Doug Winter started his career as an engineer. Eventually, he made the switch to the executive side of business when he started his company, Seismic. Seismic provides a sales enablement tool that helps businesses with optimizing the way that they market and sell to prospective customers. Further than that, Doug and his company pride themselves in a company culture that goes above and beyond.

How was Seismic born?

If you think about what had happened in enterprise software, a company like Salesforce comes along and they took an established base like CRM (customer relationship management) that was a well-solved problem. But then they ‘consumerized’ it, they made it easier to use, they put it onto the cloud, made it a SaaS offering, started selling it as a subscription, so a different business model.

We also had been involved heavily in sales cycle as executives. We felt that the existing solutions that were out there were really the worst fit for sales and marketing teams in terms of aligning them around commons goals and ensuring that they could work together on the important assets of a sales cycle. We had the vision of: let's build a solution like that for sales and marketing, and from there, we can expand into all kinds of different areas. That was really the vision of Seismic.

When we started, honestly, I hadn't heard the term sales enablement. It wasn't until a little ways into the journey that we realized that it’s a great description for what we're doing. We were going to jump aboard that bus and lead the way.

When was that? When did you start?

We were officially founded in 2010. We started building the product in 2011 and started selling it in the 2012 time frame. We didn't raise any money, actually, until the very end of 2013. We decided we had a great product and should start to tell the story a little bit more loudly to get some sales and marketing efforts going, and then raise funds.

In simple words, what do you do? How do you help people, sales people in particular?

At Seismic, we enable marketing teams to support sellers throughout the sales cycle. We provide marketers a way to understand what content is working and how it's being used, and then allow them to turn the dials and the knobs to deliver the perfect message for a seller to use as they sit down to have that conversation with a prospective customer.

It takes a lot of different forms. For one, obviously, data comes into play. It's about collecting everything that happens with content throughout sales cycles. All that data then comes pouring back to marketing to help them have a better understanding of what's working. If buyers received content in the sales cycle, was that sales cycle ultimately successful or not? If it was successful, maybe the content was a part of the reason why it was successful. If it wasn't successful, maybe we need to try to improve it.

We also allow the content to be customized. If you know that you're talking to someone in a certain industry, and you know that you're talking to someone with a certain role, we can allow the content to actually be customized so that it matches that point in the selling conversation where the other party is.

What was the biggest technological breakthrough that has enabled you?

Analytics is a great example. The data that flows into our system is an incredibly valuable part of what we're doing. We're not building our own technology to present that data in fancy dashboards. We leverage other companies' technologies to help us build that.

Second, we’ve made great breakthroughs in the management of content itself--the ability to handle large volumes of content and keep them organized. We're really good at helping marketers to that by giving them insight into where content currently resides and how it's being used, while also keeping track of when content should be expired or refreshed.

The third major technological innovation that we have which is really unique and powerful is our personalization engine. The ability to assemble content dynamically in real time, pulling in data, and automatically build charts and have them show up in a PowerPoint presentation or PDF that's being shared with buyers.

The fourth piece would be our predictive capabilities. As our platform monitors what's happening with all the content and data, it also feeds that back into an engine that says what content would be best for each unique seller’s situation and place in the sales cycle in order to beat your competitor.

That predictive engine and capability, it's something that will never be finished. It's something we continue to work on and invest in. I would say that's one of the areas that we view ourselves as differentiated in.

Talking about data analysis, do you want to add anything about how you're doing it and how it's servicing B2B marketing?

First, you have to have as much data as possible. You can't train the machines if you don't have data to train them with.

We've built a big infrastructure around collecting that data. We're now collecting millions, literally millions, of data events every single day. It has to be a very big and scalable warehouse, so we architected a capability that can handle that type of volume.

Then, you start to look at correlating content data with data about the sales cycles. Sales cycle data is generally kept in CRM like Salesforce, and everybody customizes their CRM. What a sales cycle looks like for your firm is different than what it looks for someone else's firm. So you have to put some work into how you wire this thing up so that it can understand your particular CRM instance.

