Microsoft Dynamics Integration Guide

Zendesk Administrator

October 24, 2024 13:44

Administrative Permission Required

Administrative permission is required to access the ZiftONE Settings. For more information, contact your supplier's point of contact.

Overview

While ZiftONE can be deployed independently, integrating it with your existing infrastructure can enhance the impact and value of the total solution. To streamline integration, ZiftONE has prebuilt connectors to many third-party CRMs.

In this article, we walk you through the full setup process for integrating your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (and later) hosted on-premise and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (and later) with ZiftONE. We do not currently support MS Dynamics 365.

Before You Begin

Access to Microsoft Dynamics System Administrator or a Sales Manager with these permissions for Core Records:
- Account: Create, Read, Write
- Activity: Create, Read, Write
- Contact: Create, Read, Write
- Lead: Create, Read, Write
- Marketing List: Read
- Opportunity: Read
- Product: Read, Write
Before you begin setting up your Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration, you should be familiar with the topics covered in these articles.

Integration Steps

Click + to expand each section.

Step 1: Configure Microsoft Dynamics to Accept Leads from ZiftONE

To send leads or contacts from ZiftONE to Microsoft Dynamics, you will need to set the lead source field in Microsoft Dynamics to ZiftONE.

Log in to Microsoft Dynamics with administrative access.
Navigate to Settings > Customizations.
Select Customize the System.
In the left-hand sidebar menu, select Entities > Lead > Fields, select Field Lead Source Code.
Under Options, select the green plus sign; on the right side, change the label that says Item to ZiftONE.
Click Save and Close.
Click Publish All Customizations at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Retrieve Your Microsoft Dynamics Credentials

With the necessary permissions, log in to your Microsoft Dynamics account and retrieve your credentials. Use these credentials to complete the ZiftONE settings in Step 3: Configure CRM Settings and Setup in ZiftONE.

Log into Microsoft Dynamics.
Select Settings, select Customizations.
Select Developer Resources.
Copy the Organization Web Service URL and append a /web on the end of the URL. You will use the URL to set up the CRM Connection Settings.
If the user is part of a Windows domain, record the domain.
If the organization has a drop-down where you must choose a name, record the name.

Step 3: Configure CRM Settings and Setup in ZiftONE

To configure CRM Settings in ZiftONE, follow these steps:

In ZiftONE, navigate to Settings > CRM Settings.
Click Edit Settings next to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Complete all settings for each of these categories: General Settings, CRM Connection Settings, Usage Profile Settings, and Advanced General Options.

Microsoft Dynamics General Settings

Select a supplier from the drop-down list.
Choose whether to record new leads in the CRM as leads or as contacts.
- What you set here influences your settings in Advanced Lead Distribution Options.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connection Settings

In this section, provide your Microsoft Dynamics login credentials to your ZiftONE account. You obtained these credentials in step 2 of this guide.

Provide your CRM username. This is the username you use to log into MS Dynamics.
Provide your CRM password.
Provide your organization web service URL.
- URLs must be available outside of your firewall if installation is on premise. These URLs can be found in Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources.
Provide your OData Service URL.
If you are using NTML authentication, provide the domain of your user account.
If you choose a Dynamics Organization name to log in to through your browser, this is the name of the organization that you choose in the drop-down.
- Here, click Save and Test CRM Connection to verify your Salesforce login information and security key.

Microsoft Dynamics Usage Profile

Check Marketing Automation to synchronize leads between ZiftONE and your CRM, based on a minimum lead-score threshold that you determine. You can also have opportunities generated in your CRM with leads sent back to the supplier.

To configure your marketing automation profile settings, scroll down and click Advanced Marketing Automation Options. Provide the following information:
- Contacts
  - Check Pull Contacts to pull contact lists created in your CRM into ZiftONE as a contact list.
- Leads
  - Check Synchronize Marketing Automation Leads and events will always be synced and the lead status will always be pulled.
  - Set a minimum lead score threshold. Leads generated through ZiftONE marketing activities that are sent into your CRM must exceed this threshold before they will be created and updated in your CRM. We suggest you start at ZiftONE's default score of 50.
  - Decide if you want ZiftONE to perform lead field updates in your CRM. For example, if a lead submits a form with a phone number different from the number you have for that lead in your CRM, this setting allows ZiftONE to automatically update the phone number in your CRM.
- Opportunities
  - Check Opportunities originating from Marketing Activity leads to pull opportunities from your CRM that originate from distributed leads sent into the CRM from ZiftONE.
Check Lead Distribution to receive leads from your supplier directly in your CRM and report back to the supplier on the status of those leads and related opportunities. Through this profile, ZiftONE pushes leads from the supplier directly into your CRM. The settings you select permit ZiftONE to pull back updates on those leads and any opportunities.

