Q. What is Microsoft Customer Relationship Management?
Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a comprehensive solution that helps small and large sized businesses automate daily processes and thus increase sales success, provide superior customer service, accurately forecast sales, measure marketing effectiveness (ROI) and analyze business performance.
Accessible from both Microsoft Outlook and the Web, Microsoft CRM offers a flexible, scaleable architecture that integrates easily with Microsoft Office, Sharepoint, financial software, third-party applications, and your business's customer-facing Web site.
Q. What type of business' benefits from a CRM?
If you interact with people as customers, suppliers, staff, contractors, leads, etc... then some form of customer management is vital. Dynamics CRM extends this foundation by providing relationship linking, and adding intuitive automation 'alerts' for standard business interactions with people, products and processes.
Dynamics has core modules for sales (pipeline, opportunity reporting, sales lead management, activity tasks), marketing (events, campaigns), service (time billing), inventory, quoting to invoice, cases and much more... Key Concepts are certified professionals in tailoring Dynamics CRM for your specific business processes, within the familiar Microsoft Outlook product. (See xRM question)
Q. We already use a customer management software, why is this different?
Dynamics CRM is the logical choice when your business has outgrown off the shelf customer management software (Usually over 5 users). Most businesses get by with these solutions like ACT, Lotus Notes, Sage or Salesforce, (sometimes bundled with financial packages like MYOB and Quickbooks), however the risk of opportunity lost is too great when businesses are in growth and struggling to keep up with activity across multiple units. Dynamics CRM is designed to manage the small/medium business, to large, to enterprise, that have outgrown their current way of managing relationships; Your business won't need to change ships ever again.
Q. Is it cost effective? How expensive is it?
If you use Microsoft products already, Dynamics CRM utilises the investment you have already made with Server, SQL and Exchange.The solutions is affordable and suitable from 5 to 5,000 users, from small-medium to large-enterprise organisations. Contact us here to find out more
Q. Is finance available, what is software assurance?
If you have a set annual budget Key Concepts are able to extend Microsoft financing to cover the entire costs of implementation. This includes software, consulting, hardware and any associated cost to the project. Rates are extremely competitive and secured against the project software and hardware.
Software assurance is another option, where the total cost of software only is spread across 3 years interest free. This includes any upgrades to the software within this time. Contact us here to find out more
Q. What is "xRM" does Dynamics have this?
Yes! Read full article here
Q. What sort of sales management functionality does Microsoft CRM offer?
The Sales Module supports your sales team at every stage of the sales cycle, from leads and opportunities management to fulfillment and invoicing:
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Complete customer view and activity management: View and manage account activity, customer history, calendar, and communications including phone, fax, and e-mail. |
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Outlook synchronization: Access full sales functionality either online and offline from Outlook. |
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Reports: Use or customize a wide range of reports to forecast sales, measure business activity, and identify trends |
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Opportunity management: Qualify leads and track opportunities separately from customers through the sales cycle. |
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Workflow rules: Use or customize automated business processes for leads routing, opportunity tracking, and pipeline management. |
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Information sharing: Centralized data storage and integration capabilities make it easy to access, update, and share consistent, current information across teams and departments. |
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Order management: Automatically update orders with product catalogues, quotes, and invoices. |
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Quotas: Measure sales against individual employee goals. |
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Direct e-mail: Customize templates and use Mail Merge from Microsoft Word to send e-mail to targeted groups. |
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Sales library: Create and maintain a searchable library of sales and marketing literature. |
Q. What sort of customer service functionality does Microsoft CRM offer?
The Customer Service Module helps customer service representatives deliver stronger, more consistent and efficient support, with the following features:
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Case management: Create and assign cases for customer service requests and manage those cases from creation to resolution. |
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Activity management: View and update calendar, workload, and records. |
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Routing and queuing: Use workflow rules to automatically route service requests and cases to appropriate resources for resolution or reassignment. |
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Searchable knowledgebase: Easily create and update a library of articles and FAQs. |
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Contracts: Create, update, and manage contracts and service license agreements. |
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E-Mail auto-response: Use customizable templates and send automated responses to customer requests. |
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Phone system integration (Automated account view based on phone number recognition) This option is available, contact us to learn more. |
Q. How does Microsoft CRM integrate with Microsoft Office?
The Sales and Customer Service Modules are integrated with Microsoft Office 2000 and Office XP applications, supporting full sales functionality both online and offline from Microsoft Outlook, e-mail templates and Mail Merge with Microsoft Word, and data export to Microsoft Excel.
