RHarper posted on July 21, 2009 10:55
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Sql Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
As an ERP consulting company with offices in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston and Cleveland, we have a critical need to distribute data from our accounting software via the web on a timely basis. Several years ago, we chose SSRS, or Sql Server Reporting Services as our tool of choice, this is the same great tool that Microsoft Dynamics GP uses. We chose it for 3 basic reasons: it was web facing, could schedule report delivery automatically, and it natively integrated with MSSQL.
Bad news. Fast forward several years, and now we are implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This system uses SSRS as its default reporting tool (just ask for a demo!), which fits well with our current infrastructure. But. When I installed SSRS, the configuration I used to deploy the web facing aspect doesn’t work with MSCRM. An MS Technet bulletin indicated that our web deployment would have to be deleted and recreated to make everything work. My heart sank as I thought about the possibility of reinstalling everything, uploading reports, setting security, defining subscriptions and all the rest of it. Nothing in the Technet article said anything about how to preserve your data, which made me hopeful and uneasy at the same time.
Good news. Although I backed up everything just in case, the SSRS architecture allowed me to simply delete the web deployment then recreate it, while preserving everything else about our installation in a Sql Server database.
Good job Microsoft, and thanks TechNet!