MS CRM 4.0 - External Connector

Question

We are using MS CRM 4.0 Standard Edition On premise.

We have CRM users Internal Staff & External Staff. For Internal Staff we use CAL license.

The question is that we have unlimited External Staff User and we need to give Access for our On Premise CRM on Static IP.

We are thinking to use External Connector for the same. But going through MS Definition for the same

"The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 External Connector enables customers to extend CRM to their external users such as customers, partners and suppliers through any application/graphical user interface (GUI), other than Microsoft Dynamics CRM clients, on a per server basis. External Users means users who are not either you or your affiliates’ employees, or your affiliates’ contractors or agents."

Here, Other Than MS Dynamics CRM Clients means - External Users can't Access CRM Client as Internal Users.

Please guide on the same

Thanks

Answer 1

The distinction between "internal" and "external" users is not a question of where people work. Each distinct CRM user (meaning each user that exists in your systemuser table) counts against your "internal" user licenses, no matter how they connect to your CRM.

The purpose of the External Connector is to allow other applications to interact with CRM data; applications that are not being used by your own staff. Examples of this would be web shops or customer portals that could do things like updating contact/account data in your CRM upon customer actions in those applications.