Archive for the 'General CRM' Category
One simple but useful idea that was posted on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog was how to use an IFrame to show a map of an accounts business location (http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/04/15/microsoft-dynamics-crm-iframe-magic.aspx).
We decided to take this idea one step further. Since our in-house technicians go out to several client locations in a given day, it would be nice to give them a set of map directions to go from client to client. Using Dynamics GP and Enterprise Scheduler in-house (along with Field Service Anywhere), we have a database of scheduled appointments as well as the client addresses.
First thing we did was to create a SQL view of all of the appointments for that day. The view includes the Tech ID and the client’s address.
Next, we created a .NET app that takes the Technicians ID as a passed parameter, pulled all of the appointments from the view using the Tech’s ID, ordered them by appointment date (done in SQL view), then created a URL for google maps with all of the addresses.
This next part can be done in many ways. You do not even need to do anything in CRM, just create a web form to allow the user to select a Tech ID, and call the .NET app above. We decided to embed it in CRM, and this is how we did it. We created an entity called Technician Service Route, made the “Name” field of a record the name of the technician (and made him the owner). We created a field for the Tech ID (which we manually enter), and added a tab for an IFRAME to link in the .net app. Pass the tech id to the .NET app, and all done. We also made the Route tab the first tab on the entity form. Now, when a technician opens up the Technician Service Routes, they have just their record, open it up, and there’s his map for the day.
Technician Service Route
One request we had recently was to show all the notes for a company, in order for a Sales rep to get a snapshot of anything currently going on with the client. This was to include all notes for the Account, Opportunities, tasks, appointments, and leads. This was to be viewable on the main company screen.
In order to accomplish this, we needed to first create SQL views of all the different notes we were going to need with the information we wanted. Instead of doing one massive view of all of the notes, we did a view for each type. For instance, for Opportunities, we created a view called Opportunity_Notes. It should be noted that since we are creating views, this is an unsupported way of getting the needed data. Here is the SQL script for the Opportunity_notes that we used:
SELECT dbo.AnnotationBase.ObjectId AS OpportunityId, dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId, dbo.AccountBase.AccountNumber,
dbo.OpportunityBase.Name, dbo.AnnotationBase.NoteText, dbo.AnnotationBase.Subject, dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedOn,
dbo.SystemUserBase.FullName AS CreatedBy
FROM dbo.OpportunityBase INNER JOIN
dbo.AnnotationBase ON dbo.AnnotationBase.ObjectId = dbo.OpportunityBase.OpportunityId INNER JOIN
dbo.AccountBase ON dbo.AccountBase.AccountId = dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId INNER JOIN
dbo.SystemUserBase ON dbo.SystemUserBase.SystemUserId = dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedBy
WHERE (dbo.AnnotationBase.IsDocument = ‘FALSE’) AND (dbo.AnnotationBase.NoteText IS NOT NULL) AND (dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId IS NOT NULL)
ORDER BY dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedOn
From there, we created a .asp page to create the screen to combine all of the notes. Pretty simple, just made a connection to the database, and used DataLists with SqlDataSource to create our record views.
One problem we did have was that our various headers (ie: OpportunityNotes) would show up, even if there were no Opportunity Notes for that Company. To hide the headers, we added a Selected event to each SqlDataSource. Within that event, set a variable to “block”. Then within each datalist, use a DIV with a Style of “display” set to the variable.
Lastly, within the Account Form, we added an IFrame. Within the Form Onload, we set the IFrame source to the .asp that we published on the CRM server, with the Customer Number as a passed variable in the URL. We use the Customer Number from GP, which is unique, and used that as the passed variable instead of the GUID.
Here’s a screenshot of the final product. Happy coding!
First off I was glad that I attended ms convergence 09. The show had 7000 plus attendees during the week and with our rfid tags in our eventforce badges they even told us a calculation of all the steps we had taken combined.
With kirill tartarinov at the opening speech and also the microsoft R&D presentation on thursday it was very apparent that everyone should be able to utilize something with their existing infrastructure better with the current economic climate.
