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From the humble card / rolodex systems, to the bundled management offerings in many financial packages, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is undergoing a revolution tagged "xRM". where "X" equals the interaction, entity or process that relates to your business.
What is the "X" for your business? Some examples may be:
- If you are a sales based organisation, "X" could represent sales conversions with a relational link to originating "Lead" or "Opportunity"
- If you are in specialist healthcare, "X" = "Referrer" with a relational link to "Patient"
- If you are in education, "X" = "Parent" with a relational link to "Student(s)"
- If you have a B2B Wholesale business, "X" = "Retailer / Supplier / Contractor / Competitor"
- If you are in product support, "X" = "Product Returns with a relational link to account"
"X" = whatever your business defines it to be; So how do you mange this?
When looking for a CRM for your business, think first about the interactions; Define what your "X" is. You may be surprised to learn that not all business interactions are with customers. You may need to manage relationships with suppliers, (who may also be customers, who may also be competitors). For example the wholesaler that supply products to you, and is also competing against you on projects in your industry... Is this type of "X" relationship management important for your business?
What about compliance, KPI's, automated process and knowledge base management?
Surely this doesn't relate to CRM does it? Think again. Managing "X" also means managing the processes and workflows that govern them. This includes:
- Managing and automating workflows in sales and general operations
- Managing sales pipeline, probability, targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Managing marketing efforts, tracking ROI on campaigns.
- Managing call centre interactions across multiple operators (Telesales / Customer Support)
- Managing product items, pricelists, service scheduling (Time billing) quotes & invoices
 Automating Process Workflows Is Key For Consistency & Compliance
All this sounds good, but I don't want another data 'silo' to manage...
When evaluating CRM, or any core business system, look 3-5 years in the future. xRM is like the plumbing for your business. It is being used successfully to replace silo Excel, Legacy and Access applications into a centralised, manageable development platform (Built utilising .Net framework and SQL DB)
The risk of purchasing a software package without allowing for business growth will result in dependancy on a technology that suffers backlog at times where the business wants to explode.
- How will the business grow? How many people will interact with it? How many locations?
- What IT investment (products, platform, databases) have you already made?
- Can the proposed software scale to meet our planned business growth, and yet be affordable while we are getting there?
- How will it integrate with current systems, and will it adapt to future needs? (Note: Will the software vendor be around to support it???)
Key Concepts and the Microsoft Unified Vision
Connect People To Your Business Within The Industry Standard Microsoft Platform.
So, Key Concepts, with over 20 years business software experience, forged in the bulletproof IBM AS400 (green screen) systems, decided to move in the Microsoft space because our AS400 customers wanted more functionality from their core systems, which it frankly was never designed to do.
Their customers wanted to interact online, sales wanted mobile business data, suppliers wanted a keyhole view into inventory to predict stock turns... The users of these legacy systems were rampant in creating data silos to suit individual needs... (Access, Excel, 3rd party software..).
Legacy Software Vs Hosted (Service) Vs Microsoft Dynamics CRM:
Weigh up the features in a CRM that are important to you...How does it compare ...?
Compared to Lotus Notes, Goldmine, Salesforce.com, Saleslogix, ACT!, and the many other good "CRM" offerings out there, we found gaps when asking the risk, scalability, integration, usability and future-bility questions.
Store bought CRM can do the job in most small office - home office (SoHo) cases, but once we looked at 10+ users and web / mobile delivery, cracks started to appear. Hosted or web only based solutions look cutting edge, but then we asked what if the internet connection went down, or what if we had some dispute with our hosting provider, well, this risk was too scary to consider since they had all our customer info on their site!
Microsoft Dynamics CRM satisfied all our key requirements, and delivered the information in a client (None other than your everyday Outlook, so our people can use it immediately) and a web browser so we have the best of both worlds. The data is centralised in one location, so there is only one version of the truth. xRM is satisfied because we can customise the screens, tabs and database fields all within the application:
Edit Fields Inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Making It A True xRM Solution (Click to enlarge)
Add to this the familiar Microsoft user experience, (as you would expect, looks and integrates seemlessly inside Outlook, Office, Word, Excel, Sharepoint, Etc...), and the fact that Microsoft is here to stay (Like it or not, they grasp the usability habits of office users, futurebility is assured), the reasons are clear why we backed this horse, So:
- We use Microsoft Dynamics CRM everyday in our business
- We are accredited to consult if CRM is a fit for your business, sell, train and service this solution to you directly
- The platform (.Net/SQL DB) is industry standard that allows virtually any level of scalability and integration within Dynamics and other standard SQL built applications. (Including non Microsoft)
Like to know more...? Links, Videos, Personal Demos and a 90 day test drive:
Browse videos and PDF files below for real life case studies that use Dynamics CRM (xRM) in their world. If you are evaluating different CRM applications, why not ask us to show you Dynamics CRM in context to your business. (xRM that relates to you). You can contact us here for a no obligation, no sell overview that relates to your business.
 CRM Fast FAQ's - Your CRM questions answered here
See how Dynamics CRM 4 is customised to fit your business (xRM in practice).
FREE 90 day fully functional CRM trial is available! Contact us now.
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How does Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) help business connect to their customers in real life situations? See videos: |
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Download these supporting PDF files to see if Dynamics CRM and Key Concepts can assist you in making the right sales and marketing management decision. |
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The supporting cast:
Other solutions can be found in our Services and Products page:
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Microsoft Dynamics AX (Enterprise Resource Planning), Financials, HR, Payroll, Compliance Management, Document / Process Management, Inventory, Scheduling |
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AS400/iSeries RPG Development and Consulting |
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AS400 to Excel business reporting from Global Software |
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Crystal Reports |
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EDC |
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Database Optimisation |
"What Is xRM? A CRM Exposé "
Written 2008 by Gus Mileto
Business Process Analyst
Key Concepts Consulting
gus@keyconcepts.com.au
0413 995 082
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Microsoft Sharepoint 