About External Data Sources

An external data source is a database outside the system. Users who have access to an external data source can use Contact-related information from the external data source by linking it to CampusNexus CRM.

When this happens, Contact details in the external data source are mapped to fields in Main database, enabling Desktop Client users and the Business Administrator user to:

•   Use address data from the data source to create Mailing Lists.

•   Search the data source for a Contact.

•   Add or update Contact data in Main database.

If you have an existing external data source, you need not import data from these data sources. Instead, link CampusNexus CRM to the data source using a linked server and view or use information related to Contacts.

A linked server is a data source provider. Linked servers can be of different types such as ODBC, SQL Server, Excel, Access and Text. Linked servers are used to create external data sources. Linked servers are also used in Business Administrator to configure linked properties.

You can access linked servers when configuring external data sources from Database Administrator.

The prerequisites for creating an external data source are:

•   Remote server name or linked server name.

•   Database name.

•   Table name.

•   The user identifier (ID) and password to log on to the remote database.

•   An e-mail address to send and receive mail messages.

The following table lists the different data sources from which you can import Contacts. It also lists the corresponding provider name and login type for each external data source.

Data Source	Provider Name	Login Type
SQL	SQL Server	Application/Trusted
Excel/Access	MS Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider	Application
Text	MS Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider / ODBC	Application/Trusted
Oracle	MS OLE DB Provider for Oracle	Application/Trusted