KingswaySoft SSIS Integration Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs using Data Import Wizard

I was recently asked that what are the benefits of using KingswaySoft tools for Data Migration need vs our out of the box Data Import wizard.

We are talking about 2 different solutions altogether so the direct comparison might not be appropriate. However, highlighting a few of the capabilities and limitations of each of them.

As we all know, the simplest and straight forward way of importing data into Dynamics 365 is by using the Data Import Wizard.

A Dynamics CRM user can be trained to use this feature.

The feature is easy to use, intuitive and does the job well when it comes to quickly import a small set of data.

Also, we can see the status of the import job, did it succeed or how many records failed, etc.

However, there are certain limitations

We cannot term it as a data integration solution as we are not scheduling it.

It is not real-time as the asynchronous job running in the background takes care of it.

We can only perform an update using the file exported one time only. Every time we are performing an update, we need to export the records again. We will get an error if the records have been modified after the file was exported.

The status of the records cannot be changed.

We cannot have our custom logic or transformation is applied.

The maximum file size for .zip file is 32 MB.

For other file formats like .csv,.xml or text files the limit is 8 MB.

Microsoft recommends limiting import to 20K rows or fewer. For a large volume of data Microsoft recommends programmatic way as most efficient.

Here another option for data import that we can use is the Configuration Migration Tool

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/manage-configuration-data

However, we normally use third party tool like the one developed by KingswaySoft for most of our complex data migration requirements, instead of writing one such tool ourselves because it would need to develop from scratch with performance, logging, ease of configuration etc. in mind, which could be time-consuming.

Below we can find all the details about the SSIS Integration toolkit developed by KingswaySoft

https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-integration-toolkit-for-microsoft-dynamics-365

With powerful components like CRM Connection Manager, CRM Source and Destination Component and CRM OptionSet mapping component we can develop codeless data integration solutions (packages).

With SSIS coming into the picture we are not limited to XML, Excel, CSV or text files as our source. Recently in one of our implementations, we had complex XML as our source files, for which we use the XML Source Component of KingswaySoft

https://www.nigelfrank.com/blog/integrate-dynamics-365-for-customer-engagement-with-xml/

The components are intuitive, flexible, feature-rich and very easy to use and configure. We can easily map our source data with Dynamics 365 entities.

We can have full logging (failure and success) and retry mechanism designed in the SSIS Package easily.

With KingswaySoft CRM components we can achieve high performance. The batch size and the total number of threads can be configured.

KingswaySoft offers the free developer license, under this license the software can be used within Visual Studio or Business Intelligence Development Studio. The limitation is that it cannot be run on a scheduled basis or from the command line outside the development environment, for that one needs a license.

https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-integration-toolkit-for-microsoft-dynamics-365/purchase

The tool is constantly evolving along with new updates and changes in the Dynamics 365 CE /CDS.

https://www.kingswaysoft.com/products/ssis-integration-toolkit-for-microsoft-dynamics-365/change-log

The solution built using KingswaySoft can be deployed to Azure-SSIS Integration runtime.

The KingswaySoft’ s support team is very knowledgeable and helpful and we can expect a quick resolution of any of our queries. I remember our team facing difficulty while configuring one of their components and the support team was able to guide us on how to configure it correctly.

However, there are few things to consider while opting for KingswaySoft