Latin American CIOs See Unique Value in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integration via Azure

Latin American CIOs have become fast believers in the benefits of cloud technology, given the region's unique IT and business challenges. And for, Softtek, Microsoft's Latin American Azure Partner of the Year for 2012 and the first Mexican firm to win the award, the value Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrated with Windows Azure has been a winning combination for companies in the region that need to connect disparate enterprise systems while navigating a range of obstacles - from network performance to data center limitations to IT talent to tight budgets.

Founded in 1982, Softtek is a global provider of process-driven IT services with more 30 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The company also has nine Global Delivery Centers in Mexico, China, Brazil, Argentina and Spain.

Softtek has seen a demand by its Latin American clients to look to the cloud, and specifically Windows Azure, for ways to integrate disparate systems, including Dynamics CRM. According to Warren Ross, Global Director of Cloud Services at Softtek, they have made use of the Azure AppFabric Service Bus technology to provide connectivity beyond the firewall.

"That Dynamic CRM pipeline, all those events and transactions, connect to the service bus and it enables data that's been processed as part of the CRM," Ross said. "Then that Azure Service Bus is CRM-aware and by using a special connector it can listen for and read data that's posted on the Service Bus by Dynamics CRM. It's really useful for keeping disparate CRM systems or other database servers also synchronized with Microsoft Dynamics for any business data changes."

"Our Azure practice is pretty mature," said Ross. "We have a very active practice. We have ...