Once again more with what you currently have, and making sure you have simple quick wins to aid with more challenging endevours such as BI.
I also discovered that I am not that excited about creole cooking. 
I will stick with red beans and rice from a zatarans box!
I found these great videos today about Microsoft CRM 5 platform discussions and what kind of additions that may be possible for the future Microsoft CRM 5 release.
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/benriga/CRM-5-Chatting-with-the-platform-team/
After registering for Convergence this year i got a notice this morning stating that the sessions catalog has been released. This will be helpful in planning out which sessions i would like to participate in on partner day and throughout the general sessions.
https://www.msconvergence.com/modules/sessionlist/Default.aspx
If you haven’t registered yet you still have until the 21st of january to register and receive $300 off by registering early.
Looks like they have extended the early registration now until Jan. 21, 2009. I just managed to get everything booked. If you register early you can get a $300 discount.
If you haven’t quite registered yet you can do so here.
http://www.microsoft.com/Dynamics/convergence/neworleans09/registration.aspx
As a Microsoft CRM Consultant i get to interact with CRM clients on a regular basis, which i really enjoy. Spending adequate time with a client is needed to get an understanding of not only if CRM can work for a particular business, but is it the right fit for the organization.
I thought it would be helpful though to talk about some of the implemenatation quirks i have seen and hopefully it will help you along as well in your CRM project plan. Knowing some hurdles upfront will hopefully save alot of trouble down the implementation road.
First Thing is First….Processes!
The first thing to always look at is what issues are the clients facing? Why are they investigating CRM? It is funny that some “Consultants” do not even manage to ask this question sometimes and really get to what business processes that the client is looking to achieve. So what is needed here? Just an understanding of:
- Know What the customer is doing
- How they currently do it -> Detailed Explanation
- What processes the customer has in place to achieve operations – Manual? Automated?
- What users in the organization are needed to perform the work at hand.
Knowing these issues even at a high-level can mean the difference in user acceptance down the road.
Current Process Management
Take a hard look at how you are currently providing information to additional users in the organization. Do you have spreadsheets everywhere for tracking sales information, customer info and more?
Don’t underestimate goal-setting for the implementation!
Make sure that when you are performing an implementation that you have defined specific goals for your implementation. For example:
- What measurements does the company want to achieve?
- What processes are in place to achieve them currently?
- Does the company currently have any baseline measurements for these goals?
Do not just implement CRM in an organization without an idea of what the existing indicators are for matching at the end of implementation. If you do you could find that your customer will not believe that the application has valuable ROI for the organization. Especially if they don’t consider results of the system properly.
These results come in many, many ways:
- Cost reductions – whether it is a cost reduction for providing your services, repetitive tasks administrative tasks, or customer aquisition costs.
- Revenue Increases – Closed opportunities and quoting win rates.
- Others – customer retention rates, and lead capture and close rates.
Hand in hand with results is the fact that you have to make sure that your idea of success with your CRM implementation is in line with the industry average.
For example you wouldn’t expect 80% close rate for qualified sales opprtunities from CRM for an industry that typically averages 0.5%. Hindsight as well is never 20/20.
Set Realistic and attainable Goals
Setting relevant goals will ensure that you stay within reasonable expectations of the CRM system that you have invested time and money in.
Know your Resource Limits!
How is your company staffed in IT. Do you have someone knowledgeable in CRM? Knowing these limitations will help. If you plan to do a simple installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with no customization your technical staff can most likely handle the setup.
However, CRM is not just an application so you will not see value add to the organization simply from this. To get the value add such as automation, sales stages, workflow design, and additional reporting it does pay to find a Partner that knows how to truly implement Microsoft CRM.
Underestimating implementation time can kill a project that is under development so you should have a good idea going in what the overall project cost is going to be.
Start Out Small and Simple
I really cannot stress this topic enough, do not initially do everything you want with your CRM Deployment. Phased approaches are the best way in my opinion to go in a CRM deployment.
