Till now, Microsoft Dynamics Team has released 4 versions of this CRM GP Adapter:

1. CRM Adapter Base Version – GP 10 & CRM 4

Details of this release can be read by clicking the above link. There is a terrific list of FAQ and much needed information. As the title says, it’s the base version and did what it was meant to. Read all CRM fields and make it available for GP integration and vice versa.

2. CRM Adapter FP1 – GP 10 & CRM 4

Tremendous improvement with this FP1. Below are the notable ones:
2.1. CRM Custom Fields are made available for Integration Mapping.
2.2. Critical fixes pertaining to previous release.
2.3. Integration Status messages are more meaningful and logging of those messages (from GP Web Services) are comprehensive.
2.4. Picklist Synchronization Utility – We will discuss this utility as a separate topic. Trust me, this is certainly a boon to this Adapter.

3. CRM Adapter FP2 – GP 10 & CRM 4

With this release comes the power of choice (as mentioned in the release article). You can select the integration configuration between:

3.1. CRM On-Premise Integration alone.
3.2. CRM On-Premise and CRM Hosted Integration.

More technical details are clearly explained in the release article. So I have got nothing more to say.

4. CRM Adapter FP3 – GP 10 / 11 (GP2010) & CRM 4

With this release, we have got an Adapter which is Dual Compatible. It now supports GP10 / GP2010 along with CRM4 (Hosted / On Premise).

I have not implemented this version yet and am scheduling it at the earliest.

Question: Why do I have to know the history of this Adapter? I will just download the latest one, follow the instructions to implement it. What’s the big deal in that?

Answer: The first release of this Adapter was in October 2009. The FP3 release was in May 2010. Now that’s what I admire. This tool has been taken seriously by Microsoft Dynamics Dev Team and they have given us a tremendously important and easy-to-use Integration tool. People may think that I am advocating for this Tool without knowing it’s complete character. But for me, till I have seen it, it’s awesome. What you need as a basic integration between GP and CRM, scope of the integration is very well defined and quite contenting.

This article is aimed at instilling a Confidence in Consultants & Customers that this tool is certainly a good one for real-time implementations.

More to come.

VAIDY