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Archive for the ‘Dynamics CRM’ Category

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobility

by on May 16th, 2012

Everywhere I go I see more and more people using their mobile devices to do “stuff” that they used to only be able to do on their laptops.  iPads, Androids, slates, tablets, extremely large phones are all out there and getting better and better.  I was even sitting in the airport and watching a grandmother text as fast as her teen-aged granddaughter and I thought to myself, “How many of these folks sitting in the airport waiting for their flight, are doing work on their device or just doing “stuff” (email, surfing, games)?” 

Well, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Product team is working on the “CRM Q2 2012 Service Update” which will include massive improvements and capabilities around mobility and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  I wanted to share some of the information regarding “CRM Anywhere” which is the model Microsoft is trying to achieve as part of this service update.  Microsoft is making a major investment to develop a groundbreaking mobile solution that will support a wider variety of browsers.  The update will include a new cloud-based, cross-platform native mobile client for Windows Phone 7.5, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices called Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile.  This new release will also host the mobile configuration, administration, and security in the cloud to provide zero touch upgrades once the initial installation is complete.

Functionality will include the full breadth of features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM including dashboards.  This is great so you don’t have to install multiple apps to see all the different slices of your data on your device.  Another cool feature is that everything is administered centrally, so you publish once, no matter the number of different platforms may be being used in the field.  This is great!

The catch – isn’t there always one? :)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile is going to be provided to customers on a per user, per month basis similar to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription model.  Microsoft has slated initial pricing at approximately $30.00US.   Not too expensive for the benefit of a field force.  Close one deal in the airport and it will more than cover the costs for the year!

Please check back on the Perficient Microsoft Blog site for additional information and features that will be in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 Service Update. 

 

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Posted in Dynamics CRM, News and Events | No Comments »

Dynamics CRM Online

by on April 11th, 2012

Hello all!

I have been out talking with a lot of customers and prospects over the last few weeks and I wanted to bring to your attention that Microsoft Dynamics CRM does have an online SaaS offering.  It is branded Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and it has been available for several years now.  I am still amazed at how many people do not realize this!  Dynamics CRM Online is sold on a per user per month basis and customers can go to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online website and actually sign up for a free 30 day trial.  This is a great way to “get your feet wet” if you are evaluating Dynamics CRM.  I do caution that though it is extremely easy to use, please engage with Perficient to help you through the acclimation process.  Without some guidance, you may spend a significant amount of time going through screens just to see “what’s in there”.  Because there is a lot!  Using Dynamics CRM Online is a great way to start a proof of concept or possibly a departmental project before jumping into a full-scale CRM transformation.  We have had great success with this process. 

One of the reasons Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a great way to get going is because it is the same code base as the on-premise version.  Whether you start with Dynamics CRM Online and then decide to move your implementation on-premise, it is an easy transition.  All of the configuration and customizations that you created will migrate over…and it works the other way as well.  If you currently are running on-premise, but the operational expense aspects of SaaS fits more with your business, you can move Dynamics CRM to the cloud.

If you are interested in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online or need more information please contact us and we will happily walk you through the all the possibilities.

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Posted in Cloud, Dynamics CRM | No Comments »

Microsoft Dynamics Convergence – Houston next week!

by on March 13th, 2012

Hi All!!

Next week I am headed to Houston for Microsoft Dynamics Convergence which is the biggest customer conference Microsoft puts on for the Dynamics community.  This is where customers have the opportunity to hear about upcoming enhancements, customer success stories, network with other customers, and share ideas.  This year is packed with product briefings, best practices, and my favorite – roundtables, where customers and product team members discuss what works and what doesn’t.  It is always a great set of sessions!

I am also looking forward to this year’s 3 keynote addresses.  Retired General Colin Powell will speak on Monday, Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner will speak on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, President of the Microsoft Business Solutions Division, Kiril Tartarinov.  You can find more about them here.

