Wednesdays with Will: Microsoft Dynamics CRM & Office 365 – Working In Perfect Harmony
By William Marchesano, Technology Advisor & Evangelist
Welcome back! Last week we talked about the recent expansion in Office 365 to include Dynamics CRM. This week we are going to discuss how you can enhance your experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with Microsoft Office 365. Separately, they work well as standalone solutions, solving different day-to-day challenges. Put them together, though, and you have managed to enhance both of these valuable business tools for the user as well as the administrator.
Over the past 3-4 years there has been prevailing sentiment for businesses to move to Microsoft Office 365. The most common, and logical, starting point for an organization would be their email (Exchange). Gone are the days where you have to buy new server hardware every few years, allocate the space in your office for said hardware, buy new software to upgrade, and pay for an anti-spam solution to keep you safe. Oh, and let’s not forget the maintenance that goes along with keeping it running in good order. All the above challenges have been either eliminated or reduced by Office 365 Exchange Online. There are also other parts to the solution such as file sharing (SharePoint/OneDrive), video conferencing (Skype For Business), crowdsourced collaboration (Yammer), and the tried and true Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) that can be consumed through Office 365 as well.
As you know, much like Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online is also a platform that was designed to improve efficiencies in accomplishing daily tasks as well as enhance collaboration between your employees. In addition to that, Dynamics CRM is a process driven user experience tool that gathers analytics for business intelligence. These qualities are important when you are looking to implement a sales automation, marketing automation, or services automation solution for your organization. Dynamics CRM was designed to be used for these functions out-of-the-box. Yes, customization is required to make it hum along to the rhythm of your particular business but all the major pieces to make it work are there. But how does it all tie into Microsoft Office 365?
Let’s start with the reasons why your users will love it. All the featured applications I mentioned above (Exchange, SharePoint/OneDrive, Skype For Business, Yammer, and Office Suite) are logically integrated and used throughout the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online experience. Through Dynamics CRM Online you are able to synchronize emails, tasks, contacts, and appointments with Exchange Online and your Outlook. Documents that you save in Dynamics CRM pertaining to an account or opportunity are also synchronized and saved to SharePoint. You have the ability to click on a phone number in Dynamics CRM Online to make a phone call by using Skype For Business. One of the best new features, Office 365 Groups, allows non-Dynamics CRM users a single location to share documents, conversations, meetings, and notes with Dynamics CRM users. This would be helpful in the scenario of sales opportunity where the input of non-CRM users could be instrumental in winning a deal.
From an administrative perspective, Dynamics CRM Online is a familiar experience if you are already using Office 365. This is because Dynamics CRM users can be created and managed through the Office 365 admin center portal. You have the ability to do many other things through here such as manage billing and licenses, manage passwords, view self-serve service health, track planned maintenance, or leverage the Message Center. The Message Center is a great resource because it can tell you how to fix or prevent issues, plan for service changes, or just to stay informed of new or updated features. You can even request service to resolve an issue through the Message Center.
In the coming weeks, we will continue to go deeper into how these tools will apply in different scenarios such as sales automation, marketing automation, and services automation. I hope you enjoyed and found this week’s article informative. If you’re interested in some how-to related CRM material, check out blogs by my colleague Ben Ward here. Till next time…
About the author:
Will has over 16 years of experience in business development, team management, and project management. Will has worked at Managed Solution for over four years and is currently advising businesses on best CRM practices and implementations. Will’s focus is on process improvement and analytics specializing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Will is a Microsoft Certified Professional, with certifications in Presales Technical Specialist – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Sales Specialist- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Application, Sales Specialist- Office 365, Sales Specialist- SMB Infrastructure and Sales Specialist- Datacenter.
Other articles by Will Marchesano:
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.
What is a CRM? Part 2
By Ben Ward, Applications Analyst, MCTS, MCP, MS
If you haven’t read What is a CRM? Part 1, I highly recommend reading it before proceeding.
