Recently while exploring the needs of trade show companies I came across a book written about Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  In this book the authors claim that MS Dynamics is a multi-tenant solution.  As I read further they described multi-tenant as multiple instances of the CRM application on a single hardware solution.  This was a bit bothersome since I disagree with their definition but readily embrace the notion of multi-tenant solutions.

In my world, multi-tenant is not a common hardware stack, although that can be part of the solution,  but instead is a single instance of the software application that has the ability to serve multiple clients.  This is an important distinction because of what it means in terms of data architecture, entity relationships and business logic.  Let me see if I can explain:

Let's assume I'm running a trade show and this trade show has 100 exhibitors.  As the trade show manager I want to provide services to my show exhibitors in the form of lead management services for all attendees that register at each exhibitor booth.  Let's also pretend that I've created work flow processes in my CRM app that send 5 follow-up emails to each registered user from each booth.  In essence, I have leads for 100 different exhibitor companies and I want my work flow processess from the five step email program to execute for each exhibitor.  If I have a single instance of my CRM app where I create 5 workflow processes I'm in good shape.  If I need a separate instance of the CRM app for every exhibitor then I have 500 workflow processes that I have to create and maintain.  That is 5 x 100 exhibitors. 

Hopefully this make sense - how you define multi-tenant in this instance becomes pretty critical when it comes down to the cost of implementation and maintenance of the messaging systems.

What about the 5 templates that are used for each of the emails that are sent out?  Do I need to create 5 or 500?

What about the content that is used to personalize each of these emails that are sent out?  One content library or 100 different content sources?

These are just a handful of things to consider when you implement a CRM solution when you are providing services to many companies.  The question of multi-tenancy is a very big deal and you need to get it right.  Whether or not Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be configured as a multi-tenant solution - I don't know -yet.  But I'll let you know when I do. 

In the mean time, if you truly need a multi-tenant solution, make sure your CRM platform of choice can support your multi-tenant requirements.