1. IBM Software Solution Brief
WebSphere
IBM WebSphere Cast Iron
Cloud integration
Integrate Microsoft Dynamics in days
You selected Microsoft® Dynamics for its ability to automate and stream-
Highlights line financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes and help
you drive business success, and you realize that integrating them is critical
● Speeds up time to implementation for if you are to achieve a healthy return on your investment. Now you need
Microsoft Dynamics integration projects
with “configuration, not coding” a simple way to synchronize your customer relationship management
approach (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data between Microsoft
Dynamics and your existing applications to give you the information you
● Achieves greatest cost savings with
low monthly subscription rates and need to make important business decisions with greater confidence.
80 percent lower maintenance costs than However, your choices for integration are not appealing. Writing custom
other software-based options code or using complex integration platforms is time consuming, involves
● Features prebuilt connectors and lots of software and requires deep middleware expertise. Does this
prepackaged integration processes sound familiar?
to simplify and accelerate Microsoft
Dynamics integration projects
That’s why IBM created a fast and simple solution for data migration and
● Eases monitoring and management application integration. IBM® WebSphere® Cast Iron Cloud integration
with anytime, anywhere monitoring and
100 percent remote management and
for Microsoft Dynamics delivers simplicity by providing everything
administration needed to complete application integrations using a “configuration, not
coding” approach that frees up expert programmers. Microsoft Dynamics
● Speeds and simplifies development
with unmatched flexibility and non- customers choose WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration to integrate
reliance on niche middleware skills their applications in days and for up to 80 percent less than the cost of
(completely standards-based) software-based alternatives.
Connect Microsoft Dynamics with your
enterprise
Most Microsoft Dynamics customers need to rapidly migrate and inte-
grate sales and financial data—such as leads, customers, orders, inventory
and invoices—with other applications and partners. WebSphere Cast Iron
Cloud integration for Microsoft Dynamics provides comprehensive con-
nectivity to all these applications without any need to install anything at
the endpoints.
2. IBM Software Solution Brief
WebSphere
Microsoft Dynamics
(AX, CRM, GP, NAV, SL)
Other ERP/CRM
(Oracle EBS, Siebel, SAP, PeopleSoft,
Lawson, JD Edwards, etc.)
SaaS Applications
(salesforce.com, RightNow, NetSuite,
Eloqua, Oracle CRM ON Demand, etc.)
Flat-files/Excel
WebSphere Cast Iron (FTP, HTTP(S), E-mail)
Cloud Integration
All Major Databases
Leading Middleware Tools
(Oracle Fusion, etc.)
XML and Web Services
Figure 1: Integrate Microsoft Dynamics with your enterprise in days with WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration
Accelerate your Microsoft Dynamics
integration projects
WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration for Microsoft Data Profiling Intelligent Data Cleansing Data Enrichment
Dynamics provides everything needed to migrate and integrate
Microsoft Dynamics with other applications and endpoints by
providing the key features described below to simplify and
accelerate data migration and application integration. Figure 3: Migration and data quality
● Data profiling: Assess the quality of the data before
migrating it
1. Migration 2. Integration 3. Extraction ● Data cleansing:
– Duplicate removal (i.e., deduplication): Combine data
from various different sources and remove duplicate values
– Fuzzy lookup: Configure sophisticated rules to highlight
and correct errors
Figure 2: Integration project phases ● Data enrichment: Perform lookups with third-party
providers to enrich your data
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3. IBM Software Solution Brief
WebSphere
Connectivity Transformation Workflow Management “ Integration challenges are often a barrier
to widespread adoption of cloud computing
services including SaaS. Users of cloud-
Figure 4: Integration and extraction based services need a portfolio of viable
integration options to flexibly link
● Connectivity: Configurable connectivity between hundreds cloud-based functionality with on-premise
of applications and endpoints applications and data.”
● Transformation: Drag-and-drop user interface for data
transformations
● Workflow: Visual interface for designing workflow rules — Benoit Lheureux, research vice president, application development,
integration and web technologies, Gartner
● Management: Easy manageability through a single web-
based console
Accelerate projects with Template Integration
Processes What projects does WebSphere Cast Iron
With thousands of successful customer integrations, WebSphere Cloud integration address?
Cast Iron Cloud integration takes advantage of a wealth of inte- WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration for Microsoft
gration experience to provide a comprehensive set of Template Dynamics rapidly connects a wide variety of applications and
Integration Processes (TIPs). These TIPs are offered for the endpoints while complementing existing integration technolo-
most common integration scenarios between Microsoft gies. Companies in industries ranging from manufacturing,
Dynamics applications (for example, Great Plains and CRM) retail and consumer packaged goods to energy, transportation
and a number of other enterprise applications like Oracle, and logistics use the solution to address application integration
salesforce.com and SAP, and eliminates the need to build your projects like those listed below.
