Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4 For Dummies®

Chapter 21. Integrating Your Web Site

So you've been successful in driving customers and prospects to your Web site. Now you want your Web site to integrate with your CRM system. The good news is that it can be done. The better news (admit it — you thought we were going to give you bad news) is that several integration options don't require much in the way of programming.

If your Web site has forms on it, say a lead form or a customer service help form, you can have the data from those forms (or others) entered into Microsoft CRM 4. After it's there, users can work directly with the data. You can also have workflow rules that further process the incoming data prior to any user interaction. There are also options for customer portals and data entered in — and perhaps retrieved directly from — your Microsoft CRM system.

In this chapter, we cover the items that don't require programming to integrate your Web site with Microsoft CRM. We also touch on some of the options that would require programming, as a means of introduction. Actual programming examples aren't part of the scope of this book.

Sending E-Mail to a Queue

In Microsoft CRM, you can set up a queue to handle incoming e-mail. For example, your organization might have a Web site with a support form on it. In that case, your customers can go to the Web site, fill out a support request, and an e-mail is generated from your Web site to a support e-mail box that in turn is monitored by an individual or team at your organization.