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Hi all,
I am looking for an efficient way to link documentation across multiple entities.
It should be a part of a BPF.
It needs to be linked to the following entities:
Lead, Opportunity and Account.
It should hold the following formats:
-.jpg
-.png
The idea behind this is the following:
During a lead a user needs to upload a document.
After using the OOB qualify functionality, this document should then be linked to the create opportunity and new or existing account.
What would be the best way to approach this when considering customization and data storage?
Best regards,
Rob
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Hi,
Of course that note is the only way of adding attachment on entity. I wrote that in my first post, that you will have to add attachments under "Notes" section of your custom entity. You should make sure that you checked "Notes" in your custom entity configuration page. If yes, then you should just put the notes section on your custom entity form and that's it. No relationships with social pane or whatever. Of course in latest CRM Social Pane is a way of displaying notes. You can configure it to display notes by default and if you disable activities for your custom activity you will not have the tab with activities on social pane.
No plugin is required for this design.
I am seriously in doubt if this can be handled through customization/configuration or that it should be handled through a plug-in .
Hi Pawel,
I have tried your solution but i seem to fail.
I created a custom entity.
Setup the 1:N relations for This entity related to Lead, Opporunity and Account.
Here is where it gets confusing
It seems that note is the only OOB solution that allows attachment storage.
Note seems to be accessible only via the social pane.
I Cant seem to create a custom solution with attachment functionality without using the social pane.
Maybe i should approach this differently.
It seems that standard there is a 1:N relation between:
Social Pane to:
Lead
Opportunity
Account
What mapping or relationship should i create to get the social pane to show all posts, activities and notes related to 1 customer/account or should it be handled through a Workflow?
I.E.
User has uploaded a document to a lead record.
Lead record gets qualified
Attachment from lead should be visible in note section on the opportunity form and also in the account form.
Hi Rob,
Everything is in my first post.
- create a custom entity
- create 1:N relationships for this entity with Lead, Opportunity, Account (so this entity will be a lookup on these three entities)
- create a mapping between the lookups
Now you will use only one record of Documentation entity for all three entities, so it does not matter where user will upload files - files would be available from all records, because they will be under the same entity
Hi Tom and Pawel,
If i understand you both correctly then it seems rather more difficult to perform such task with the use of Sharepoint (considering the configuration) then creating a custom entity.
Im mostly concerned with data storage limitations related to the CRM cloud service.
@ Pawel
Lets say you want to use the standard attachment functionality from notes. Whats the best/easiest way to configure it like you described in your post?
And what if i want to give the user the freedom to either upload documentation during the lead, opportunity process or even in a later stage through the account entity?
Br, Rob
Hi,
If it must be in SharePoint then you should create some web service that will allow to create manually proper SharePoint libraries and link them to CRM. You will then call this web service through a plugin for QualifyLead message. I suggest a web service as you can use SharePoint SDK in such webservice which is far easier from calling Sharepoint directly from a plugin (which is possible but very hard and painful).
If it does not have to be SharePoint, I would create a special entity "Documentation". It can be created automatically when you create a lead and even showed in a lookup on a lead (all this can be achieved by a workflow). Then user will simply upload all documentation under this "Documentation" entity notes section. Now you just have to make the same lookup on your Opportunity and Account and map this lookup using OOTB mapping - when you qualify the lead it will be automatically populated. So all entities (Account, Lead, Opportunity) will use the same "Documentaion" record and you will have all documents in note section under this record.
Hi Rob,
Are you looking for ideas outside of SharePoint integration?
Within SharePoint integration configuring this would be difficult. The libraries are set by Entity, and can be configured to roll up to an account. So from the account level you would see all document libraries for leads, and opportunities, but even then the actual libraries in SharePoint are not consolidated to one. But that is the beauty of SharePoint integration access is still available through one location on the account level.
If you need to truly have access to the same library on the Lead and Opportunity record you could manually select the library when creating them. Maybe use a workflow but I have not done that before. Set the Lead and the Opportunity to use the same library as the account but in my mind there is too much risk in relying on users to select the correct library. You also would create an administrative nightmare with sites for each account.
There are some 3rd party document management systems that may do this better but they are costly. Think about the business requirements and cost/benefit analysis in the effort needed to accomplish this. I have found organizations are okay with being able to go to the Account record and see everything they need.
Good luck, let me know if I am missing something.
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