Go Paperless with Customer Portal for D365 Document Management

1
Go Paperless with Customer Portal for D365
Document Management
Every day, thousands of businesses worldwide are
boosting productivity, saving costs, and earning
better returns by moving from paper-based
systems to paperless digital solutions that
amplify the daily grind.
Document management systems can easily integrate
with your existing solution and improve work?ow
ef?ciency. But thats too 90s! Integrating
multiple third-party solutions and con?guring
them to work together creates chaos and might
slow down the ERP solution. On top of that, these
legacy systems can result in compromised
security,
sales_at_crmjetty.com
2
compliance risk, unorganized databases, cluttered
network drives, etc. Even amidst all these
challenges, managing documents is essential, and
going digital is the only solution. Using a
customer portal for document management in
Dynamics 365 is one of the best options. In this
article, I will explain why. You may think why
not integrate Dynamics 365 rather than a
customer portal. I will answer that too in a
proper way. Before that, lets look at the
technical de?nition of document management, why
you need it, and why you should get rid of
legacy systems. What is Document
Management? Document management is a set of
practices that de?nes how businesses manage,
store, and track their data. This data can be in
various formats like emails, images, documents,
etc. However, the principle of document
management remains consistent. A document
management system is software that helps
businesses manage documents. Here, they can store
documents, categorize them, retrieve, share,
edit, track, and
sales_at_crmjetty.com
3

• do a lot more activities. Document management
  systems help control access and protect
  sensitive information.
• The common components of document management
  include
• Storage
• It provides a centralized location for storing
  documents from where authorized users can easily
  access them.
• Annotations
• Allows adding notes and comments to the document
  without a need to edit it.
• Version Control
• Tracks and records the new versions of the
  documents so that you can view history and
  restore it if required.
• Audit Trails
• Enables authorized users to view the log of who
  edited or viewed the documents and when.
• Security and Access Control
• Ensures only limited authorized users can access
  the documents.

sales_at_crmjetty.com
4
These components play an important role in
securing your business information. Hence, its
essential that you choose the right solution for
managing documents. Why You Need a Proper Digital
Solution for Document Management The question
you might be having is, Why should I spend
money on a separate tool when I can purchase the
cloud storage and store documents there? Say
you have a law ?rm, which means you likely handle
hundreds and thousands of documents
daily. Theres a murder case thats similar to
the one from 5 years back. To solve this case,
you need data from the previous case. You can
look for documents on Google Drive. However, it
may take up a lot of time if you dont know the
proper names or the location of the
documents/folder. Even after having it digitally
stored, you can end up losing potential
productive hours. Likewise, if you have a proper
document management system, you can create a
central repository of your existing content and
get rid of the digital clutter. You can easily
access the information and focus on your work.
Share documents with opposing counsel or
clients. Limit access to
sales_at_crmjetty.com
5

• the documents. Search the documents quickly
  thanks to indexing and categorizing
  capabilities.
• In simple words, a document management system
  makes it easier to handle documents, in many
  ways, automates the work?ow. However, you should
  avoid adopting legacy systems. Heres why
• Outdated Technology These old-school solutions
  are not prepared for change. Using them is like
  using Excel sheets in the world of Slack and
  Trello for project management.
• Security Concern Modern solutions are updated
  continuously to meet the latest threats. However,
  traditional systems ?nd it dif?cult to adapt
  because of their nature and thus leaves room for
  vulnerabilities.
• Compatibility Issues Legacy systems support
  documents and ?le formats up to a point. It means
  youre stuck with formats that your partners,
  customers may not be willing to use.
• High Maintenance These old systems come at a low
  price, but with time, the expenses increase. The
  support and updates for outdated technologies
  are costly as it takes more effort for
  developers to continue maintenance and updates.

sales_at_crmjetty.com
6

• Poor Customer Experience Its dif?cult for you
  to communicate with your customers who keep
  moving with the latest technological
  advancements. Up of that, the 3rd party solution
  may lack customer-centric features, making it
  dif?cult for customers to access, collaborate,
  or communicate with you.
• You shouldnt go for outdated or third-party
  integrations. So, what should you do?
• Solution Bring in a customer portal. Well, you
  can also use the native Dynamics CRM for
  document storing. But I wont suggest that to
  you because it has limitations.
• Document Management in Dynamics 365
• Dynamics CRM is not a document management or
  storage system. It handles the important aspects
  of your business, i.e., customer engagement, and
  hence most businesses think its ?ne to use it
  for document storage.
• The main advantage of document management in
  Dynamics 365 CRM is having documents accessible
  directly from the related records. All the
  records are linked to the accounts, and theres
  no need for additional search.
• However, documents in Dynamics are stored as
  attachments to the record form. It means all the
  attachments and notes

