As a result of the above issue, it is recommended that each customer must be provisioned to their own CRM server.
When provisioning a customer to CRM on Cortex, no logic is enforced to stop multiple CRM customers being provisioned to the same CRM server.
Sharing a CRM server between customers is ideal for corporate situations where an organisation consists of multiple Cortex managed customers. A new business unit can be created manually on the CRM server for each customer to provide user clustering.
3.4.4.2 CRM 4.0
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 continues to enhance the Customer Relationship Management experience.
This product provides a tool which allows the customer to manage their customers in totality, from Marketing & Sales through to Customer Services.
The main difference between CRM and MS Dynamics CRM 4.0, is CRM 4.0's ability to manage multi-tenant architecture where multi organizations can be hosted on one CRM server but each organization's data remains confidential and restricted to only their assigned users. This improves operational costs from a Service Provider's perspective.
Other benefits that CRM 4.0 brings to the end user are:
· Improved user interface
· Data connections with MS Excel allowing users to analysis and evaluate the data using familiar excel tools
· Reports and work-flows can be created with minimum IT knowledge
3.4.4.2.1 Add CRM 4.0 Service to a Reseller
1. Select the Customer Management icon on the Cortex Menu Bar and select menu option “Customer Services”.
2. Select the relevant Reseller Customer using the Customer Search function.
3. Select the “Reseller” service.
4. Enable the “Customer Relationship Management 4” service and select the service name to configure the detailed service settings.
5. Enable the relevant packages that the Reseller Customer can sell. The service packages will determine what CRM 4 servers the Reseller can provision it’s sub customers to.
The packages will inherit configurations from Top & Active Directory Services. Click on the package to overwrite a property at Reseller level (this change will be effective for all of the Reseller’s sub customers' instances).
6. Select “Apply Changes” to save the changes for the package.
7. Ensure Service Access Level "Full" is selected. This is the only service access level that is applicable for CRM 4.
8. Select “Provision”. The Reseller Customer is now able to provision the CRM 4.0 to its sub-customers.
3.4.4.2.2 Add CRM 4.0 Service to a Customer
1. Select the Customer Management icon on the Cortex Menu Bar and select menu option “Customer Services”.
2. Select the relevant Customer using the Customer Search function.
3. Select the "Customer Relationship Management 4" service and enter an Instance Name. The Description field is optional. Select “Create”.
4. Select the service package that is to be provisioned to the customer. The CRM 4.0 service package will determine what CRM 4.0 server the customer’s database is saved on and how Cortex will set up the database. The type of package will determine what further service properties will need configuring (the user screen will be updated automatically) before provisioning the CRM 4.0 service to the customer.
5. If the package selected is configured by the Service Provider with the property
"Create Organizations" enabled
(recommended configuration), complete the following service configurations:Select the server that will host the customer's CRM 4.0 system. This is the front-end server. The back-end SQL server is configured within the package properties.
Select the required SQL Collation.
Select the required Currency Code (the base currency for the organization's installation). After the currency has been set it cannot be changed. Once the Currency Code is selected, Cortex will update the Currency Name and Symbol fields.
When the service is provisioned, Cortex will create a CRM organization for the customer on the CRM server. The organization's Name will be {CustomerLongName} {InstanceName}
The URL for logging onto the CRM 4.0 database will consist of {CustomerShortName}{InstanceName}
6. If the package selected is configured by the Service Provider with the property
"Create Organizations" not enabled
, complete the following service configurations:Select the server that will host the customer's CRM 4.0 system. This is the front-end server. This server will have been configured to a back-end SQL database during installation.
The server cannot be changed after a customer is provisioned with CRM 4.0. To change the server, the customer must be de-provisioned from CRM 4.0.
Select the organization for the customer. The organization cannot be changed after the customer is provisioned to it.
The feature "Organizations" allows the multi tenancy of customer databases on one server. To maintain data integrity it is recommended to assign one customer to each organization. If multiple customers are provisioned to the same organization, their data will be shared across the two customers.
The Control Panel will advise the end-user if the selected organization has been provisioned to another customer's instance with a warning message appearing below the Organization drop down list:
[Number] other instance(s) are provisioned to the organization.
7. Select “Advanced Settings” to specify, if required, the maximum number of users that can have access to CRM 4.0 and whether the CRM 4.0 service is chargeable and will appear on the Customer Billing Reports
8. Select “Provision”. The Customer will now be provisioned with the CRM 4.0 service.
3.4.5 DNS Hosting
3.4.5.1 Add DNS Hosting to a Customer
The objective of the DNS service is to create DNS zones for the customer. Multiple DNS zones can be set up per customer.
The DNS service is a customer level service only, this means no users can be provisioned to it and the service will not appear on the User Services screen.
1. Select the Customer Management icon on the Cortex Menu Bar and select menu option “Customer Services”.
2. Select the relevant Customer using the Customer Search function.
3. Select the "DNS" service, the "Manage customer DNS zones" iframe will appear.
4. The Control Panel will automatically display the customer's existing domains under sub-heading
"Available Domains".
5. To add a new domain to the customer, enter a domain under sub-heading "Add Domain" and select
"Add Domain". The domain will transfer to the "DNS Zones" table. The domain will be added to the customer and will appear in the customer's Domains Management section under “Edit Customer”.
6. If an existing customer domain is to be set up as a DNS zone, go to the "Available Domains" table and select the relevant domain by checking the check box. Select "Add Zone". The domain will transfer to the "DNS Zones" table.
7. Select “Provision” to create the DNS zones on the DNS server.
The customer's Service Administrator will now have access to manage the DNS zone's records via the DNS Management screen.
Full Reseller Administrators have access to manage the DNS records for all of their sub-customer's zones.
3.4.6 Exchange
Cortex offers a Exchange Service that delivers Microsoft Exchange to multiple customers with minimal set-up and administration overheads.
The Exchange Service enables Cortex to manage BlackBerry provisioning.
Cortex supports Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010*.
Note: Please see the Cortex blog for full details on Cortex's support for Microsoft Exchange 2010 at the following location: http://www.ems-cortex.com/blog/2009/09/exchange-2010-plan.html