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10 Steps to Integrate SYSPRO with Your CRM

By Ray Murrell, Dominic Systems

What does every organization want? Well, a lot of things, but particularly important are to maintain streamlined business processes and enhance data consistency. Those things lead to benefits from increased productivity to cost savings to improved customer satisfaction, and more.

An important pathway to these benefits is properly integrating SYSPRO with your chosen CRM. In this blog, you’ll learn the essential steps to successfully implement the integration and gain the maximum benefits.

Here’s How to Maximize your benefits

Step 1: Define the Scope of the Integration

A well-defined scope ensures a focused and efficient integration process. So before embarking on the integration journey, clearly define its scope. Identify the specific data, processes, and workflows you want to connect between SYSPRO and your CRM.

To get you started, ask these common integration questions and consider how they might affect your organization:

  • Do you want or need to convert CRM Accounts into SYSPRO Customers?
  • Should SYSPRO Customer changes update CRM Accounts?
  • Is there a need to synchronize SYSPRO Inventory Items with CRM Products (and which subset of Inventory Items should be synced – just Finished Goods? FG and Parts? Everything?)
  • Is Inventory Availability needed in CRM?  At what level of detail? (Perhaps you don’t want to share exactly how many widgets you have available.)
  • Will you be updating Pricing in CRM from SYSPRO (or even vice versa)?
  • Are you looking to do Quotes in CRM or SYSPRO, or not at all?
  • Should CRM Quotes trigger integration to create Sales Orders in SYSPRO?
  • Are you using Customer Service in CRM, and do you want to create RMAs in SYSPRO from CRM?
  • For those with Configured or Make-to-Order style products, do you have sufficient information available (in CRM or elsewhere) to automatically create new Inventory Items and even Bills of Material in SYSPRO?
  • When creating Sales Orders, do you need to also create associated Purchase Order Requests and/or WIP Jobs?Do you have multiple ‘operational’ companies in SYSPRO that should all integrate with CRM?
  • Do those multiple companies share or have overlap with their Products?

Once you’ve answered these questions (and any other ones you may have), the resulting scope will enable you to judge the effort required and the ROI of CRM – SYSPRO Integration.

Step 2: Choose the Most Appropriate Integration Approach

Based on your integration needs, decide on the most suitable integration approach.

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You can leverage out-of-the-box connectors provided by Microsoft, Salesforce or other CRM vendors, utilize middleware solutions, or opt for custom development. But your chosen approach should align with your business requirements and technical capabilities. For some help choosing an integration approach, read this Solution Guide.

Step 3: Authenticate Securely

It is important to implement robust authentication mechanisms to ensure secure communication between SYSPRO and your CRM. OAuth or other authentication methods can be employed to safeguard sensitive data during integration.

Step 4: Ensure Accurate Data Mapping

Mapping the fields between SYSPRO and CRM ensure consistency and accuracy of data. Proper data mapping guarantees that information flows seamlessly between the systems without any loss or discrepancies.

For each of the integration points you identified in Step 1, what are the exact mappings from values in the source system to destination field(s) in the target system.  Are there some that go from one field to many (e.g. “line 3 in our SYSPRO addresses is City, State Code, and Zip Code” but in CRM those are 3 separate fields) or many to one?

Watch out for values in the source system that are not ‘structured’ or not structured in the same way as the destination in the target system.  If the source field uses unformatted text in ‘UserField1’, for example, can you sensibly map it to a picklist or drop-down in the target field? Figure out how you can best ensure that the data transfers accurately and how the integration should handle exceptions and edge cases (e.g. when a user makes a typo).

Step 5: Perform Necessary Data Transformations

If the data formats between systems differ, perform the necessary data transformations. This step ensures that data is correctly formatted to match the requirements of the target system, ensuring a smooth integration.  Remember that you can create translation tables in CRM very easily, but also make sure that someone keeps those translations up to date AND that the integration elegantly handles those pesky edge cases.

Step 6: Configure Integration Workflows

Utilize tools like Microsoft Power Automate to create integration support workflows. These workflows automate the post-integration processing of synchronized data, and ensure that relevant information is exchanged between systems in a timely manner.

Step 7: Test Thoroughly

Before deploying the integration to production, conduct comprehensive testing using sample data. Test various scenarios and edge cases to validate that the integration functions as expected and handles varying data scenarios accurately.

Step 8: Define Procedures for Error Handling

Effective error handling mechanisms minimize integration failures. Define procedures to handle errors, log relevant information, and notify stakeholders. All this enables prompt resolution of any issues that may arise.

Remember that integrations are automatic processes, so there are always going to be situations where a human would just ‘deal with it’ but the integration is going to struggle. For example, if a customer places an order that exceeds their credit limit, the CRM might not pick that up, but SYSPRO will object. Consider how the integration should handle such errors. In the credit limit example, you can 1) fail (on purpose) and report an error; 2) create the order but place it in Suspense; or 3) create the order and override the SYSPRO warning but notify someone who can check it later.  Option 3 is not our favourite or recommended one, but sometimes it is appropriate.

Suggested Rule of Thumb:  It is better to fail loudly and let someone know a fix is required, than it is to ‘succeed’ quietly only to find out later that there was a bigger problem there after all.

Step 9: Set Up Monitoring and Logging

Monitoring and logging mechanisms track integration activities and diagnose potential problems. Regularly review logs and monitoring data to proactively address any performance or reliability issues.

Step 10: Deploy and Maintain

Once thoroughly tested, deploy the integration to the production environment. Continuously monitor the integration’s performance and maintain it by applying updates, addressing issues, and accommodating changes as your business evolves.

Optimize Business Operations with Dynamics 365 Integrations

Integrating SYSPRO with CRM is a strategic move that streamlines business processes and ensures reliable data-driven decision-making. By following these step-by-step guidelines, you can navigate the integration process successfully and unlock the full potential of your technology stack. Remember, each integration is unique, so adapt these steps to your unique business requirements and technology landscape.

If you need support with your SYSPRO – Dynamics 365 integrations,
arrange a free consultation with one of our integration experts.