Microsoft CRM Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino – machinery dealership example

By Andrew Karasev

1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Alba Spectrum Technologies

IBM Lotus Notes with Domino email server is traditional document workflow management solution for large corporate business, where you need audit trail on approval cycle and decision making.  Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is very cost efficient solution to automate sales process.  It might be surprising, but we see good strata of clients who are willing to deploy and integrate both systems: MS CRM and Lotus Domino.  In our opinion these clients are balancing ERP platform risks and trying to protect and deploy investments into Lotus licenses, while deploying new and already leading CRM solution – Microsoft CRM.  In this small article we’ll give you the integration example – European division of one of the well known machinery manufacturer dealership network.

• Custom Lotus Database.  In our case client had custom database, which was designed back in the beginning of 1990^th.  Some dealers had Lotus Notes Domino 4.0 and some of them had 6.0 and 6.5.  Technical excurse – in Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 you can use Java 2 agents, and it seems to be platform independent (Microsoft Windows Server, IBM AS/400).  To synch all the dealerships – the decision was made to upgrade across the network to Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 (to be a bit conservative)
• Domino Messaging.  Obviously you have to have just one email server assigned to your url domain, and as traditionally Lotus Domino was the email server – the replacement with Microsoft Exchange 2003 (which is natural choice if you purchase Microsoft CRM) was not an option.  With Alba Spectrum Technologies MS CMR Lotus Notes Domino connector you can switch email messaging to Lotus Domino
• Lotus & MS CRM events synchronization.  IBM and Microsoft software designers designed CRM & Lotus events differently.  Second phase of the project implementation will synchronize appointments, calendar events, etc. between Lotus and MS CRM.
• MS CRM ODBC lookups to Lotus database.  As the second phase we plan to implement lookups from MS CRM Account to cases with custom fields and Lotus notes lookup tab.  This tab will be realized as web .net application, integrated into MS CRM web interface.  This web application will have machine serial number, warranty & service info.  As  you probably know in MS CRM 3.0 you can deploy custom table in link it to MS CRM object as one-to-many.  The most important is that it will be synchronized by MS Outlook and will allow you as a salesperson to work offline.

You can always have us help you with MS CRM customization, implementation, support & MS CRM SDK data conversion.  Give us a call: 866.528.0577 or 1.630.961.598, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.