Then you start to put the pieces together. That's where our system comes into play.

I would say that ourselves and everyone in the industry is chasing that. It’s still in a fairly early stage, but it's a very rapidly evolving field and one that's pretty exciting to be right in the middle of.

Can you describe a bit about your career? How did you grow from engineering to building this sales enablement tool? Was it intentional?

I would say it has been little bit intentional and a bit serendipitous. Out of school, I started out taking a job for a very old-school, traditional company: Westinghouse. It was a good experience. I was very proud of being an engineer. I had great leadership experience. I was helping train nuclear engineers and was part of a team that, at the age of 23, I was leading. Ultimately I was in charge of a nuclear power plant.

I realized, however, that it wasn’t a space that offered a lot of growth, so I settled on business school to make a little bit of a change in direction in my career. When I graduated, it was the very beginning of the dot-com days, and I really wanted to start a company. Unfortunately, I didn't have the courage to jump and do it on my own, and I wasn't effective at recruiting anyone else to jump with me. So I ended up taking a job out here in San Diego at CalCon, which was great because it wasn't quite a startup anymore, but it was still in very early days and a high growth, high excitement environment.

From there I joined a true startup in the services business. Part of that jump included moving from being an engineer and operations person to being an executive and a leader, and trying to learn those things on the fly. That was 2000 and I've never really looked back.

The last time I interviewed for a job was 1996. I don't have a resume anymore. Entrepreneurship is not for everybody, but I certainly encourage people to have confidence in themselves and go for it if they really feel like they have an idea and an opportunity.

One characteristic of being an entrepreneur is you can't be too smart, because if you're smart, you'll see all the reasons why it's not going to work. I qualify for not being too smart.

What were some of the important skills that you had to develop in order to be successful as a leader?

To be a leader, it's really much more about how you can get the best out of a team.

One thing I've found is that listening skills are so important. The way I think of it is if you've got a team, some of them have lots of experience and big job titles, some of them don't. But you don't really know where the good idea is going to come from. As a leader, if you're not encouraging conversation, you're not encouraging the ideas to flow, and everyone is going to miss out on a great idea.

That also leads to something else, which is building lasting relationships. It’s so important to treat people with respect and having an understanding of what they bring to the table. That kind of loyalty and working relationship, it goes past individual companies.

You explained that, in the beginning, you weren't so great at recruiting people. Now, you're in a place where around you, people are empowered and enabled to really share what's on their mind. How did that happen?

Like most things in life, there's an amount of your early upbringing that sets the stage for who you are as a person, but then, just like every other skill, it’s recognizing that it's important and trying to actively work on it.

I observed early in my career when I was working for Westinghouse that one of the leaders there was very much despised by his team. However, it was a military environment, so your power comes from the stripes on your shoulder. He was in charge and he told everyone what to do, and they did. What I realized, though, was that his whole team was rooting for him—and in turn themselves--to fail. I saw another leader who was the complete opposite. His team would have run through a wall for him. They were rooting for him to succeed. That made a huge impression on me.

It’s about being aware of little experiences like that, where you see things that work and you see things that don't work. I’ve made millions of mistakes along the way, but being self-aware, and being willing to change and work on things that you think are important, that's the long-term success.

In what way are you incorporating innovation and new IT tools in your environment?

I was in a meeting with our finance team, and we've added a lot to our finance team recently with an eye towards potentially being a public company somewhere down the road. They came in with all the tools that they currently use and all the tools that they want to use. I thought, "Wow, there's like eight tools that we're using just in our finance team alone."

We're constantly evaluating and upgrading in different areas. We’ll explore any way we can use technology to free people up to do more interesting things and be more efficient at their jobs. It frees the dollars for us to go do something else as a company. That's an important part of being successful.

You are known to have a great work culture. How did you establish that? How do you achieve that?

It goes back to the earlier conversation about treating people with respect and acknowledging the fact that they're here because they choose to be. I tell new hires in our orientation program, Seismic Acceleration, "You could work anywhere. I know you could work anywhere. Thank you for working here. We want to provide an environment that you want to work at, and by the way, it's now part of your responsibility to make that environment happen."