sales_at_crmjetty.com
7
add up in Dynamics over time, consuming space. On
top of that, the native solution doesnt offer
any search ability within documents, nor theres
a version control feature. You end up scrolling
down the timeline to ?nd the document version,
which is not productive. Also, theres no feature
to prevent users from updating the documents
simultaneously. Your non-CRM users cant access
the documents. Documents cant be categorized or
stored as metadata that describes the document,
such as the status and author of the document.
Another potential limit of document management
in Dynamics 365 is the volume. If you have a
large number of documents, the size of the
database increases, and it can increase the
expense if youre paying for storage. Dynamics
365 doesnt allow collaboration. The attachments
have a size limit of 5-9 MB max, which is not
mind-blowing. What can you do about it? If
youre storing a few documents that too
occasionally, you can con?gure document
management in Dynamics 365. Thats a reasonable
approach. For others, the recommendation is to
integrate a Dynamics customer portal. Oh yes!
Dynamics allows SharePoint integration to
overcome the challenges of native solutions.
sales_at_crmjetty.com
8
SharePoint Integration SharePoint is built for
document management. With no additional costs,
you can get multiple features that CRM doesnt
provide. For example, each document can have
metadata to facilitate searches. Non-CRM users
can access the documents using SharePoint
functionality. All the native CRM features are
switched to standard SharePoint functionalities.
This gives you a feeling of managing documents
directly from SharePoint. SharePoint balances the
limitations of native Dynamics CRM but to an
extent. You might experience resource throttling
when the item limit exceeds 5000. Theres no
backup in SharePoint. If you delete a ?le and
fail to restore it within 93 days, the document
is gone forever. SharePoint has sync limitations.
Users cannot see documents when multiple
entities/users try to access the same SharePoint
document location. It doesnt support Dynamics
365 editable grids. This limits SharePoint from
working properly. For example, the document fails
to load in the grid. You cant create or upload
documents. It also disables searching in the
grid. Most importantly, SharePoint integration
ignores the privileges you set on the Dynamics
CRM side. It means
sales_at_crmjetty.com
9
everyone can access the documents, and that can
be dangerous. Making your documents tamper-proof
is essential, and for that, its important that
you use a solution that guarantees security
along with customer satisfaction. Having a
customer portal for D365 document management
streamlines the communication. It curbs all the
challenges of the legacy systems and the
limitations of CRM and third-party
integrations. Dynamics 365 Customer Portal
provides a secure place for data sharing,
document approval, invoices, billing, and more.
It fosters collaboration and enhances engagement
with features like self-service, knowledge base,
and community support. With Dynamics customer
portal, you get more ?exibility and security.
CRMJetty can help you with it. We offer a
ready-to-integrate Dynamics portal solution known
as PortalXpand. Talk with our team to know how
it can work for you. Get in Touch
sales_at_crmjetty.com
10

• Why You Should Choose Portal for Document
  Management in Dynamics 365
• By implementing a customer portal, a business can
  get their documents in order and take advantage
  of the following bene?ts/features
• Increase Transparency
• Whether its reviewing contracts, processing
  invoices, or collecting forms, its essential
  that you, your staff, and customers can ?nd all
  the documents whenever required. The Dynamics
  customer portal puts all the documents in a
  separate document management module, ensuring
  everyone has the same information. Multiple
  users can access the same document
  simultaneously. They can edit and make changes to
  the documents based on their access rights.
• This centralized repository serves as the source
  of truth in the organization.
• Quick Search
• Regardless of size or format, you can easily
  search the right document using metadata,
  versions, keywords, and categories linked to it.
  Technologies like AI and machine learning
  further enhance document search

sales_at_crmjetty.com
11

• capabilities.
• Share Content
• The capability to share data with customers
  safely and securely is critical for many
  organizations. Emails are not that secure.
  Hence, the portal offers an internal document
  sharing feature to speed up the processdetails
  like who accessed it and when, help enhance
  transparency.
• Foster Collaboration
• Customer portals allow employees and customers to
  collaborate and work on the document together in
  real-time. This process eliminates the back and
  forth editing in the email threads.
• Track Versions
• Feature-rich customer portals have built-in
  version control. This helps users to track the
  document changes and ensures they are working
  with the most up-to-date versions.
• Protect Sensitive Information
• Dynamics customer portal offers role-based access
  that lets admin grant or deny access to the
  documents. This ensures that only the authorized
  users can access

sales_at_crmjetty.com
12

• the documents and security is effective.
• Support Compliance Regulations
• Along with limited access, the portal provides
  audit trails, i.e., logs of system activity,
  including document edits, login attempts, and
  user permission changes. This maintains
  transparency and ensures that your organization
  follows compliance.
• Access Information from Anywhere
• With cloud-based technology, you and your
  customers can access the documents from
  anywhere, anytime. This ease of access ensures
  that information can be communicated with
  everyone, including the project head and
  stakeholders, no matter where they are. Also,
  most cloud technology automatically backs up the
  content, providing a foundation for quick
  recovery.

There are many other ways in which a customer
portal can bene?t organizations and improve
their operations. Want to know how you can
bene?t? Request Demo
sales_at_crmjetty.com
13

• How Does Our Dynamics Customer Portal Help You?
• We offer a ready-to-integrate Dynamics 365
  customer portal for all your business
  requirements. Our portal is fully compatible
  with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and allows
  customization in real-time. For document
  management in Dynamics 365, we offer two
  options
• SharePoint Integration
• To streamline document management and customer
  engagement. We know about the limitations of
  SharePoint, and thus, we offer a custom module
  too.
• Custom Document Management Module
• This module works exactly like a document
  management system and has all the features
  explained in the above section. Either you can
  choose to combine both custom module and
  SharePoint for outstanding results or opt to go
  for document management only.
• Additional Features
• Apart from document management, our portal offers
  a custom dashboard, entity management, content
  management, drag and drop builder, con?gurable

sales_at_crmjetty.com
14
widgets and themes, page-level access, third-party
integrations, etc. It means you can offer
360-degree customer service that covers
everything from tickets and cases to self-help,
document sharing, and more. Our Dynamics solution
PortalXpand, simpli?es your business
operations and helps establish a strong
connection with your customers. Ready to take
the next step? Build a Dynamics 365 Customer
Portal
Source https/ www.crmjetty.com/customer-portal-d
365-docum ent-management/
sales_at_crmjetty.com