Customer experience | Sales, Customer Insights,...

Store Documents in Notes or SharePoint?

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by LISAFOLEY

My team are debating where documents and images (primarily relating to Contacts) should be stored - as notes attachments or in SharePoint?

I believe that SharePoint is the best option for a number of reasons but would like to get your opinions on pros and cons of each.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Lisa

I have the same question (0)

All responses (8)

Answers (0)

Suggested answer

Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Lisa,

I agree - SharePoint is the best option as it is basically designed for sharing files across people.

In CRM this would just eat up storage space and it's not necessarily automated processes relevant data.

The downside is that you would need to get a SharePoint license besides CRM

Hope this helps,,

Radu

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Naveen Ganeshe 3,397 User Group Leader on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello Lisa!

My opinion would be SharePoint. However, I am sharing a link where you can get a better idea of both the options i.e. Notes and Sharepoint. Please see below link:

www.crmug.com/.../viewthread

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Eccountable 10 on at

Like (0)

Report

It depends on what you do with the documents. I found that the Attachment Management feature in Appsource is an excellent (and lower cost) solution to SharePoint: appsource.microsoft.com/.../microsoft_labs.96257e65-dbbe-43db-b775-77cf1609530c

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
LISAFOLEY on at

Like (0)

Report

Thanks for the swift responses guys! Very helpful.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Kokulan 18,054 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi

I think first thing to consider is the cost involved, If you already are paying for SharePoint, then I would say integrating SharePoint with CRM storing files in SP would be much better than notes.

Number one problem with storing files in Notes is the not enough visibility. Searching and finding documents not very easy with notes. You could definitely think about creating views and dropping them on dashboards but this in no way closer to what SP integration provides. Plus side of using notes is that you don't pay extra and you don't have to integrate or administer like you will be doing for SharePoint.

However, I still think using SharePoint is better because loads of other tools on Office 365 underneath use SharePoint, including Teams.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
LISAFOLEY on at

Like (0)

Report

Thanks Kokulan. We do have Sharepoint licenses already.

I had heard that where there used to be a big difference in cost, with Sharepoint being much cheaper, that recent pricing changes have brought the two closer?

Also do you know if MS has bridged the gap in terms of user setup/ security. We had been looking at CB replicator to manage this.

Thanks

Lisa

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Kokulan 18,054 on at

Like (0)

Report

Yes it is much cheaper and there are different pricing models and if you already have licenses cost is not a concern.

As far as I know there is no out of the box feature to Sync user privileges between CRM and Sharepoint.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/set-up-dynamics-365-online-to-use-sharepoint-online

You have to rely on the tools like the one you mentioned above. Server side integration makes it easy so that users don't have to login to Sp separately to see the documents but permissions sync will have to be done manually or using a third party tool or you could write your own sync using a plugin or a scheduled task.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
jason6311 5 on at

Like (0)

Report

Now that Microsoft is offering Azure Blob storage directly with Dynamics, is there a better answer to this question (that's a question for the MVPs here)? I.e. isn't the new best practice to store files directly in Dynamics using Attachment Management (directly to Azure Blob) instead of leveraging SP at all? The downsides of keeping it in SP are numerous operationally: minor SP outages affecting D365 environments, using SP storage limits, some Microsoft D365 support offerings (e.g. ACE) will not touch a problem with SP, general confusion between these separately managed and administered solutions, etc.

This feature formerly was called "Attachment Managment" when it was an unsupported solution offered through Microsoft Labs, though the name may have changed now that it is supported, but i can't find a link. Here is a post on the Labs version from a while back: https://d365blogger.com/2017/07/17/dynamics-365-attachment-management-with-azure-blob-storage/

Was this reply helpful? Yes No