To configure your lead distribution profile settings, scroll down and click Advanced Lead Distribution Options. Provide the following information:
- Leads
  - Check Synchronize Supplier Leads to create new leads as either leads or contacts in your CRM based on the Record Leads As setting you set in General Settings. New leads will always be created and include all information along with all marketing events.
  - Decide if you want to allow ZiftONE to perform lead field updates in your CRM. As lead information is updated in your CRM, it will be provided to your supplier, including events and activities, lead status, and other profile and custom field information.
- Opportunities
  - Check Opportunities with a contact matching a lead within ZiftONE to pull opportunities from your CRM that have a contact that matches a distributed lead by email address.

Microsoft Dynamics Advanced General Options

Leads
- Lead Event Types
  - Select the lead event types to update in your CRM. We can update email open, email click, email unsubscribe, web plugin view, web plugin click, form submission, telequalification event, SMS delivered, SMS click, supplier event, and link conversion.
    
    The data from ZiftONE appears in the Notes and Activities fields in your CRM. We can pull the following data from your CRM: subject, activity type, activity status, priority and due date for each event.
Campaigns
- Create Campaigns in CRM
  - Enable this to send campaign details from ZiftONE into your CRM. When campaigns are updated in ZiftONE from your supplier or from other sources, they are updated in your CRM based on the Campaign Send Data Level setting.
- Campaign Send Data Level
  - Once the Create Supplier Campaigns in CRM is enabled, campaign details sync from ZiftONE into your CRM. When campaigns are updated in ZiftONE from your supplier or from other sources, they are updated in your CRM based on the Campaign Send Data Level setting option that you choose.

Step 4: Turn the Integration on in ZiftONE

Your Microsoft Dynamics integration is active when you turn the integration on in ZiftONE.

Make sure you clicked Save after completing all settings in Step 3.

To turn on your Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration in ZiftONE, follow these steps:

In the Settings > CRM Settings view, find Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the list of CRMs.
Next to the name of the CRM, click On.

If Microsoft Dynamics or ZiftONE experience any connection errors, an error message will appear under the Microsoft Dynamics information telling you what actions to take.

About Microsoft Dynamics and ZiftONE Integration

Click + to expand each section.

How Do ZiftONE and Microsoft Dynamics Work Together?

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows users to accept or reject leads directly within the CRM.
Distributed leads will sync with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM whether or not they have been accepted in ZiftONE or within the notification email.
Distributed leads will sync with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM almost immediately after being distributed by the supplier. Other data will update nightly.
If the Microsoft Dynamics CRM is connected to ZiftONE, and lead distribution is selected with CRM settings, the default lead owners will still continue to receive lead notification emails.

We recommend that suppliers choose a single method of lead management—email, ZiftONE, or CRM.

How to Sync a Contact List from Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Syncing the contact list between Microsoft Dynamics and ZiftONE can save you time on data entry and may improve lead follow-up time.

Contact lists may be created by syncing your CRM with ZiftONE. The syncing process requires that each contact have an email address. Contact lists are updated on a nightly basis.

ZiftONE is able to sync a pre-segmented list of leads or contacts from Microsoft Dynamics. To sync contact lists, follow these steps:

Set up a CRM Integration with Microsoft Dynamics.
Log in to Microsoft Dynamics.
Select Marketing in the bottom left.
Select Marketing Lists.
Select New in the upper left.
Give the list a name. Choose the Member Type of Lead or Contact. Do not choose Account.
Choose the Type—either Static or Dynamic.
1. Static lists are populated once with a specific list of individuals.
2. Dynamic lists will automatically update based on new leads/contacts coming into the CRM or existing leads/contacts having information changed. If you choose a dynamic list, when creating the list in ZiftONE, you should choose to Keep list in sync with CRM Leads.
Select Save in the upper left.
Select Marketing List Members in the menu on the left.
Select Manage Members from the upper left.
Click Select and add as many criteria as necessary to segment the list. This can be from any information associated to the leads/contacts in Microsoft Dynamics such as city, status, country, sales status, and many more.
Select Find to see who the list will contain.
Select Use Query once you have completed your segmentation.

About ZiftONE Leads in Microsoft Dynamics

Once Auto-pull leads/contacts from CRM is enabled, ZiftONE will begin importing all leads with an email address from Microsoft Dynamics on a nightly basis.
All leads or contacts that are sent from ZiftONE to Microsoft Dynamics will set the lead source field to ZiftONE.
Leads that exceed the lead score threshold, typically set at 50, will be sent on a nightly basis to Microsoft Dynamics.
Web click, web view, and/or email open activities will be created as contact/lead marketing events in ZiftONE on a nightly basis.
Leads will include all standard lead contact fields such as name, address, title, etc.
Marketing activities from ZiftONE will be on the Notes page if you have selected CRM Settings > Advanced Lead Distribution Options > Send customer fields into the Notes.
Leads will be matched to existing Leads in Microsoft Dynamics based on the email address. Once a lead has been sent into Microsoft Dynamics, it exists in Microsoft Dynamics. None of the standard information will be updated or modified in any way; only new marketing activities will be added.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not have web services that allow ZiftONE to pull contacts. If you choose to set up your ZiftONE account to record leads as contacts (as opposed to recording them as leads), you will not be able to pull contacts from Salesforce into your ZiftONE account. See Settings > Microsoft Dynamics > General Settings > Record Leads in CRM for how your system is set up.