People have to feel good about what they're doing. We have a great product and we want to have the best product. People feel pride in that. They feel pride of helping create it and being associated with it.

Upward mobility is another thing. One of the great things about a company that's growing really fast is there's lots of opportunities. I look at our sales team, for example, where two of the three top reps started life with Seismic making cold calls. We’ve been able to consistently provide upward mobility for folks and that is something that's really exciting for them, too.

Also, people celebrate each other's success in a way that is pretty unique and really cool. It started happening organically, and now we actively encourage it. For example, we have something we call pushpin. Every time we win a deal, the sales rep sends out an email explaining who the new customer is and why they chose Seismic.

The best part about it, is that they include all the other people that made the deal happen. It's not about the sales rep or any single person, it's about all the people that helped and all the people who went out of their way to assist a teammate. Even further than that initial email, people will reply to them throughout the company saying “that-a-boy” or “way to go”, that kind of stuff. I love that. I think this whole process and mindset is a huge piece of our culture and it’s something that we try to encourage.

If your employees are happy and encouraged, they're also going to do well with customers, right?

Customer-first focus is another huge part of our success. I think you just have to be that way. Customers, especially in the SaaS model, can pick up and move across the street very easily. We’re asking you as a customer to put your faith in us again and again during each renewal. In order for that to happen, we’ve got to give you a better product. We’ve got to give you a good experience. We’ve got to do all of these things to show the value we provide so that you're going to choose to stay with us, and hopefully grow with us.

One of my favorite sayings is, "Happy customers buy more stuff." It’s just true and we put a lot of effort into that. I'm very proud of our customer success team, but also the way our product team listens to customers and incorporates their feedback into the product. Even in the selling situation, we're trying to sell a solution that's a perfect fit for each customer, not just to get a deal done. We work hard at that, and I think that it pays off.

What is next after Seismic?

It’s kind of hard to think about. I'm having so much fun right now, and I firmly believe this is a huge space. It's a huge opportunity. We have a big company with the resources to continue to build. I love the fact that we're building it with headquarters in San Diego, which hasn't historically been a big software destination. That’s changing, and I like the fact that we're being a part of it.

I love the way that we're helping our customers be more effective sellers and more efficient at how they market. You always keep an eye on the horizon, but try not to trip over the step that's in front of you. We have eyes on building something much bigger over the next few years. Then, I don't know after that. I'll hop on a rocket ship and fly to Mars, maybe.

Is this road also challenging? Does anything scare you about how fast you're growing?

I'm no math whiz but, 100% growth at the size we are now is a lot different than 100% growth a few years ago. The bets that we make, and the number of people that we need to onboard, and the number of initiatives that we're doing, they all just get bigger and more risky in a lot of ways.

I wouldn't say anything scares me, and I would also say everything scares me. It's, where in the organization is the place that's going to break if we don't make some changes? Try to be aware of that and get in front of it instead of waiting until after the fact. That's the game, and that's how I see my role in order to stay ahead.

How to Export and Import Solutions Between Dynamics 365 Instances

By Ben Ward

Foreword

In this example, I will be exporting and importing a solution consisting of my custom Time and Expense entities previously created.

Exporting the Solution

Login to the destination instance of Dynamics 365 (where the customization resides and to be exported from). Go to Settings > Customizations > Solutions.
Click on New in the top ribbon. Complete the required fields located on the form.
Note: If you have not exported a solution before, you may need to create a new publisher record for yourself. To create a publisher record, click on the lookup button on the Publisher field and click on New.
Once the new solution has been created, click on Add Existing in the top ribbon and click on Entity. From Select Solution Components dialog, select all the entities that make up the solution you are looking to export. In this example, I know that the following entities are part of my custom Time and Expense solution:
·       Time entity
·       Expense entity
·       Time and Expense Date Range entity
·       Events entity
·       Event Participation entity
If you do not know this information, don’t worry. Dynamics 365 will produce a prompt displaying any missing dependencies later. I will purposely leave out the Event Participation entity to display the missing components prompt from Dynamics 365.
Go ahead a select all the entities that are a part of the solution to export and click OK.

