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“C”apture “R”elationships that “M”atter
Capture Relationships that Matter: Importance and Benefits of Customer Relationship Management It’s a New Year and time for a new spin on CRM Capture Relationships that matter – Customer relationship management or CRM is a term used to discuss a company’s strategies to help understand and address client’s needs. It is a category of integrated, data-driven solutions that improve how you interact and do business with your customers. Solutions are designed to manage and maintain customer relationships, track engagements and sales while delivering actionable data-all in one place. Your CRM solution can help track key Account/Customer information including but not limited to: Contacts Communications Sales Capturing this data on a daily basis provides powerful data that can be analyzed to: List your Top 5 or 10 Customers Stay on top of and win Opportunities Analyze trends Build Relationships How a CRM Captures Relationships? A strong CRM solution will streamline processes and increase productivity & profitability in your sales, marketing, and service divisions. It is a platform where everything crucial to develop, improve and retain your customer relationships is stored . Don’t miss growth opportunities and lose revenue because you’re not maximizing your business Main benefits of CRM tools: Centralized customer information Automate marketing interactions Provide business intelligence Facilitate communications Track sales opportunities Analyze data Enable responsive customer service Build relationships with potential and existing clients Running a successful business is not a simple task. You need a powerful CRM solution to bring data analysis and capture relationships, meetings, customer care and more simultaneously functions together in one place. Get in touch with our CRM experts. We are here to help!
Dynamics 365 Unified Interface – Where did my Arrows Go?
Dynamics 365 Unified Interface – Where did my Arrows Go? Many of you by now will be aware that Dynamics 365 Unified Interface (UI) is not only here, it will be everywhere by October 2020. At that time, all Dynamics 365 CE (Customer Engagement) subscribers will be automatically upgraded to the Unified Interface and the Classic (or old or whatever you want to call it) interface will be retired. Also, like many of you, I sometimes fear change and can occasionally be heard yelling at my (inanimate) computer screen “Why did they change that!!??”. But I am also a bit techie and I like the ability to do new things, so when I first tried UI on our own Dynamics 365 system, I thought … Looks cool! Love the Cross-device compatibility Like the tabs that are like tabs (again) The menus work better back on the left (again) Cursor Changes in New Microsoft Dynamics 365 Naturally, however, there were things that I used to use/like in the old interface. For example, take my love for the 2 little navigation arrows – for an embarrassingly long time after the update, I could not figure out how to scroll through the related records in a list once I opened one. Previously, when I opened a Contact from within an Account, I could scroll through all the contacts. But now, I was left wondering how to do that without my little up and down arrows… where did they go!? Cursor Changed from Arrow to Circle in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface Eventually I spotted a new little icon in the new Dynamics 365 Unified Interface that gave me something even better than little arrows. In the top left corner of the form when you open a child record from a parent record form there is a new sort-of-an-arrow-in-a-circle icon. Click this new icon and you get a list of the child records and can go up and down that list or jump to any record in the list instantly. Even better than little arrows! What other little gems have you discovered in the Dynamics 365 Unified Interface? Let us know – you could become our first guest blogger.
How to Choose the Best CRM for Manufacturing
Manufacturing companies have their own unique perspective on the best value that a CRM system can provide. Even (or especially) in these days of COVID-19, accurately predicting demand for each product takes on a different importance for manufacturers. Many manufacturers are managing a complex supply chain with critical paths that involve expensive raw materials and components or perhaps items that have a long lead time. So how should your company choose the best CRM for Manufacturing? This is the first in a series of blog posts identifying and analyzing different facets of CRM for Manufacturing. Throughout the series, we will be using our Dynamics 365 Connector for SYSPRO as an illustrative example, but the principles hold for any CRM solution. Make sure there is a package or toolset that can cost-effectively provide you with the real-time information you need right in the CRM system. For this post, we are going to concentrate on visibility. Although globalization seems to be under threat, we still live in a world of ‘Just in Time’ supply chains. The Levelling: What’s Next After Globalisation – Michael O’Sullivan Has covid-19 killed globalisation? – The Economist, May 14th 2020 Your manufacturing company is likely to be part of a critical path for many of your customers. How does that impact your CRM and how can your CRM impact your business? In various ways including, but not limited to: Quickly and Accurately informing your customers when you can supply their critical purchase Identifying your best customers so you can allocate scarce inventory and attention to those most deserving and profitable for you Proactively notifying your customers in the event of a Supply Chain disruption When can we provide it? Most likely your salespeople are often asked “Do you have that in stock?”