Managing complex relationship models in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Part 1

By its name, CRM software focuses on managing relationships. And out of the box, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a wide array of standard capabilities to support the management of different customer-centric relationship. However, there are scenarios in which the standard Dynamics CRM configuration will not suffice. In these scenarios, there are usually several possible approaches to meeting the requirements, all have their advantages and disadvantages. Some examples of more complex scenarios are:

• Dealing with Household or Family structures. Especially when the requirement is to be able to address these households, families using one single address.
• Dealing with persons (contacts) who have links to multiple accounts

Out of the box the Dynamics CRM relationship model consists of three main entities:

• Accounts
• Contacts
• Leads

Contacts can be linked to either to another parent Contact or to a parent Account, which means that a contact can have only one direct link with an Account. And Accounts can be linked to a parent Account in a similar way.

Dynamics CRM also offers linkage functionality in the form of CRM 2011's connections capability. Linking contacts to a parent account or parent contact also includes specific behavior and functionality. Activities that are linked to a linked contact are also visible at the parent level through the associated activity view.

Image courtesy of Jukka Niiranen http://bit.ly/mOkKI6

This illustration is from a