The next screens will show all the assets that are a part of each entity selected on the previous prompt. In this example, I will export all the assets for each of the entities selected. To ensure all assets are included in the export, the Add All Assets box needs to be checked. Once ready, click Next:

Repeat the previous step for each of the entities selected and click Finish on the last entity prompt.

Dynamics 365 will then check the status of the solution and provide a list of missing components that were not added to the solution package. In this example, the icon asset was missing. Make sure ‘Yes, include required components’ is selected and click OK. The wizard will close and display the full solution which is now ready to be exported. To export the solution, click Export Solution in the top ribbon.

On the Publish Customizations screen, click Publish All Customizations (if any of the customizations to be exported have not been published yet) and click Next.
On the next prompt, Dynamics 365 will check to see if there are any missing components prior to exporting. In the previous steps, I purposely did not select the Events Participation required entity, and Dynamics 365 is informing me that this entity is required. To add the missing required entity, click Cancel on the prompt, select the related entity for the missing component (in this example the related entity is the Events entity) and click on Add Required Components in the top ribbon. The missing entity will appear in the list of components to export.
Click on Export Solution again and click Next.
On the Export System Settings (Advanced) prompt, you can “Select the following features if you want their system settings to be applied when the solution is imported. Note that the system settings are not removed if the solution is deleted. Consult your system administrator before including system settings in your solution.” In this example I will not export any of my system settings along with export and just click Next.
On the next prompt, I will select the Package Type to be Unmanaged and click Next.
The next prompt will ask for the target source version. I will select 8.2, and click Export.
The solution will download to your default download location.

Importing the Solution

Login to the destination Dynamics 365 instance and go to Settings > Customization > Solutions and click on Import in the top ribbon.
Click on Choose File and select the recently exported and downloaded solution, then click Next.
The correct solution information should be displayed. If this is correct, click Next.
Under Import Options, check Enable any SDK message processing steps included in this solution and click on Import.
The solution will begin importing into the target Dynamics 365 instance.
Once the solution has been imported, a notification should appear at the top of the prompt to display the status of the import. Click on Publish All Customizations.
Once the solution has been published, click on Close, refresh the browser and navigate to the corresponding section of the CRM where the newly imported solution will now reside. If the new solution appears, test out the functionality and you should be good to go!

Friendly neighborhood pet store opens hundreds of new locations with the support of Dynamics AX

As written on customers.microsoft.com
Almost a year ago, Pet Supplies Plus had 300 stores across the United States and was planning aggressive store growth in the coming years. Decision makers at the company knew they would need a strong technological backbone to support such an ambitious expansion, so they chose Microsoft Dynamics AX to replace the company’s disparate ERP systems. Now that Pet Supplies Plus has begun deployment, the company is beginning to see the fruits of its labor—and the validation that it made the right choice.

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Brown recommends LCS to help reduce deployment times as well as lower costs, and she says, “we now have a better understanding of how to implement Dynamics AX across our stores and how to scale up more quickly utilizing the different tools and services in LCS. If you start with LCS and work your way through the cloud deployment, it’s your one-stop shop and your entry point into developing your Azure environment.”

Empowering employees to provide better service

Since Pet Supplies Plus deployed Dynamics AX to its stores last year, the decision makers at the business have heard lots of feedback from employees who are very happy with the change. “I’ve asked on a number of occasions if they’d like to go back to the old system and, across-the-board, nobody wants to,” Tedder says. “They are very pleased with the features and functionality of the Dynamics POS application and the future ability to evolve the POS application even further.”
The company is still in the early stages of its deployment process and the few dozen stores that are up and running with the new system are only a small sample size of the overall implementation. But Tedder says that he’s already seeing improvements in the time it takes to train employees on Dynamics AX. He explains, “Reducing training time for new team members is going to be extremely important and will result in a material ROI for any retailer using Dynamics AX.”

