CRM Software That Works The Way You Do

How often have you had to change the way you work to fit in with the latest software needs? It?s a nuisance and disruptive, and frequently breeds resentment against a software solution requiring employee cooperation to achieve the desired result. Training is difficult and the implementation frequently results in failure.

This is as true with CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) as it is with any other. Fortunately, Microsoft have come up with their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 package that works the way you do. The way your employees work and the way your business works. If your business currently uses Microsoft Office and Outlook then Microsoft CRM software will slip seamlessly into your existing systems without any changes at all to your standard procedures.

Information can be transferred from the Microsoft CRM software to other Microsoft applications, and the mobile support is an extremely useful tool, allowing customer information to be obtainable to employees in the field through a PDA, palm computer or laptop. Employees have access to all the customer data they require, when they require it, and specific preferred views of data can be saved and reused with the elimination of all unnecessary information.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 can easily be customized to suit your current documentation style and flow, and will fit the needs of your business perfectly without disruption. It will work the way your business does, but do it efficiently and effortlessly.

This easy integration into existing business practices overcomes one of the major reasons for CRM software implementation failures: resistance to change. It is difficult to persuade employees that time-proven methods have to be modified to suit new systems. They will resent the change, and rather than strive to succeed, and will find excuse for failure.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM software is not subject to these problems since it not only fits in ideally with employees existing work methods, but also is also simple to plan and implement. Because it employs proven Microsoft platforms, training requirements are easy to understand and the software will be well received due to its ability to be moulded round your existing procedures.

Users will like the Microsoft Dynamic CRM software package since it will make their life easier, not harder. They will find that tasks that were once considered chores, such as sending out multiple emails or carrying out customer analysis, are now easily automated giving them more time to use their skills where they are most needed.

The major pitfalls in CRM software implementation can be overcome through use of Microsoft Dynamics communities technical chat, blogs and webcasts which is a major reason why any company using Microsoft Office and Outlook should opt for Microsoft Dynamics CRM if it want to implement an automated customer relationships system.

Many industries, from the smallest to the largest, focus strongly on their processes and pride themselves in excellent consistent products. Not all place the same emphasis on the processes they use to track their customers and their requirements. By focussing on the customer, a company can make more money. By adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 software, all of the various processes and procedures involved in customer relationships, whether lead management, quote generation or management of a complete sales force, can finally be brought under the umbrella of a single software solution.

Integration is the name of the game and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software solutions provide it.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

How to use Microsoft CRM to Manage Client Projects

As a Microsoft partner, we help our clients implement the solutions they purchase. One challenge we have is how to track the project tasks so that we can:

1. Leverage the time-saving capabilities of Workflow within CRM.

2. Leverage the integration between CRM and Outlook so that project tasks appear in our users' Outlook Task lists and Calendars.

3. Keep the process simple while still providing enough control to keep the project on schedule and under budget.

Here is what we chose to do to manage our projects. Perhaps it will be suitable for you, as well.

1. Use Workflow Manager to create a new sales process for client fulfillment/project delivery.

While we could have chosen to create a new project entity, we wanted functionality similar to the Sales Process workflow available for Opportunities. Unfortunately, the only way we could do it (without a lot of custom coding) was to use the Opportunity entity. Sales Process workflow is not available for any other entity.

We created a new Sales Process called "CF - CRM", with a description of "Client Fulfillment - CRM Project Delivery." This naming convention separates the project processes from the true sales processes (they start with "LC" for Lead Conversion). This is a manual rule, meaning that we manually apply it to the opportunity.

The project management Sales Process has various stages (Initiate, Analyze, Diagnose, Develop, Deploy, Operate, Close) that are based on the Microsoft Dynamics Implementation Methodology. You can use whatever you want.

The beauty of this solution is that you can have as many processes as you want and apply the correct process depending on the project.

For example, we could have a project process for Point-of-Sale projects, another one for Great Plains projects, and a third one for CRM projects. Each process could be customized with its own stages and activities.

Within each stage, there are the appropriate activities and milestones. For example, within the Initiate stage, we have tasks for "Create project charter" and "Schedule project kick-off meeting."

If there are particularly critical or time-sensitive activities, then you might want to create activities to monitor the status of them and use workflow to escalate neglected or delayed activities to a manager.

You need to be careful about the level of detail and number of activities you create. Remember, this is NOT a fully functional project management application like Microsoft Project.

You can attach supporting documents or links to SharePoint documents to the activities if you need more detail.

2. Complete all stages and activities for existing sales process on opportunity.

You are now ready to start using the project management process you created in step 1.

If there is a true sales process assigned to the Opportunity, then be sure to close or cancel all activities so that the sales process is completed.

Keep the Opportunity open once the sale has been closed. We are going to continue to record activity against the opportunity.

