CRM and EPM integration

[Adam Bennett]

Hi All
I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this or not, but I had a
question I wanted to throw out to the community to see what others have
encountered. In our business, we track 100% of all resources time and bill
from the time logged. We have two main types of work that we perform,
support related work (ad hoc requests from customers typically anywhere from
1-40 hrs of work) and project related work (typically 40+ hrs). Due to our
needs, Project Server doesn't work well to track/capture the support work and
consequently have used a homegrown Ticket system for this work. (You can
image the pain of trying to bill from two separate systems. Having a root
canal without Novocaine seems like more fun .

So, on to my question...
We are currently in the process of moving away from our homegrown ticket app
and migrating to MS CRM. I'm just curious what other companies in the tech
service industry have done to address the support related work and how this
has impacted their use of EPM. Is anyone using CRM along with EPM and if so,
how have you tied them together? I'd love to hear what people are using and
glean anything you can share. Personally, it seems like an opportunity for
Microsoft to expand their product offering in this area as the EPM and CRM
seem to be largely disconnected.

Thanks for your thoughts/comments
Adam

 

[Marc Soester [MVP]]

Hi Adam,

You are right, there is a great opportunity for a "connector". I have not
seeing a connector out there ( from Microsoft or a thrid party vendor).

You can of course achieve your requirements by doing the custom development
yourself. Project Server offers a good way to integrate ( called PSI - which
is a web service) and if I am not mistaking MS CRM gives you the same
options. The most important part is to nail down detailed requirements before
starting your design.

There are companies out there that would be able to help you achieving what
you are after. The best idea is to look on the microsoft page where you can
search based on your location.

Hope this helps

 

[Adam Bennett]

Thanks Marc. Good to know you guys haven't found anything either. We've
basically taken the approach you suggested and have already developed data
reports to tie the two systems together. Thanks for the info/suggestion!