Microsoft CRM Offering Dynamics

"7 Things To Consider"

Microsoft CRM is relatively new to the marketplace. Since its inception, the Microsoft offering named Dynamics, has grown significantly in functionality. The software has become one of the more popular CRM applications today. It has been designed to support sales, customer service, marketing, and service functions. As you would imagine, it allows full integration with the Microsoft Office and Outlook e-mail tool.

Deployment

The application offers two options for deployment. One of them is a quick, on-demand deployment, and the other is an on-premise deployment. The on-demand deployment is a good option for those who are considering lower price and affordability. It is a more streamlined way of implementing a CRM solution. The on-premise option, allows unlimited customization and integration into your systems. This can be a real advantage for people who have a robust Microsoft infrastructure.

Another strength of the Microsoft CRM solution, is the number of third-party integrators with extensive experience deploying the software. You have the option of shopping around and reviewing integrators in your region. Choose the one with the experience and reputation to match your needs.

Sales Automation

Support of sales automation is a strong attribute of this application. Sales reports can be generated by any user, not just the system administrator. Users can create individual "Quick Campaigns" and reports using the available data.

Managers can view the statistics for their entire sales team, and each sales rep can access their individual data. Sales reports can be individualized or grouped based on access hierarchy.

Leads, opportunities, and tasks, can be assigned automatically from a single system which captures and tracks the data you select. Dynamics offers an intuitive, easy to use dashboard that helps users keep track of their key performance indicators.

Marketing

Microsoft CRM software has many features that assist in simplifying and executing marketing campaigns. For example, the mail merge functionality allows you to communicate with multiple size groups based on your Outlook database. In addition, it is easy to set up product catalogs, price lists, discount schedules and special offers for marketing campaigns. The program optimizes, manages and tracks search engine marketing efforts.

Marketing campaigns can also be deployed to any mobile web enabled device, which gives added flexibility to your marketing efforts.

Customer Service

Microsoft CRM provides a distributed knowledge base that helps you share expertise, which makes it easier to support and service existing customers. By using the broad view of the customer data, customer service agents are able to resolve customer related issues more quickly and completely.

Positives

Microsoft CRM is one of the better applications when it comes to installation and ease-of-use. Compared to an application like Siebel, it is less complicated, but also less robust if you are considering it for a large enterprise.

One of the most appreciated features is its flexibility. Direct integration allows users to work within Microsoft Office, Outlook, web browser, Share Point, custom portals, and even mobile devices. This allows the user to customize their work spaces to create, save and reuse favorite views of customer data and information.

Considerations

Dynamics is designed for the small to medium sized business. It does not have the complexity of some of the large applications. This can be both a benefit and a detriment depending upon your requirements. It does not have power dialing, voice messaging facilities, and it does not allow agents to record sales messages and make direct callbacks to the customer.

Competition

Microsoft CRM started as an application for small business, and is moving up toward the mid-market. The larger applications like Oracle's Siebel, and SAP are moving down in the market. They are going to meet in the middle. Microsoft is busy extending the functionality to support the mid-market, while Siebel and SAP already come with a rich functionality and first rate interface for larger implementations.

Conclusion

Microsoft's CRM offering Dynamics is not the market leader. But if you are looking for an implementation for a small to medium sized business, it is definitely an application to consider. Every year it matures it's functionality, while maintaining it's flexibility and integration strengths. Microsoft will continue to include more business-to-business marketing and sales features. And the numerous implementation partners available is a big plus.

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