Dynamics CRM Architecture

Dynamics CRM enables management of sales, marketing, and customer service data as well as custom business processes from a variety of clients. Shown here are the major components of an on-premises Dynamics CRM 2011 system.

PC users view and update data through an Internet Explorer (IE) Web interface or an Outlook add-in. The add-in wraps the Web interface to enable quick access, and it also enables users to integrate e-mail into Dynamics CRM (for example, recording e-mail messages as customer contact activities). Users can work with selected CRM data in the add-in while offline and can synchronize changes to the server when back online. A variant of the Web interface called Mobile Express serves mobile phones and tablets, although it does not work offline. (Offline mobile clients are available from third parties.) Other external applications, such as customer service Web sites or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, access Dynamics CRM through Web services interfaces. A Dynamics CRM component called the e-mail router enables automated processing of e-mail through a variety of e-mail servers (including Exchange Server) and provides an alternative to the Outlook add-in for e-mail integration in situations where users do not have Outlook.