Metadata-driven customizations
Part 1 of "11 things to know about customization"
Published: March 26, 2007
If your idea of customizing a business application is a developer writing code, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will represent a big change for you. Since version 1.0 was released in 2002, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been developing a set of metadata driven tools that provide powerful ways for you to change Microsoft Dynamics CRM so that it fits your business without the need for a developer to write any code.
These tools put the power to customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM into the hands of those who know the business best – you, your business consultant, or your IT staff.
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Safely upgrade customizations
Microsoft Dynamics CRM was designed to address a common problem that business applications have faced: after the applications were customized to fit your business, the cost to maintain the code-based customizations made it difficult to upgrade. Without the ability to easily upgrade, you couldn’t take advantage of new features added in later versions.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM addresses this problem by managing the data that defines your customizations –this is known as the metadata. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM customization features use XML definitions that describe how you customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because these definitions follow a known schema, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can safely manage your customizations when you are ready to upgrade.
Is easy for developers to extend
Although the core application customization tools let you define most common types of customizations – there are frequently some business requirements that require integration with other systems or the development of some highly specific process that is unique to your business. Developers can extend the capabilities of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment while maintaining the ability to upgrade later.
Developers do not change Microsoft Dynamics CRM code - they use Web services and XML configurations to integrate their custom extensions with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because the Web services and XML configurations provide a consistent interface in each new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM – customized extensions using supported methods can be safely upgraded.
Provides many solutions for your needs
Because this is a Microsoft product, there are lots of companies, business consultants, and other software companies around the world creating solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You can take advantage of this community of Microsoft Dynamics CRM users, consultants, and developers to find solutions to meet the needs of your business.
In the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Newsgroups, you can post questions and find answers to common challenges. Your business consultant partner can use their experience and solutions developed for their other customers to help you. And finally, you will find a variety of solutions developed by other software companies that provide additional functionality for Microsoft Dynamics CRM or integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with other solutions.
