When to Integrate Your Existing Customer Portal with Dynamics 365? What Are the Available Options?

In previous articles, we discussed the pros and cons of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Portal compared to Custom Portal. And how to decide which you need.

Today I will talk about the integration of your existing portal with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

I’m a Dynamics 365 technical architect with 12 years of experience with the Dynamics platform, and I’d like to share my experience with you.

 

 

If you have already invested in building a Custom Portal, it most probably works well and satisfies your needs.

Changing it to Microsoft Dynamics portal or rebuilding from scratch might be challenging if you just need to integrate it with Dynamics.

So, when should you integrate the existing Portal with Dynamics, and what are the available options?

Let’s Talk About the Pros/Cons and Questions

KEY ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATION OF EXISTING PORTAL WITH DYNAMICS ARE:

  • Fewer efforts if the portal is already available
  • Dynamics 365 is a flexible platform with REST/JSON API available and easy to integrate
  • There are no - code third - party solutions to publish web forms on the portal
  • Independent development teams and roadmaps for Dynamics and Portal

BUT, THERE ARE SOME CONCERNS, SUCH AS:

  • Integration might be technically complicated
  • Portal developers need help to consume Dynamics API since it can be tricky (especially authentication and data structure/field names)
  • For larger projects, direct Dynamics API access might not be the best option

So How Can You Decide Whether You Need to Integrate Your Existing Portal with Dynamics or Not?

TRY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS:

  • Do you have a customer portal already?
  • Is your company satisfied with it and doesn’t want to replace it?
  • Do you have a team to build integration with Dynamics or have a budget for external consultants?
  • Do you have somebody with Dynamics 365 background to consult you?

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO MOST OF THE QUESTIONS, I RECOMMEND YOU CONSIDER THESE OPTIONS:

  • Use Dynamics 365 API. If you are using this option, please ensure you have somebody with Dynamics 365 background to build API samples for your development team since it can be tricky.
  • It is worth to mention you can build no-code website integrations with third-party tools. If you just want to collect lead data and subscriptions from the website, please check the ClickDimentions forms

That’s it for now. You can contact us directly with questions about your requirements and situation. Please feel free to get advice on your specific case.

Also, I suggest you read my previous articles about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Portal and Custom Portal.

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