Scribe Online Cloud Integration Add Data Synchronization for CRM 
Scribe has launched an innovative cloud-based service to simplify data synchronization between CRM (customer relationship management) and other cloud and on-premise business applications. IDN speaks with Scribe CEO Lou Guercia about the Scribe Online Synchronization Services, its latest extension to the Scribe Online platform.
Scribe has launched an innovative online service to simplify data synchronization between CRM (customer relationship management) and other business applications. The Scribe Online Synchronization Services is the latest extension to Scribe Online’s cloud integration platform.
“Our goal with Scribe Online Synchronization Service (SYS) is to provide customers a largely out-of-the-box experience, where they can map their data in and out of CRM systems very quickly,” Scribe CEO Lou Guercia told IDN.
Scribe Online SYS underscores the company’s CRM-focused integration approach and builds on Scribes years of experience working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
“We’ve centered our business around CRM integration,” Guercia said. “Some integration firms are now focusing on MDM [Master Data Management] or solutions for a ‘single version of truth’ across the whole enterprise. But, our customers see a lot of value in focusing on solutions for CRM, to help share customer data beyond sales department, for example”.
Beyond sales, Guercia said, customers want to align customer data across many departments, including marketing, call centers, operations, fulfillment, tech support, finance, accounting and even analysts using business intelligence (BI). Customer data is growing more important to the business every day, and companies wants quicker, simpler and safer ways to get that data to all the stakeholders that need it,” he added.
Scribe Online SYS Use Case for CRM Integration, Synchronization
Scribe Online SYS delivers CRM integration for bi-directional and multi-point [data] synchronizations across on-premise and cloud apps, Guercia told IDN.
“We’re looking at how enterprise IT – and their provider partners, such as implementers, ISVs, SaaS providers – can create the right kind of hybrid environment where the right customer data gets routed in real time to all those areas of the company that can make valuable use of that data.”
In an example of how Scribe Online SYS works, a call center agent might get a new address from a customer and type that into an app. As the agent types in the new data into an on-premise or proprietary app, Scribe detects the change because the company has a listener watching for any changes. Those changes can be used to update other applications using pull (polling) or push (notification), Guercia explained.
“Basically, we are using Scribe Online SYS to let customers create an on-demand way to synch up all their applications that rely on customer data,” Guercia said. When there is a change to any field, Scribe Online SYS will record those changes. Further, those changes are compared to data from other applications because our connectors know all the primary fields and can do a review, he added.
Lou Guercia, CEO, Scribe
To control when and where data gets shared or synched up, Scribe Online SYS lets users set up and specify integration processes from targets and sources. They can also set the time intervals for polling or update in real-time. Agents add an extra level of control for users concerned about move data to the cloud. “We have an agent that runs entirely behind your firewall, so data will never go into the cloud.”
“We lay out in a simple way all the entities and targets a customer wants to connect and they connect then by an easy drag-and-drop process which creates the data synch very graphically,” Guercia said. “The whole idea is to take a lot of the heavy lifting right off the table for customers. It’s a very attractive and easy-to-grasp UI.”
A browser-driven UI is used to configure Scribe Online SYS, which is done using Microsoft Silverlight. The entire approach eliminates the need for a central store, Guercia added.
Scribe Online SYS also offers these capabilities:
- Offers an intuitive wizard-based interface to guide synchronization set-up
- Delivers regular, automatic upgrades and real time monitoring
- Provides native access to nearly all data types in your CRM system or SQL based endpoints
- Integrates and provisions operational data in real time to support low-latency data synchronization needs
- Supports flexible scheduling options to integrate operational data from real time to batch
- Matches, de-dupes and cleanses data before synchronizing
- Conducts encrypted data transfer and role-based permission management to protect data security
- Enables collaboration among colleagues and partners
Inside Scribe Online SYS Synchronization Service Architecture
Scribe Online’s SYS service comes with a range of methods to speed and improve CRM-focused integrations, including pre-built maps, a wizard to let users quickly drag-and-drop integrations, and a specialized capability to let users quickly build their own custom maps and integrations for special situations and datasets.
Scribe Online SYS leverages Scribe Online core capabilities, which includes the ability to internally represent values in one of several basic data types, including strings, floats (e.g., numbers with decimal values), integers, Booleans, dates and binary data. Once that is done, Scribe Online uses its semantic understanding of data types to automatically convert data types as needed.
For example, if the user writes a map that attempts to place a string value from a source system into a numeric field on the target, Scribe Online will automatically convert that string to a number – and there’s no need for the user to define any explicit logic.
Scribe Online’s connectors map the data types from the applications into one of the data types supported by Scribe Online. The connectors also will support bi-directional connections and negotiate the security and transport protocols of the data sources and applications.
As an example, Scribe Online offers a Dynamics CRM Connector, which converts data from Base64 to binary when reading information from Dynamics CRM (and the reverse when writing information to Dynamics CRM). This means that integrating attachments from CRM, which can be a complex operation, can be done by a simple drag-and-drop from the source field to the target field.
In cases when Scribe Online doesn’t know how to map a data type (such as a user-defined data type in SQL Server), the user will likely need to have some understanding of working with that data type and instruct Scribe Online on how to devise a formula that will convert a custom identifier field to a string value.
An early adopter of Scribe Online SYS is the Online Group UK, one of the leaders in just-in-time haulage logistics and services to local, national, and international industries.
“We need access to accurate, real-time customer data in one place, and that’s why we’re working . . . to consolidate our business information in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Scribe Online Synchronization Service lets us integrate and synchronize our data in the cloud.” said Online Technology CEO David Rutland in a statement.
