, buying 10 CRM users license is quite affordable for my client but not for all the rest of the users since the number is more and moreover they do not need all the functionalities which CRM offers.

    I need some expert advice on how do I go about this?

    Some of the options which we taught of are,

    • Customer Portal
    • Partner Portal (OR)
    • A Custom Asp.net web application

    My client also has an External Connector license for Dynamics CRM 2011.

    Thanks in Advance!

    Cheers, Francis Edwin

    My Blog: http://astutecrm.wordpress.com

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/astutecrm

    • Edited by Edwin2win Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:41 AM
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  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:20 AM
     
     
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    If you customer already has the external connector license you should try to customize the customer portal to fit their needs. This should be much easier than building your own custom web application portal.

    Carsten Groth http://carstengroth.wordpress.com Microsoft Dynamics Certified Technology Specialist

     
  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 12:40 PM
     
     
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    Carsten,

    Thanks for your suggestion, is the customer portal solution fully customizable? 

    Cheers, Francis Edwin My Blog: http://astutecrm.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/astutecrm/

     
  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:32 PM
     
     
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    Most Parts are customizable - some are not to beware of braking some functions

    Carsten Groth http://carstengroth.wordpress.com Microsoft Dynamics Certified Technology Specialist

     
  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:04 PM
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    The External Connector licenses only non-employees, for example, customers and partners who access CRM data through a portal. You can't use it to license users or anyone who is an employee or acts like an employee (contractors, consultants, temporary staff, agents, etc.).

    The licensing options in your scenario are to purchase:

    • Full CALs
    • Limited CALs
    • Employee Self-Service CALs

    You can find a summary description of each CAL here: http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/on-premises.

    Note that the External Connector and ESS CALs allow you to build a portal that provides access to CRM data, but no portal software is provided. You can download the Portal Accelerator from the Dynamics Marketplace and use that, buy one or build your own. Building the portal and licensing its use are separate.

    Neil Benson, CRM Addict and MVP at Slalom Consulting. Find me on Twitter. Join over 20,000 other CRM professionals on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM group on LinkedIn.

    • Marked As Answer by Edwin2win Thursday, May 24, 2012 7:22 AM
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  • Thursday, May 24, 2012 7:22 AM
     
     
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    Thanks Neil, that answered my question. I'll go with procuring the ESS CAL's. 

    Cheers, Francis Edwin My Blog: http://astutecrm.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/astutecrm/