3. Assign the appropriate sales process for client fulfillment/project delivery to the opportunity.

Now, manually apply the correct project management process to the Opportunity. The activities from the first stage will be created and assigned.

4. Complete project activities.

No go ahead and do the work. Activities can be assigned to individuals or queues. Tasks that are not on the project management Sales Process you defined in step 1 can be manually added to the opportunity.

As you complete each stage, the activities for the next stage will automatically be created.

5. Use the Sales Pipeline report or a custom report to keep track of projects.

Since we are using the built-in Sales Process functionality, you can easily run reports showing the progress of the projects. You will probably want to create your own custom reports using the standard Sales Pipeline report as a template.

6. Close the Opportunity upon completion of the project.

Once the project is completed and all activities in the project management Sales Process are completed, close the Opportunity.

Conclusion

As you have seen, Microsoft CRM can be used in creative ways to help you best manage YOUR business. Using it for simple project management is a great illustration of the "Affordable Adaptability" of Microsoft CRM. Using this illustration, think "outside the box" to come up with other ways to use Microsoft CRM to support your business. Be sure to let me know what you come up with!

Michael Cross is a Microsoft Certified CRM Professional with Small Business Systems LLC. Visit http://www.bturnkey.com/crm.html to learn how Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables your people to work the way they want to work, while providing you wih the data you need to increase the number of customers, provide the quality of service your customers expect, and increase your revenues.

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

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By S. Maurer

In today's competitive business environment, a successful Customer Relationship Management CRM strategy cannot be implemented by only installing and integrating software packages designed to support CRM processes.

Over the past few years, many companies have implemented operational customer relationship management - CRM - systems, and these companies are now analyzing customer behavior to plan and optimize marketing tactics and improve customer service programs.

Small and midsize companies have been able to implement more complete Customer Relationship Management CRM systems because they may not operate globally and may be newer organizations that have fewer business processes to contend with.

It's also worth noting that CRM used to focus on the telephone as the primary means of contact, with little attention paid to e-mail or the Web. However, electronic messaging is overtaking voice as the most common form of communication. Corporate call centers aren't going out of business, but they need new people and equipment to deal with e-mail and Internet inquiries.

In the hunt for the right CRM tool, be diligent in the vendor evaluation process. If you don't understand the vendor's CRM solution in its entirety, you might wind up with no solution at all.

Across every sector and industry, effective Customer Relationship Management CRM is a strategic imperative action for corporate growth and survival.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net and http://mba-open-university.net

Hosted CRM: What is it?

San Francisco, CA (ARTICLEMARKETER) August 09, 2005 -- When hosted CRM was first introduced, concerns were voiced about its drawbacks: the lack of customization, integration with other applications, support, third party storage, control over data control and the performance of service reps - not to mention the all-important security issue. Hostings biggest drawback is that your most important data is in a third-partys hands.

Although CRM, as hosted solutions are also known, are not as difficult or as costly to install as packaged solutions, they still require an infrastructure, significant IT resources, and time to deploy.

Application integration has been another challenge for ASPs. Since ASPs unilaterally update their code bases, this opens the possibility that an integrated business process could be broken by a change that you dont control.

Privacy and privacy laws are another concern: you must investigate what safeguards an ASP offers to protect your data. As you can see, hosted CRM isnt perfect. Aberdeen researchers found that when considering these problems, support for hosting dampens. One way around this might be a hybrid approach: rent now, buy later.


It Does Not Have To Be Either-Or

Another emerging trend is that companies adopt hosted solutions as a low-risk way of evaluating a CRM solutions capabilities before they buy into an in-house set up. This approach allows companies to mitigate risk and experience the benefits of rapid time-to-value. Once companies see a ROI, then they can choose to bring the solution in-house.

The decision between an in-house implementation and a hosted solution is based on many factors. It is important to evaluate your business plan, technology strategy, risk profile, IT budgets, IT resources, opportunity costs, customization requirements and industry-sector requirements.


Visit http://www.sales-force-software.com for more information.

David Cowgill
http://www.sales-force-software.com
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Microsoft CRM Programming Techniques overview for developer

 Microsoft CRM is the CRM answer from Microsoft and it will have all the Microsoft Business Solutions muscles behind.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net examples it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is all web services based calls, if you are C# .NET developer you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred customization scenarios and this should be easily upgradeable customization.

2. Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config please refer to MS CRM SDK

3. Legacy ASP integration this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.

4. Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesnt have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming

5. Direct SQL touch in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But in real world this is not always true you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support but you can rescue to this technique if you have to make job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool you can feel free to use this this is rather end-user tool and we dont describe it here read the manual. Weve described above the options to use when this tool doesnt do the job

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, Georgia and Florida, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.akarasev@albaspectrum.com