Taking care of neighbors and their pets

Pet Supplies Plus is also using Dynamics AX to help standardize its data, streamline its workflow, and standardize business processes across all its locations. “Dynamics AX is fulfilling our wish to have one system of record, one version of the truth, and a simplified applications portfolio, especially for the corporate office environment,” says Tedder. “The combination of those things coupled with business intelligence and reporting will yield efficiencies and improve our ordering in the ongoing months—we planned for this; it was part of how we made the decision to go with Microsoft Dynamics AX.”
The most important benefits, however, will be for the neighbors who come in and shop at Pet Supplies Plus locations. Tedder says, “We want to make sure that we provide a convenient option for our customers to purchase supplies for their pets, at a great value. Our goal is to make sure that we capitalize on that magic moment between team members and neighbors when we’re helping them select and purchase the products they need for their pets.”

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Head to Head: Dynamics Marketing vs. Click Dimensions

By Lisa Curry as written on www.chorus.co

In a previous post, I compared the newly released Microsoft Dynamics Marketing with Click Dimensions. Since then, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM) have released its ‘Electra’ update (see ‘Dynamics Marketing: Electra update’) but with the number of improvements it brought, I wanted to update the comparison between Click Dimensions and MDM.
Previously, Click Dimensions ‘won’ out of the two due to its established support, streamlined integration, user experience and email marketing capabilities. But if you’ve read about the Dynamics Marketing update you will know that this release saw some great improvements - particularly to user experience, campaigns and email marketing.
We’ve compiled a list of features and ranked Click Dimensions and Dynamics Marketing against these to give a ‘Win’, ‘Lose’ or ‘Draw’ outcome, shown below. While this infographic provides a great summary, every business has different requirements, restrictions and even preferences, so we think it’s always best to speak to an expert and start with a trial as everyone likes different things. If you do want to speak to us about marketing automation for your CRM system, please get in touch.

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CRM 2016 - Online vs on-premises features FAQ

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 was an online-only release. Most of the features introduced in that release are now available for on-premises customers in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016.
The following table provides a list of features available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 and whether they're for CRM Online only or for both CRM Online and CRM (on-premises). Details about Office integration features are listed later in this topic.
Feature CRM Online/CRM on-premises
Navigation - Move around CRM using the new navigation bar and menu system Both
Performance - Forms load much faster with the new form rendering engine Both
Analytics - Power Query connector streamlines connections to CRM Online CRM Online only
Administration
Switch or delete an instance of CRM Online CRM Online only
Manage CRM Online updates (customer-driven updates) CRM Online only
Customization
Add a logo or change the color scheme using themes Both
Define business rules based on business process flows Both
Move back to the previous stage of a business process flow on a different entity Both
Call custom actions from workflows or dialogs Both
Define rules for creating or updating CRM records from incoming activities Both
Calculated field enhancements Both
Clear field values with business rules Both
Use solution segmentation for tighter control of solutions exports and patches Both
Mobile
Email a link to a page from CRM for phones and tablets Both
Enjoy the same mobile experience whether you’re using a phone or tablet Both
Provide modern UI with the new visual controls in CRM for phones and tablets Both
Export data to Excel from CRM for phones and tablets Both
Use iFrames and web resources in CRM for tablets Both
Manage devices with Intune device management Both
Use mobile apps with Windows 10 and iOS 9 Both
Preview mobile forms and dashboards before deploying to CRM for phones and tablets Both
Secure your mobile data with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Good Both
View SharePoint documents in CRM for phones and tablets Both
Create a task flow in CRM for phones and tablets (Preview feature) CRM Online only
Service
Customize interactive service hub dashboards and forms Both
Enable service level agreements (SLAs) on demand Both
Prioritize workloads with new interactive service hub dashboards and forms Both
Reduce case call-handling time with rich knowledge management articles Both
Share the knowledge base with Parature CRM Online only
Speed up customer service with default entitlements Both
Use surveys to collect feedback from customers CRM Online only
New, improved Unified Service Desk Both
SDK
Change tracking API Both
Control.getShowTime method for Date controls Both
Create alternate keys for referencing records in CRM Both
Custom actions in workflows or dialogs Both
Custom claim mapping for SharePoint server-based integration Both
Enhanced capabilities for sub-grid controls in forms Both
Form script support for the new Knowledge Management (KM) integration with Parature CRM Online only
Integrate CRM data with external systems more easily Both
Integration with Parature CRM Online only
Multiple message execution Both
New form script capabilities Both
Optimistic concurrency Both
Record creation and update rules Both
Rollup field enhancements Both
Specify custom price lists for opportunities, quotes, orders, and invoices Both
Support for additional “older than” clauses for date and time fields in FetchXML and QueryExpression Both
Support for new behavior of date and time values in CRM Both
Tracing Both
Track emails at the folder level Both
Update message for specialized operations Both
Upsert for updating CRM with external data Both