. Let’s take that a level higher and ask “When can we supply that?” Your salespeople can sell more efficiently and effectively if they can give their prospects and customers immediate and concrete information on current and future availability. Can CRM provide that information? By itself, no, it cannot. In many cases, CRM for Manufacturing means making key information visible in CRM by integrating information from other systems such as ERP and Supply Chain Management. When a prospective customer asks “When can I have it?”, how confidently can your salespeople respond “I can get you x units today and the rest in y days”? You must select a CRM system that. Can gather and display very specific information regarding your products Has access to up to date information from the system that controls it In other words, your CRM must be highly configurable so that it can store and display whatever information is relevant to your products AND it must have the capability of integrating with your ERP and/or Supply Chain Management system to retrieve the most accurate and timely data. Should you sell the last one to this customer!? The other side of the first question is whether you should be focusing on this particular customer or prospect at all. Are they in good standing with us? Are they an “A” customer or a “C” customer? What items do they normally buy? How quickly do they pay? Again, CRM solution alone is not the source of the best information on each customer’s creditworthiness or current balance. CRM for Manufacturing must have the ability to retrieve that information from the accounting or ERP system and present it clearly for the sales team and other CRM users. Please note that we are not just talking about whether a customer is “On Hold” or not. Effective Sales involves looking for customers that have bought a particular product before, that have a high sales volume with your company, that have a good payment history, and more. Example We are most familiar with the SYSPRO ERP system, which is designed primarily for manufacturing companies and has received numerous awards for excellence as an ERP solution for manufacturers. Since many SYSPRO companies also use Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM), we have developed a CRM for Manufacturing package that includes a suite of integration points between SYSPRO and CRM. It is important to note that. The integration points (and therefore your CRM itself) MUST be configurable to your specific needs and The Dynamics 365 Connector for SYSPRO is only an example of how your CRM should work with other systems. When CRM is integrated using the Dynamics 365 Connector for SYSPRO, CRM users can see all the relevant product information, inventory availability data, and customer details from SYSPRO. Using the standard CRM clients (browser, tablet, phone) they gain access to whatever SYSPRO data they need – a prime example of CRM for Manufacturing. Next Steps Now there is some homework for you to do. Find out what your CRM users actually want and need to see in CRM (whether you are looking to implement CRM for sales, customer service, order fulfilment, or whatever). Make a list. Next, determine if the CRM systems you are considering have the flexibility to store and display that data. Third, determine which system is the “Master” system for the information your CRM users need (often this is obvious simply by asking the users where they currently go to find it). Also, determine how up to date the information needs to be. Inventory availability is usually something that has to be as close as possible to real time. Customer credit details, however, might be acceptable if they are a few minutes or even an hour old. Last but not least, find out if the data can be extracted from the existing system and updated in the proposed CRM quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. Dominic Systems Limited specializes in CRM for Manufacturing – please Contact Us for a no obligation Discovery Consultation. Please come back and check our blog regularly. Our next post in the Choosing a CRM for Manufacturing series will look at Order Processing.
Microsoft Announces Name Change for Microsoft 365 Business Plans
Microsoft to Rebrand Some Office to Microsoft 365 Business Plans They say, “what’s in a name”? Well, a lot actually! If you are a parent, you will know how agonizing it can be to give your new baby the right name. You can’t give them something they’ll be made fun of… or will offend anyone… or has initials that spell something embarrassing… or reminds you of a mean kid you used to know at school. Then you also have to be clairvoyant and predict how your child may look in 30 years and consider if that name will still suit them. You have no idea if they are going to become a computer programmer or a lawyer or a performer with Cirque du Soleil! How can you pick a name to suit every eventuality?! The same is true of business and software names. Programmers and marketing departments can spend hours… no, days…no, months(!) thinking of the perfect name for their hard work. And then, time moves on and their program changes… it evolves… and the original name just doesn’t work as well anymore. Well, for that (kind-of) reason, Microsoft have decided to do a few name changes for their 365 offerings. Office 365 has evolved and gone a long way beyond the original suite of traditional office programs. The name no longer did justice to the range of apps and services that now fall under the subscriptions’ vast umbrella. Plus, Microsoft recently introduced a brand new set of offerings aimed at the consumer market, in their Microsoft 365 Personal and Family Subscriptions. New Microsoft Dynamics 356 Offering for Businesses Here are the changes: Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic. Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard. Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus will both become Microsoft 365 Apps. Where necessary we will use the “for business” and “for enterprise” labels to distinguish between the two. Microsoft 365 F1 will become Microsoft 365 F3. Office 365 F1 will become Office 365 F3. Some plans not changing, though. Those are: Office 365 for Enterprise Office 365 E1 Office 365 E3 Office 365 E5 Office 365 for Firstline Workers Office 365 F1 Office 365 for Education Office 365 A1 Office 365 A3 Office 365 A5 Office 365 for Government Office 365 G1 Office 365 G3 Office 365 G5 So… as a 365 business user, what does that mean for you? Not a lot really! There are no pricing or feature changes. The changes will happen automatically, so you will just see what you are using referred to by a different name: Microsoft 365 Business Plan. When is this happening? The new Microsoft 365 Business Plans names will take effect on April 21, 2020.