integrations from scratch. You can simply log in through your
browser, select the template that best suits your requirements Integration projects addressed:
and enjoy proven, supported and certified processes. The TIPs ● Data migration from heritage applications to Microsoft
can also be further customized to meet your specific needs using Dynamics
a simple configuration wizard. ● 360-degree view of customers and products across Microsoft
Dynamics ERP, CRM and call-center applications
● Opportunity-to-Order integration between marketing
automation, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP systems
● Order-to-Cash integration between Microsoft Dynamics
CRM, ERP, warehousing and financial systems
● Billings, bookings and backlog visibility from Microsoft
Dynamics ERP to CRM
● Pricing and product catalog information between Microsoft
Dynamics ERP and customer portals
● Purchase orders (POs), shipping notices and payments with
suppliers
● Customer support integration between Microsoft Dynamics
ERP and customer support systems
Figure 5: Screen capture of the configuration wizard ● Repair and warranty information between call centers and
customer portals
● Data extraction from Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM to
reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) systems
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4. IBM Software Solution Brief
WebSphere
● Electronic data interchange (EDI)
● Middleware and all major Enterprise Application Integration
“ Working with IBM we completed the first (EAI) platforms
phase of our Microsoft Dynamics integra- ● Project management applications, including Clarity
tion project in 20 days. By automating ● Many more
sales order processing across our CRM and Why choose WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud
ERP systems, we’ve improved print and integration for Microsoft integration?
direct mail vendor operating efficiencies.” WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration for Microsoft
Dynamics provides IT departments with agility as well as the
— Mark Litherland, director of IT Architecture & Integration, Grizzard
ability to respond quickly to line of business needs. WebSphere
Communications Group, Inc. Cast Iron Cloud integration has been specifically engineered for
Microsoft Dynamics and contains everything needed to com-
plete integration projects in days.
Systems connected: Fastest time to market:
●Suite of Microsoft Dynamics applications, including AX ●Graphical configuration, not coding
(formerly Axapta), CRM, GP (formerly Great Plains), NAV ●On-demand library of prebuilt Template Integration
(formerly Navision) and SL (formerly Solomon) Processes (TIPs) for the most common integration scenarios
●Other ERP systems, including SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite
(EBS), JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Baan, QAD, Lawson Lowest costs:
and others ●Low monthly subscription pricing
●Other CRM systems, including Siebel, Clarify, Remedy, ●Up to 80 percent lower maintenance costs versus software-
Oracle, Kana, Vantive and others based alternatives
●All major Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, including ●No need to maintain multiple components including hard-
Salesforce.com, RightNow, NetSuite, Oracle CRM On ware, web servers, databases and integration brokers
Demand and others
●All major databases, including Oracle, IBM DB2®, Microsoft Simplest monitoring and management:
Structured Query Language (SQL) Server, mySQL, Sybase, ● One hundred percent remote management and administration
Informix and others ● Proactive alerting of data and connectivity errors
●Flat files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext ● Monitor from anywhere, anytime
Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) and email
●Extensible Markup Language (XML) and web services
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5. IBM Software Solution Brief
WebSphere
Most rapid, efficient development:
●Unmatched flexibility—can be deployed by way of an on-
premise integration appliance or the integration as a service “ IBM is an outstanding addition to the
offering Microsoft Dynamics partner community.
●Completely standards-based; no reliance on niche IBM’s experience with Software-plus-
middleware skills
●Prebuilt connectors for SaaS applications, CRM, ERP, cus- Services integration gives customers more
tomer support systems, all major databases, flat files, web serv- choice around their deployment model, so
ices, messaging systems and more they can do what’s best for their business.”
WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration
— Robert Deshaies, vice president, U.S. Partner Group,
product offerings Microsoft Corporation
WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration for Microsoft
Dynamics comprises various deployment options—WebSphere
Cast Iron Live and a physical or virtual, on-premise
WebSphere Cast Iron appliance. The flexibility of these options Functional specifications:
provides a smooth transition between on-premise and cloud ●Prebuilt connectivity to Microsoft Dynamics
environments as a company’s application landscape changes to ●Low monthly subscription pricing
“future-proof” technology investments. While these options ●24x7 Production support
share the same technology foundation, each is designed to meet ●No restrictions on number of users
specific customer needs. ●Powerful data migration and data quality features
●Standards-based connectivity with third-party data enrich-
WebSphere Cast Iron Live ment tools
WebSphere Cast Iron Live is the integration as a service solu- ●Rapid integration with Template Integration Processes (TIPs)
tion. Using a “develop once, deploy anywhere” approach, and self-guided wizards
WebSphere Cast Iron Live is ideally suited for Microsoft ●Out-of-the-box connectivity to hundreds of enterprise and
Dynamics customers with a majority of their applications based custom applications
in the cloud and with no infrastructure on premise. ●Optimized for high-throughput projects
●Graphical data transformation
WebSphere DataPower Cast Iron appliances ●Rules-based workflow
The WebSphere Cast Iron physical appliance is the on-premise ●Lights-out management and error notification
integration solution. It is useful for Microsoft Dynamics cus- ●Out-of-the-box data and connectivity error processing
tomers with a majority of their applications based on-premise ●Guaranteed delivery of transactions
who need a standards-based solution and find software-based ●Web-based monitoring of integrations
integration solutions too complex. It is also available as a virtual ●Secure management and data communication
appliance that can be installed on a company’s own hardware. ●Bidirectional real-time and batch integration
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