 

Office integration

The following table shows the availability of Microsoft Office and email features, depending on whether Microsoft Office or Exchange is deployed online or on-premises.

Feature CRM Online/CRM on-premises
Email - Dynamics CRM App for Outlook for Exchange Online CRM Online only
Email - Dynamics CRM App for Outlook for Exchange on-premises Not applicable
Email - Dynamics CRM for Outlook (aka Outlook client) for Exchange Online Both
Email - Dynamics CRM for Outlook (aka Outlook client) for Exchange on-premises Both
Email - Monitor mailbox health using the improved server-side synchronization performance dashboard Both
Email - Server-side synchronization Test connection to Exchange on-premises and setup guide CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM Online with Exchange on-premises CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM Online to Exchange Online CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM on-premises to Exchange on-premises CRM on-premises only
Email - Track Exchange email activities automatically with folder tracking Both
Delve (Exchange Online optional for attachments). SharePoint Online license required CRM Online only
Delve (Exchange on-premises) Not applicable
Export to Excel completely redesigned Both
Immersive experience, Excel Online CRM Online only
Office 365 Groups (Exchange Online) CRM Online only
Office 365 Groups (Exchange on-premises) Not applicable
OneDrive for Business (online) Both
OneDrive for Business (on-premises) Not applicable
OneNote (online) CRM Online only
OneNote (on-premises) Not applicable
SharePoint Online Both
SharePoint (on-premises) Both
Skype for Business (online) Both
Skype for Business (on-premises) Both
Excel templates Both
Word templates Both
Yammer (online) CRM Online only
Yammer (on-premises) Not applicable

 

Managed Solution will partner with your organization, align goals, and deploy Dynamics CRM hand-in-hand, ensuring we create a solution specific to your unique business needs. We have developed a proven deployment and migration strategy for our clients deploying Dynamics CRM to make sure that your transition is simple, smooth, and stable. For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.


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Maximize opportunities to win and keep customers

In an increasingly connected world, a customer’s experience matters now more than ever and maintaining your reputation is vital. As your customer base grows and staying connected with customers becomes more challenging, are you certain you’re making the most of your opportunities? What can you do to anticipate your customers’ needs so they don’t have an experience that sends them off to check out the services of one of your competitors?
Since your business already runs Microsoft Office 365, you are familiar with the value that Office 365 brings to your organization. What you may not know is that when you add Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you extend that tool to get a complete solution that keeps your business in tune and engaged with your customers.

By adding Dynamics CRM Online, you:

  • Make it easy for everyone in your organization to get the information they need to deliver great customer experiences.
  • Boost productivity by empowering your sales and service employees to do their best work from virtually anywhere.
  • Get visibility into your organization to make informed decisions and grow your business.

You’ll find that the simplicity and affordability of the combination of Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online makes a critical business solution attainable and adaptable for any sized business. Best of all, you can move at your own pace and use only the elements that you need. Its enterprise-class cloud infrastructure, maintained by Microsoft, keeps your business secure and reliable with minimal technology support.

