Syncing Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution User Permissions with SharePoint

Syncing Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution User Permissions with SharePoint

Nowadays, it seems that most companies are using more than one business application. Each application has its own unique features and provides value to different departments. To improve user adoption, some of the applications are likely integrated with one another.  This could be either natively or with a custom integration built by your development team.

While each application has its own unique role, they likely share the same security model per your organizations business requirements. However, integrating security requirements between applications is often overlooked or is a manual process and prone to error.

In this post, we will take a quick dive into how you can achieve this with 2 integration applications - specifically syncing Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution user permissions with SharePoint.

For the sake of simplicity, we will assume that your Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution organization currently has a custom security structure.  Additionally, you already have an integration to SharePoint (or you want to).  Specifically, it integrates your Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution Accounts to an Account folder structure in SharePoint.

Dynamics 365 vs SharePoint security structure challenge

Here is an example of what your security structure might look like in  Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution. This is an Account (client) record with a unique Account team that is comprised of dynamic users. Only these users have access to this Account record (aside from Admins):

As this team changes, the permissions to this Account record will change. In SharePoint, your admins currently have to manually maintain the security for clients’ folders.  This is an inefficient use of their time, not to mention it is also prone to error.

The solution

To accurately keep up with these changes, a custom process can automatically synchronize the Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution user permissions to your SharePoint. As users change on the teams in Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution, the process will automatically kick off and refresh the permissions on the clients’ folders in SharePoint. This may sound easier said than done, which is why you'll want to utilize a Development team familiar with these applications. Developers can use both the Dynamics 365 API and the MS Graph API to retrieve the team members from Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution and then grant write and read permissions at the SharePoint folder level. If your SharePoint folder structure is currently not organized based on the data you have in Microsoft Dynamics 365 with CRM for Distribution, the MS Graph API can also be used to produce a relevant and consistent folder structure automatically in SharePoint.

Contact Beringer today!

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution, also provides expert Managed IT ServicesBackup and Disaster RecoveryCloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training,  Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.


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