Sales - Social Selling: A CRM, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, can be used as a social selling tool. Microsoft partnered with InsideView to create Microsoft Insights, a social insight tool that directly integrates within Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide users with instant additional information regarding leads, contacts or accounts from directly within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This additional information is derived from Microsoft Insights scraping publicly accessible social and business profiles regarding leads and contacts and aggregating the data. Currently, Microsoft Insights is free for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
According to InsideView, Microsoft Insights can do the following:
1. Identify Your Buyer
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Instantly qualify prospects with high quality company data
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Expand on previous wins by looking for similar companies
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Identify decision makers in an account by functional area or title
2. Understand your buyer
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Save hours of research time with up-to-the-minute company news and social media buzz at your fingertips
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Increase your win rate by tailoring your pitch to immediate customer needs
3. Engage your buyer
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Start a conversation with a target buyer by noting mutual acquaintances, past employers you have in common or schools you both attended
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Get a warm introduction into an account by leveraging your professional network and those of your colleagues
Marketing - Big Data Repository: As mentioned on the first line of What is a CRM? Part 1, A CRM is simply a glorified database. This means if a CRM is implemented and used correctly, it can collect a vast amount of data in a short space of time. In a world where there are more mobile devices than people, more and more data is being collected in some form, and with big data comes big opportunity. There may not be a need right now for a full-time analyst at your company, but what about in the near future? An analyst is only as good as the data available. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have legacy data available for when the inevitable moment arrives when your business needs an analyst? As Arthur Conan Doyle once said “Data! data! data! I can’t make bricks without clay”.
About the author:
Ben has worked at Managed Solution for over two years and is currently working on CRM customization and administration, Microsoft SharePoint integration and customization as well as Business Intelligence analytics including SQL reporting. Ben is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, Microsoft Certified Professional, Microsoft Specialist and has six Dynamic CRM certifications.
Other Blog Posts by Ben Ward:
4 Tips to Increase Retention and Drive Upsell
Brand switching is up 29 percent since 2010, and poor customer service is to blame. In the US alone, customers are taking $1.6 trillion in revenue with them as they swap from brand ‘A’ to brand ‘B’. If you want to be on the winning side of those numbers, it’s time to take a close look at what you can do to keep your existing customers coming back for more.
It’s all about forging strong relationships, and here are four ways your CRM solution can strengthen the ties that bind your customers to you:
1. Identify your at-risk customers. Right now you’ve got repeat customers who are thinking of jumping ship. Change their minds. By tracking key metrics like customer purchase patterns and frequency of calls to your support team, you can see which customers are at risk of leaving you and assess their individual concerns or pain points. Then, take the proactive approach. Reach out. Ask what you can do to improve their experience with your company, then follow through on your solutions.
2. Develop personal relationships with every customer. Every interaction you have with customers is a chance to show them how much you care. Create detailed customer profiles and share them with every one of your customer service channels so you can reduce the number of times your customers have to repeat themselves.
Update these profiles after every interaction, and take special care to add any personal details your customer chose to share with you. Go above and beyond customer expectations by simply sending them a birthday card or wishing their child a happy graduation.
3. Make your special offers special again. “Spamming” customers with offers irrelevant to their needs is a one-two punch right to your customer service department’s gut. On the other hand, taking a little extra care and sending out promotional offers to only those customers you know will be interested can have the opposite effect. Combine advanced customer segmentation strategies with each customer’s purchase history and that “spam” could morph into top sirloin.
4. Always be within arm’s reach. Many customers only reach out for help once before jumping ship, and you’ve got to be ready for them no matter what channel they choose. Use social engagement tools to listen for sentiment online. Track frequently asked questions as they appear via chat, phone, email, and video conference. Constantly add newly relevant solutions to your self-service channels.
[Editor's note: The overall award rating is based on a composite score of analyst ratings for customer satisfaction, depth of functionality, company direction, and cost. For the cost score, analysts gave the highest marks to vendors with the lowest expected costs. Company revenues were also factored into the overall score, but these numbers are not included in the chart above.]
THE MARKET
According to a Gartner report, the CRM software market grew from $20.4 billion in 2013 to $23.2 billion in 2014 (representing 13.3 percent growth). An ongoing trend among enterprises is the movement from pure on-premises solutions to cloud-based solutions. Increasingly, large companies are seeking easy deployments and quick ways to improve upon legacy systems with complementary functionality. In the report, Joanne Correia, research vice president at Gartner, noted that the demand for software-as-a-service continues, "with SaaS accounting for almost 47 percent of total CRM software revenue in 2014."
THE LEADERS
According to analysts, NetSuite has the right steps in mind, evidenced by its high score in company direction (4.1). Jim Dickie, managing director at CSO Insights, a division of MHI Global, notes that though the solution is "not seen often for large enterprises," the company has its sights set on larger outfits. "We've been moving upmarket ever since we've gone public [in 2007]," CEO Zach Nelson said at SuiteWorld, the company's annual user conference, this May. The company also garnered a respectable customer satisfaction score (3.8). Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research, says that "the strength of NetSuite still lies in its single database and ability for sales and other users to see not just CRM but order and other data."