I am going to try and blog every day to let you know what I’ve seen and heard, as well as what trends I see in the market.  Though my focus is on CRM, Microsoft Dynamics Convergence is all about the Dynamics family which also includes – Dynamics GP, Dynamics AX, Dynamics SL, and Dynamics NAV which are all ERP (financial) solutions provided by Microsoft.  My interest focuses on integration and interoperability as we often combine Dynamics CRM with one of those ERP packages when we are implementing solutions for our customers.

So please check in next week and see my posts!  I am also meeting with members of the Dynamics CRM product team to discuss enhancements and provide feedback from our Perficient customers.  Another big draw is the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace Expo where I am looking forward to meeting with several of our Marketplace partners like Eventix and Scribe.

See you all next week!

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Posted in Dynamics CRM, News and Events | No Comments »

Adding color to make it “your” Dynamics CRM

by on February 23rd, 2012

One of the coolest features that really increases productivity and efficiency when dealing with large amounts of records is the “conditional formatting” feature in the Dynamics CRM Outlook client.  Conditional formatting lets you build “rules” that change the way the record is displayed in a grid.  I like this a whole lot.  It doesn’t take the place of filtering, which limits the records based on user defined conditions, but rather changes the appearance of the records that are displayed in a list.

Let’s say you pull up your “My Active Accounts” view in Dynamics CRM.  This view displays a list of all accounts that are assigned to you with a status set to “active”.  This list of accounts can contain customers, vendors, suppliers, or any other designation you have set to segment you account list.  Using conditional formatting, you can build a rule that changes the font, font size and color that display.  For example, if you want to have all of the suppliers in the grid displayed with a font color of blue and vendors a color of orange, you simply create a personalization rule.  This is done on the “view” tab at the top of screen and then you click the “view settings” button.  Once the rule is saved, all the accounts in the view/list will have the appropriate colors applied, allowing you to quickly pick out vendors or supplieres in our example.

Another obvious use would be for viewing forecast or opportunity data.  Simply create a conditional format rule to show opportunities with a probability of close greater than 80% to be green, 50%-79% yellow, and less than 50% red, and viola!!, a quick and easy colorful snapshot of your pipeline.  The process to create these personalizations are very simple and I would say they are very similar to configuring “Inbox” rules you may have set up in Outlook. 

So try it out…and let me know what you think!

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Posted in Dynamics CRM | No Comments »

“CRM and xRM – What’s the difference?”

by on February 21st, 2012

My name is Joe Basile and I recently joined Perficient as the Dynamics CRM Practice Lead.  I will be sharing news, enhancements, as well as my views on all types of topics specific to Dynamics CRM.  I have been consulting in the CRM space since ’96 and have implemented hundreds of systems from small 5 person companies to some of the largest companies in the world.

One question that I typically come across from customers has to do with the confusion between CRM and “xRM”.  Let me start by stating that Microsoft has developed one product, that is Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Many partners (and Microsoft themselves) have used the term “xRM” since about ’04 as Dynamics CRM started to become more scalable and feature rich.  Classically, CRM has consisted of three many areas of functionality; Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing.  What most of us figured out very quickly after implementing Dynamics CRM several times is that software was so flexible, that you could pretty much build any type of application on top of Dynamics CRM, using the software as a development platform rather than trying to build the application on conventional custom development languages.  Benefits include, a rich UI/UX forms generator, sync engine, Outlook integration, workflow engine, a robust security model, and under the covers a strong SDK and web services layer.  The beauty of using Dynamics CRM as a development platform to create custom line of business applications is that it cuts development time and testing time way down compared to building from scratch.  Another advantage is that for the most part it is supportable, both by the partner implementing the solution as well as Microsoft themselves.

The heart of Dynamics CRM is a relational database that provides you the ability to track and manage anything…traditionally, customer interactions of all types.  But I have seen asset tracking systems, fleet management, property management, event management to name a few.  I have even talked with a large public energy company that wanted to track their wind turbine farms.  So when you hear ”xRM” the “x” stands for “anything”!

Look for more information regarding using Dynamics CRM as a development platform on the Dynamics CRM community as well as future posts from me as I dive into some real world examples.

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Posted in Dynamics CRM | 1 Comment »