Get Started Now

Businesses who are up and running on Office 365 + Dynamics CRM Online never look back—enjoying gains in productivity and sales, and the competitive advantage from customer service excellence.

Contact us today 800-257-0691 to learn more about how you can use Office 365 + Dynamics CRM Online to shift your focus back on the things that matter most to your business.

 

To distinguish Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) from its larger competitors, its member firms must maintain closer relationships with—and deliver personalized attention to—their clients. The independent member firms of GTIL are deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM to facilitate collaboration around sales, marketing, and customer service. The solution has driven an increase in the number and size of sales wins, while helping the firms offer better value to clients and maintain consistency in a complex environment.

In an industry that has long been dominated by the Big Four, the Grant Thornton organization is under constant pressure to differentiate itself from its larger, better-known competitors. To do this, Grant Thornton member firms, which operate in more than 130 countries, offer their clients something the competition cannot: personalized service and closer relationships.

“We are not, nor do we want to be, the biggest accounting organization,” explains Rick Stow, head of Client Relationship Management. “We compete with four much larger firms, so we differentiate by having closer relationships to earn credibility and increase value. We choose to be much more connected to our clients. We need to have a good presence in our local markets if we're going to compete.”

Grant Thornton LLP, which operates in more than 56 offices in the United States, maintained various customer management solutions (including SalesLogix); they lacked visibility into contacts, accounts, and influencers across all employees and practice areas. This sometimes led to duplication of effort and missed opportunities. Further, because account teams were not aware of all interactions with a specific customer, it was difficult to gauge the strength or extent of the relationship. With no way to identify opportunities for cross-selling services, the member firms’ ability to grow the business was limited.

With a single standardized solution, Grant Thornton LLP aims to ensure that the firm—rather than individual employees—maintains the relationship with each contact.

Going mobile

Grant Thornton member firms in the United States, Canada, and Germany currently use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and on-premises for sales force automation, marketing management, and comprehensive account planning functionality built using the xRM extensibility capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics. In addition, two add-on solutions augment Grant Thornton LLP’s account and customer data with third-party research, including data from InsideView and LinkedIn. Future plans include adding social listening capabilities that will capture additional information from public sources.

The upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 will also allow Grant Thornton LLP to fully exploit the mobile capabilities of the Microsoft Dynamics solution. Today, a handful of people access the system on Windows 8 Surface devices, but because most employees spend a majority of their time outside the office, making functionality available on virtually any device or platform will be key to successful, widespread adoption.

“More and more people are asking for a true ‘app’ experience,” explains Stow. “One of the most appealing aspects of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is the ability to deliver the same experience across multiple platforms. Whether you’re opening a form from within Outlook, from a browser, or on a mobile device, you have access to the information and full functionality.”

Fostering collaboration

Finding ways to foster collaboration among accounting and advisory professionals is key to Grant Thornton LLP’s continued success. “Relationships are everything,” says Stow. “So people are very protective of their relationships. But to understand the full scope of a client relationship, we need to overcome that individual mindset and find ways to collaborate effectively.”

In addition to establishing Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a standardized solution for CRM, Grant Thornton LLP has found that other technologies have been key to helping employees share information and work better together across member firms. A large-scale SharePoint deployment includes more than 50,000 unique sites where employees share documents and collaborate on accounts and initiatives. Communications and enterprise social media tools, including Lync and Yammer, provide voice, instant messaging and conferencing capabilities — and connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to facilitate communication around client and account activities.

As a result, the employees in Grant Thornton LLP can depend on one another and deliver more comprehensive service to clients. “It’s not just about using the technology,” says Stow. “Our workforce today is more connected — and more productive. People see the interactions and work more efficiently, and that ultimately allows us to serve our clients better.”

Enhancing sales processes

Microsoft Dynamics provides Grant Thornton LLP with a process-driven CRM solution that accommodates different sales processes and regional requirements. For existing accounts, the connection capabilities of the solution allow each member firm to build virtual account teams that include all employees and partners involved in a particular relationship, who can collaborate on a plan to nurture and proactively drive the relationship forward.

