Dynamics CRM 2011 - Segregating data by Client entity

Question

I'm evaluating CRM 2011 to replace an existing app and and have some questions about security and segregating information by Client (or Account).

I have a custom entity for 'Client'. There are lot of custom entities that are related to 'Client' which consitute the data needed to be captured.

I would like to limit specific teams/users to work on specific clients and see only the data for those clients that they have access to.

I'm seeing that individual entities can be assigned to teams/users but I need all related entities to be locked down by Client so that regular users

1. Dont see records in views or searches that belong to other clients.
2. Can't create or access records for other clients.

Can this be done in CRM 2011? How?

Also - is it possible to limit processes/workflows to operate or trigger on records of specific clients only?

Answer 1

Probably the easiest thing to do would be do base your security on business units. Groups of clients an their related records would all be in the same business unit, and as long as you set their security roles to only allow access to records in their own business unit, that would work.

For workflows that only trigger on particular clients, it depends on the exact requirements. You could certainly check the business unit of the client as the first step in the workflow and continue or exit based on that. If it's something more complex, you can write a custom workflow assembly to do the check for you.