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Hi All,

    I'm tasked with creating a web portal (for higher education) that will allow students to work through the application process largely via the web. It needs to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM - which will be the CRM software for recruitment. I'm evaluating the different options I have in this matter and was hoping folks could throw some additional light on the matter. Namely, I'm thinking:

• That making Dynamics CRM a IFD (internet facing deployment) is a bad idea and hooking directly into the Dynamics CRM database would be a bad idea.
• That thus it makes sense to have a separate database for the web portal that the web portal interacts with directly (and thus users/hackers) which then on the back-end uses web services to sync information between the two databases.
• That rather than writing an interface for admissions counselors to use in the web portal that they'll work directly within the Dynamics CRM interface.
• Unsure that the Customer Portal Accelerator will be useful to me since it seems to integrate with an IFD rather than using a separate database? Can anyone verify this?
• Wondering if there are any good articles that would talk about the best ways to implement prospective student authentication?

       If you use StackOverflow, I've also posted a question here.

      Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts. I'm open to alternative ideas. This seems the logical way to advance to me - but I figured I'd try garnering some feedback before I plodded down this road.

Respectfully,
Dave