Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) provides integration with many Microsoft products to present rapid delivery of data and functionality to SharePoint setups while removing the requirement that you have to be a programmer/developer to achieve what you want. Such systems include SQL Server 2005/2008 for Reporting Services, Analysis services to generate KPIs, InfoPath to create Forms, Windows Workflow (WWF) to create custom and complex workflows, and the list goes on...

But what about other Line of Business (LOB) applications such as CRM, SAP, QuickBooks, Web Services, etc... that contain key business data needed by Portal Applications. In comes the Business Data Catalog (BDC). This feature while not necessarily new as of this post is worth mentioning to those who may be new to SharePoint. <!--more--> BDC allows you to import custom XML definitions of your key information sources and "connect" that data to the BDC in SharePoint for use in Web Parts, Lists and other custom solutions without having to write a line of code. There are many tools out there that can generate these XML definitions for your data sources as well. One of my favorites that I use is <a href="http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/default.aspx">http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/default.aspx</a> which allows you to deploy the XML directly to the SSP in SharePoint after creation.

Once the definition has been imported into SharePoint (which is really much easier than it sounds, only requires a little bit of relational database knowledge to get the data how you want it) you have a BDC connection that can pull that data onto your SharePoint Portal. For example, if you have a SQL Server Database out there that houses CRM data of all your accounts. You have personalization sites set up so that Sales representatives go to their "My Site" and do a variety of tasks. You could create and XML definition that hooks into a database view that displays Accounts not active in the last 30 days. With this data now available to SharePoint you can add a quick BDC Web Part and add it to the Sales reps pages so they can have a quick reference of accounts to follow up with.  The list goes on of how you can mix and match this data.

This post isn't meant to be a how to on setting up BDC connections for SharePoint admins... more so a heads up to management and non-technical staff that there is a intuitive way to collaborate data from many many systems of various design and purpose and present it to end users in a efficient and time saving manner.

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