Like last year, Oracle scored the second highest in depth of functionality (4.1). Wettemann notes that the company's offerings, which include the Sales Cloud, Eloqua, CPQ, analytics, and mobile functionality, "are…solid capabilities enterprises need," but that Oracle "still needs some improvement in setup." She suggests changes are on the way, however, as the company "has made significant advances in usability." Cost continues to be an issue for Oracle; the company had its lowest score in that area (3.3).
Salesforce.com stands out for its company direction and customer satisfaction, two areas where it scored a 4.2. Analysts attribute this largely to the company's focus on an improved user interface. Wettemann says she expects that "the investments it is making in UI and in-app analytics will really pay off and make [Salesforce’s offerings] even more attractive to customers in the near term." John Ragsdale, vice president of technology and social research for the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), agrees, saying that the solutions are becoming more usable and that the company's focus on its Customer Success platform "is paying off with strong adoption and consumption by customers."
SAP scored lowest in cost (3.4) and highest in depth of functionality (nearly 4.0). Ragsdale suggests that SAP's embedded analytics "offer tremendous value" to buyers, who are "increasingly demanding sophisticated analytics and dashboards." Leslie Ament, senior vice president and principal analyst at Hypatia Research Group, notes that the company has improved its customer engagement and journey tracking capabilities. "Encompassing sales, marketing, customer service, and commerce, SAP has delivered an enterprise-class CRM solution," she told CRM magazine via email. Despite this praise, it is notable that of the leaders, SAP ranked the lowest in company direction (3.6). Wettemann says that "SAP seems to have lost its way in CRM and doesn't have a clear story on how it delivers value or how it can catch up on product road maps."
THE WINNER
Microsoft takes the title this year from longtime defending champion Salesforce.com. Analysts gave the company high marks in company direction (4.5). Ragsdale notes that "Microsoft is heavily investing in [its] CRM platform, adding sophistication across sales, marketing, and service, and as a result is seeing increased adoption by large enterprises." Wettemann singles out as strengths the "Parature service capabilities and knowledge base" as well as "integration with Office 365 and PowerBI," and Ament lauded the company's improved suite of integrated customer engagement products. Its software enables companies to reach customers "via multiple touch points and to do so with enterprise-wide intelligence, supported by Microsoft's Business Analytics platform (PowerBI and Azure Data Services)," Ament said via email.
ONE TO WATCH
Infor stepped up as One to Watch this year—and nearly made it onto the leaderboard. The company's acquisition of SalesLogix in August has bolstered its sales functionality, the category in which it scored the highest (3.8). "Infor has long had strong marketing capabilities with Epiphany and continues to build out its CRM offering with…SalesLogix," Wettemann says.
Managed Solution's Home Run Derby is heating up in July! Thanks to our dedicated teammates at Managed Solution, we are officially a Gold Cloud Platform Microsoft Partner for Azure and now have our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Advisor (CSA). Congratulations to everyone who helped obtain these new organizational level Microsoft competencies.
The Home Run Derby program provides fun incentives for our engineers to fulfill Microsoft certifications by using a customized incentive path with a baseball theme in mind. The program is structured to give individuals a customized plan that specifically aligns with their daily technical skills, as well as a plan for teams to earn points and money for successfully passing Microsoft certification exams.
Home Run Derby announcements are listed below and shared on our internal SharePoint site so engineers and other employees could see weekly highlights and congratulate one another on their progress.
Congrats to all our Home Run Hitters!
July
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Ben Ward, MB5-705 Managing CRM and Microsoft MB2-700 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
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Will Marchesano, Certified Sales Specialist for Office 365, Sales Specialist for Datacenter and Sales Specialist for SMB Infrastructure
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Tina Rountree, Sales Specialist for Office 365
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Lloyd Bowen, Microsoft 70-646
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Jeff Lizerbram, Office 365 70-347
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George Fedoseyev, Office 365 70-346 - MCSA in Office 365
June
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Will Marchesano, Sales Specialist Assessment For Dynamics CRM 2013 PLC 873218 Presales Technical Specialist
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George Fedoseyev, 347 Enabling Office 365 Services
May
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Lloyd Bowen, Exam 70-642 (Server 2008)
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George Fedoseyev, MCSE: Server Infrastructure
Certifications help engineers grow professionally as well as help Managed Solution grow as a company. Players are continuing to be added to the roster. Below is an example of one of our leading teams with several players on deck to bat (scheduled exams in the near future).