Using the collected data in the CRM solution, account managers see strengths, weaknesses, and threats related to a particular relationship or opportunity. They identify competitors that might be serving the client — in addition to potential partners in other advisory roles who might influence sales — and collaboratively develop a plan to pursue the opportunity.

Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Grant Thornton LLP has experienced a 450 percent jump in the number of opportunities it is tracking, a 36 percent increase in average win value, and a 700 percent rise in the number of contacts in the system. In addition, by tracking employee behaviors in the system, Grant Thornton LLP correlates factors such as sales activities and frequency of client contacts to win rate and revenue generation so as to further refine the sales process through insights.

Delivering better client service

Stow is quick to point out that the benefits of the CRM solution extend beyond sales. “Our goal for the solution is not to push additional services on our clients, but to better serve our clients,” he says. “The enhanced planning and collaboration tools enable us to respond to clients more effectively and in a more timely fashion.”

In particular, he points to the ability to conduct proactive planning using custom account plans developed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The tool helps Grant Thornton LLP identify priority accounts and includes a complete history of account activity and plans for nurture or contact efforts. Connections to partners and other service providers enable Grant Thornton LLP to identify partners who might enhance the value proposition through collaboration.

Using data to drive value

The value proposition of Grant Thornton LLP is also enhanced by the analytical capabilities of the CRM solution. Using CRM in conjunction with business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Grant Thornton LLP can identify trends or issues affecting a particular class or segment of clients and then reach out proactively to other clients in that segment to address these issues.

The development of new services is also driven by analytics, which provide insights into client demand based on service line, service type, revenue, and other factors — which makes their very smart people even smarter from a sales, marketing, and business development standpoint.

“The solution enables us to be much more focused,” says Stow. “We can use data to make data-driven decisions and communicate to our teams using actual data. Everyone here is very smart, but the additional insights — based on a single shared version of the truth — make us all smarter.”

Read customer success stories to learn how Managed Solution helps businesses implement technology productivity solutions.

For information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, please call us at 800-257-0691.

World Animal Protection is an international animal welfare organization that has been in operation for over 30 years. To help end animal cruelty, it provides aid, education, and government outreach support. Effective, reliable, cost-conscious back-office solutions ensure their resources are used efficiently and they can focus on maximizing their charitable work around the globe.
To make the most of its resources, World Animal Protection streamlined its management of global finances, operations, and sponsorships. Planning, managing, reporting, and delivering support in an efficient and consistent way across their global operations enables them to concentrate their efforts on maximizing their impact on animal protection. World Animal Protection uses a combination of efficient processes and reliable tools to ensure efficient and compassionate resource delivery.

1. Be accountable to supporters

Transparency regarding financial sourcing and decision-making is key to a healthy ongoing relationship with supporters and funders. The right technology and business solutions can help make that happen.

2. For better aid, improve visibility

Seek to provide better visibility into donors, budgets, and projects. This practice helps World Animal Protection ensure that funds are being properly managed, as they continue to flow in, and that those funds are largely used to help animals across the globe instead of being consumed by unrestrained administrative costs.

3. Choose tools and processes that support your mission

World Animal Protection has consolidated geographically disparate finance and operations processes, and no longer relies on a disconnected collection of spreadsheets to manage its work. Now they have a complete, trusted, and connected network of processes and workflows, supported by a framework of reliable and cost-efficient software solutions - including Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Office 365.

4. Understand the concerns and history of key players

Serving stakeholders across the globe with consistency requires a mindful approach and a firm grasp of the history of your organization’s relationship with them. Find the right tools to keep track of historical information and put them to use. World Animal Protection uses Microsoft solutions to better understand and engage with supporters, stakeholders, and sponsors, without compromising security or personal data.

5. Get out of the office and into the field

Don’t spend all your time in the office, miles away from the people and projects you are working to support. Take the time up front to establish tools and processes that keep things running when you are in the field, doing the really important work.
Source: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=23890
Read customer success stories to learn how Managed Solution helps businesses implement technology productivity solutions.
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.

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