How to integrate Sage CRM with Sage 300

Sage CRM has a nice feature in its ability to integrate. Sage CRM can integrate with Exchange server and Outlook 365 for contact/appointment/task synchronization, and integrate with Outlook for email filing. Sage CRM can integrate with e-marketing tools such as Swiftpage and MailChimp. It also integrates with Sage ERP systems such as Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 ERP, and even Sage ERP X3. In this discussion, we will talk about the Sage CRM and Sage 300 integration.

Sage CRM and Sage 300 integration is an imbedded function which was included in the installation package. It’s supported by Sage and Sage partners. After several implementations at Mantralogix, we found some integration challenges during the system installation and configuration. We were able to resolve these each time fortunately. We want to share with you some tips so that you can avoid similar issues during the implementation.

The integration between Sage CRM and Sage 300 includes some nice features, such as customer/vendor information from Sage 300, invoice and order details, or even creating quotes and orders to Sage 300 through Sage CRM. It’s possible to open Sage 300 forms such as A/R inquiry and O/E inquiry screens. It’s one of the most important features for management and sales people using Sage CRM as a portal for analysis and communication.

During implementing this integration, we found several issues which blocked the communication between Sage CRM and Sage 300. There are several helpful solutions that can be found at Sage CRM Community and the Sage partner portal. I’d like to summarize those solutions with ours together on this blog to share with others with the same issues. Different CRM version may have different problems during implementation. We will discuss the situations on Sage CRM 7.2d with Sage 300 version 2012 below.

1. Requirements and Installation

Review the integration guide – Sage 300 2012 Sage CRM 7.2 Integration Guide – before starting the installation and configuration.

The requirements for the integration has been listed in the guide. Our test environment is based on Windows 2012 R2, SQL server 2012, IIS 7.5 / 8.0, and Windows 7 as client workstation. Please make sure the latest patches have been installed. Sage 300 may have AR/AP/GL/IC/OE and PO/RMA/PJC/Optional fields modules, and the portal and Web deployment must be installed.

Integration between Sage CRM and Sage 300 has two parts for installation. One is to install the package in Sage CRM, called ‘Sage 300 CRM 72 Integration 2012 PU1.exe’. After testing, we found this package also works for Sage 300 version 2014. Another is to install Sage CRM integration function with Portal and Web deployment in Sage 300 package if they were not selected when installing Sage 300 system.

2. Patch update for Sage CRM 7.2 integration with Sage 300

There is a new patch with custom pages in Sage partner portal for download. Please search Knowledgebase ID – 31458 and download custompages.zip. Copy the extracted folder and files to %CRMFolder%\%CRMName%\WWWRoot\CustomPages folder. It includes ACCPAC folder and EntryDefs.js file.

3. Configuration

Please refer to the integration guide to configure IIS, such as changing the account (specific user – administrative rights to Sage CRM and Sage 300) for Anonymous Authentication, IIS Role services and Parent Paths, Feature permissions to Execute, and enabling 32-bit applications for all relevant web applications.

Before configuring Sage CRM integration with Sage 300, it’s required to check if the following components have been setup properly.

1. Sage 300 Portal setup

Sage 300 Portal has to be installed and configured before using integration features. Then you should be able to login to the portal and open any tasks such as invoice, order entry. Note, it will only support I.E. version 10 for opening Sage 300 forms. If you are using IE 11, please use F12 to change the document module to 10 at Emulation tab.

2. Sage.net remoting service –  web deployment configuration

Sage 300 .Net Remoting Service is required for integration. Web deployment Manager is the tool to configure this service. It is required to have an administrative user account for this configuration. There are some tips for this service.

• check the ‘Sage 300 .Net Remoting Service’ if it’s on

• change the Logon as to be one local administrator account for this service

• check the DefaultAppPool at the Application Pools in IIS and make sure ‘Enable 32-bit Applications’ is True at its Advanced Settings

After all above changes, you can do a test to check if it’s working or not. You can type http://localhost/Sage300ERPDesktop at your I.E. browser’s address. At the first time, it will ask to download and install web components. If the browser could not automatically download the web components, install the web components manually at each workstation.

• Go to Sage 300 shared folder \\sagesrvname\…\Web\cabs\ folder

• Install smdotnet.exe

• Install a4wOSSUP2.exe

After installing the web component, you can test the web client as below.

Then, login to Sage 300.

Then, test any task such as Order Entry.

After clicking on Order Entry, you should be able to open the Sage 300 form.

3. System services

You will always check the status for those services below.

• Sage 300 .NET Remoting service

• Sage 300 Tomcat

• And Apache Tomcat CRMTomcat7

If restarting IIS service, please check and restart above 3 services as well.

4. Run Regacc.exe at Sage CRM server and Sage 300 server

For those installation at different servers for Sage CRM and Sage 300, run Regacc.exe (Sage 300 – Runtime folder) for both Sage CRM and Sage 300 application servers.

5. Setup Integration and configure the integration

Now it’s ready to setup Sage 300 integration in Sage CRM. Login to Sage CRM as administrator user account, and then go to administration -> Sage 300 Administration.

Please click ‘Setup Integration’ and click ‘new’ button as below.

Configure the Sage 300 database/company for integration. Notes, the server name will be net:\\[servername]:9000

Please do ‘Synchronize Tables’. If it’s successful, the first part of integration would be done. Then you can import customers and vendors, even national accounts. Based on the security requirement, the integration provides two levels for security control, User-level security and database-level security. Please refer to the guide for setting up.

The Sage integration configuration is done after processing above steps. The users should be able to view Sage 300 data like customer information, invoice, order and quote through Sage CRM.

4. Web browser – IE, Chrome, and Firefox

Currently Sage CRM integration only fully supports IE (Internet Explorer) version 10. If no ‘Sage 300’ forms are required to be opened in Sage CRM through integration, Chrome and Firefox are also supported, such as viewing customer statistic information, or the list of orders / invoices.

5. Network requirement

If the ‘Sage 300 forms’ are required to open through Sage CRM integration, only LAN (local network) is supported. That means the users could not open Sage 300 forms through Sage CRM integration over internet.

Sage CRM is now widely used for sales, marketing, customer service and information center. The integration with Sage ERP system brings the attractive feature for the users to navigate between the communication and the integrated business data with details.  It saves time to search data and make decisions. If you have any further questions, please contact Mantralogix – we are here to help!