Q. Does Microsoft CRM integrate with Core Financial Software?
Microsoft CRM integrates with most open database software. It is built on industry standard MS SQL database which means no double entry for: Contacts, accounts, contracts, products, price lists, orders, contracts, and more. Data mapping can be customized using Microsoft BizTalk Server tools and services that ship with Microsoft CRM.
Q. Does Microsoft CRM integrate with non-Microsoft applications?
Yes. Key Concepts can help you customize your Microsoft CRM solution for integration with third-party applications, using open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Microsoft BizTalk Server tools and services.
Q. We'd like to offer self-service for customers, but we already have a customer-facing Web site and don't want to create a new one.
The Microsoft CRM is built on web standards .Net / SQL database and is painlessly integrated with your customer-facing Web site and with the Sales and Customer Service Modules.
Q. Can we customize Microsoft CRM to suit our specific needs?
Microsoft CRM can be tailored to meet your business needs, processes, and environment. You'll be able to import existing data from multiple sources, integrate with new or existing solutions, and scale the installation as your business changes and grows.
Edit Fields Inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Making It A True xRM Solution (Click to enlarge)
 Read: Customising CRM for your business - Overview.
Q. How is Microsoft CRM implemented and supported?
Microsoft CRM is designed for rapid implementation, with centralized server-side installation that ensures faster deployment, easier maintenance, and more straightforward upgrades.
Because Microsoft CRM is delivered, implemented and supported through highly trained Microsoft Certified Business Solutions partners, you'll have hands-on assistance with the setup and maintenance process, as well as 24-hour access to Microsoft Technical Support services within the application.
Q. We need a solution that salespeople can use with Microsoft Outlook and that they can also access from the Web.
Microsoft CRM offers both a rich client (accessible through Microsoft Outlook) and a thin client (accessible from anywhere through a Web browser). Users can work either online or offline to access sales functionality from Outlook. This means that they can pull up accounts, contacts, products, sales literature, activities, and opportunities, as well as synchronize Microsoft CRM contacts, appointments, tasks, and e-mails with Outlook.
Q. My salespeople hate being controlled by complex, time-consuming data entry requirements of our current contact management software. Is Microsoft CRM easier for them to use?
Using Microsoft CRM virtually eliminates redundant data entry. Centralized information storage and viewing let users easily share, manage and update information across the Sales and Customer Service modules and across other business applications and systems.
Q. Can Microsoft CRM help me with turnover among my customer service representatives?
Microsoft CRM makes it easy for your business to provide consistent, effective service and increase volume capacity without adding headcount. Service employees can easily view, share, and update customer and product information, ensuring efficient, up-to-date sales and service. Automated routing and queuing of support requests ensures that Customer Service Representatives can assist customers efficiently from initial contact through resolution.
Q. We need a solution that not only helps us acquire customers, but also keep them. Can Microsoft CRM help?
Microsoft CRM helps your business improve customer acquisition and retention. With a complete view of customer information, your sales team can track customers and new leads through the sales cycle and easily update records, while service representatives will find it easy to track and manage support incidents from initial contact to resolution. Microsoft CRM also ensures more efficient and consistent sales and service processes, with customizable workflow rules that let you create and automate processes for sales, support, routing, and notifications-so responses are always timely, and customer requests never “fall through the cracks”.
Q. We need to accurately forecast business activity. What reporting capabilities does Microsoft CRM offer?
Microsoft CRM includes a comprehensive set of reporting tools for measuring business activity and forecasting sales. You can run and view reports for sales activity and quotas, closed and pending orders, support incident management and resolution, closed and pending orders, financial summaries, and more.
The robust reporting capability of Microsoft CRM will help you identify the opportunities, trends, and problems that guide your business decision making processes. You also can easily export Microsoft CRM report data to other applications, such as Microsoft Excel.
Q. Is Microsoft CRM hosted or on-premises?
Microsoft CRM is available on-premises or through hosted offerings provided by our channel partners.
Q. What if we're not in a position to invest time and money training our sales team to use a new solution?
Microsoft CRM offers the same logical user interface and intuitive work tools that your sales and support staff is already familiar with for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Implementation includes online tutorials and 24-hour Web-based support from Microsoft, so training costs associated with upgrading to Microsoft CRM are minimal.
Q. What are the implications of Microsoft CRM being a .NET business application?
The first business application built from the ground up on Microsoft. Net technologies, Microsoft CRM delivers tremendous business value through easy integration with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Sharepoint applications, third party applications, and Web services. In addition, the flexible .NET architecture gives users the choice of working online or offline in Microsoft Outlook or directly through a Web browser.
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 