Starting with a test group in your organization, a CRM committee, or just a handful of users is normally the best way to start. You have to not only master the basics first from a user interface standpoint, but your employees have to understand the application as well. Luckily Microsoft CRM’s interface is integrated into outlook so most users will get it really fast. I am sure that we are all familiar with the Garbage In, Garbage Out Rule. Remember, Walk… Crawl ………. Sprint!
Know when you shouldn’t Automate Processes
Ok. Now i know that this may sound anti-progressive, but honestly there are times when processes should not be automated in your organization. Although the capability is there it just doesn’t make sense.
With this in mind make sure that the relevant people in the organization are involved with reviewing and approving your existing processes. Lose the processes that are no longer needed or used. Make changes to the ones that need to be made, and add functionality only where it is needed for the first implementation phase.
Measure.. Measure… and Measure Again!
The last point really is taking the measurements to help with indicators of how CRM is doing in the organization. You shouldn’t stop reviewing this information and comparing it to your original baseline. Let this be an aid to provide how CRM is doing in your organization.
All companies will have to decide on the following question. “Is CRM worth the Cost to implement in my organization?” If you are a CRM Consultant i am sure that you have heard this as well multiple times.
Many times in a CRM deployment customers find that post-implementation benefit measurements and value added to an organization may be hard to properly evaluate without defining key indicators upfront. This can sometimes seem like a daunting task and goes beyond simply the Cost of Ownership, the one-time and ongoing costs including support.
On the other hand benefits gained have to be weighed from a newly implemented system. These benefits happen in a variety of ways but mainly come in the form of enhancements of revenue, margin, cost reductions, productivity, increased service, customer loyalty, defined business processes or other intangibles. Only by measuring these can an organization truly know the impact that CRM has made in their organization.
The cost of implementing CRM may seem outrageous to a business owner without understanding the benefits the company will achieve. For this discovery should be done in the organization to see how the business currently functions and areas of improvement through the use of a CRM deployment.
Without CRM each rep maintains their own information about their accounts, in multiple different formats as well with no standard structure. Sales reps own this information and not the company. Without a CRM system there is also no opportunity for sharing or leveraging a database of the centralized customer information from the whole organization. Also, what happens typically when a sales rep leaves an organization? Where does this information end up? It is important that information is protected and secured properly.
It is amazing to me that some companies do not consider customer and prospect information as a valuable asset to the organization. Gartner reports that only 10-15% of companies realize the value of their customer base. Most companies never fully utilize the ability for tailored selling to help improve the profitability of unprofitable customers in their organization.
Does the organization also know how many sales they are loosing now? Chances are if you are like the average company it is in the range of 6-8% and even higher depending on the tracking and sales management system in place currently.
So what is 6-8% of the annual sales worth to a company? Finding this out is important as well. If your company is at $25M in sales revenue the average could be as high as $1.5M -$2M.
I know what my answer is! CRM is a must for most organizations and not used for only contact management. To get the best return on investment for CRM you have to dig deeper than the typical installation. If you only use CRM only for it’s contact management features you are not going to see the return on investment that you had hoped for.
Today, Microsoft released to partners its revised vison and statement of direction for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Within the contents include an executive summary that mentions the next major release of Microsoft Dynamics labeled V.Next which is targeted release is around late 2009 to early 2010.
The statement of direction mentions the Roadmap for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, and the strategic review of mobility options for Microsoft CRM. Microsoft has also formed an alliance with TenDigits as well to help provide mobility solutions to the platform.
There is a mention as well of the Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, and finally more information about the CRM Accelerators that will be a new range of add-on solutions which are being developed as showcases to broaden the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
The document also contains a detailed description about each accelerator and screenshots of a few ones such as e-service, and the analytics accelerator. AWESOME! If you are a partner you must see these value adds for your client base!
Also in the document Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is mentioned and the planned releases it will undergo as well in the short term and on the development move to the “V.Next” Platform. Which is defined in the document as a Best-Of-Breed Business Solution Platform. I completely agree and i posted a previous article as well last month entitled “CRM 4 – Ultimate business platform?”
The complete document is available to Microsoft Dynamics Partners to download at the following link.
The users guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 (on premise) has been updated and is now available from Microsoft in both word and pdf formats in the Microsoft download center. Here is the link below
