The connector is a free tool that will integrate your systems allowing you to move pricing information along with customer information between your two solutions. Not only is the connector free, but it is extremely easy to customize based on how you do business.

Your employees will be able to improve customer satisfaction by having all information at their fingertips.  The customer will no longer be transferred from one customer representative to another in order to find out the progress of their order.

Sales employees can improve their sales by having an accurate count of the various products available and increase demand for those that have been sitting in inventory.  On the other hand, if your warehouse needs more supply, they will be able to see how many orders have been placed.  This will allow them to predict the demand and be prepared for any customer’s future orders.

In short, the Dynamics ERP and CRM Connector:

•   Is easy to install, use, and customize.

•   Increases sales, service, and customer satisfaction.

•   Supports your unique business processes.

•   Helps you realize more from your ERP and CRM systems.

Want more information about the Microsoft Dynamics ERP & Microsoft Dynamics CRM connector? Check out our webinar on Integrating your Dynamics ERP & Dynamics CRM.

MIG & Co. – MIG is a Professional Consulting Firm that specializes in the implementation of business management software solutions including Customer Relationship Management. We automate business processes to ensure our customers work efficiently. A New York City based Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, primarily serving New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

by MIG & Co., New York Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Integrate Your Solutions: Connector for Microsoft Dynamics ERP & Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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So how do you get the most out of your CRM reporting? The first step is knowing you have the access to the information you need. In Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, it’s incredibly easy to get the knowledge out of your system and it’s also the first step to making better business decisions.

You may have previously relied on your IT department to receive sales reports. Now, you can directly access built in sales reporting features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, making it easier to align goals with company objectives.

There is also an intuitive report wizard that helps anyone on your team set up ad-hoc reports. You know that one report doesn’t cover the knowledge base needed by everyone in your organization. This feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes it possible for each of your employees to access the information relevant to their role, without having to dig through a bunch of irrelevant information.

Dashboard and key performance indicators also make it easier to get the most out of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Once these are set up to meet the needs of each department, productivity can soar. The information streaming through these easy-to-read and understand charts paves the way for employees to be the best they can be.

In conclusion, CRM software should produce information that’s relevant to each team member so a company can make better decisions and become more productive. We hope these quick tips about Microsoft Dynamics CRM help you see just how great reporting features can be. If you have any questions, please contact us at Cargas Systems.

By Memie Whiteside with Cargas Systems, Pennsylvania Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Get the Most Out of Your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reporting is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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In some instances, marketing can be as effective as throwing darts – you toss a lot of darts in hopes of hitting the bull’s-eye eventually.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a powerful software solution that provides greater accuracy for marketing efforts.  You can draw prospect and customer data from other sources and create specific target lists that can be linked to tailored marketing campaigns.  Easily export these lists for bulk mail or email contacts, or share with the marketing team.  Having current contact data in a single platform will enable the entire marketing team to respond to prospects and customers from any web-enabled device whether in the office or on the road.

Easily create catalogs, special pricing, or discounts for offers using reusable templates or further tailor messages for specific target lists within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  You can share marketing assignments and assign leads or create actionable rules that will generate an automatic response based on customer interest.  Every marketing activity, task, and budget can be tracked and monitored so that you can measure results.  Having each action item tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM will also ensure that marketing staff are using current data and know which offers were suggested to prospects, eliminating the embarrassing second phone call or following up on the wrong promotion or worse yet, letting a prospect fall through the cracks.

Streamlining marketing efforts will improve productivity and give the marketing team extra time to reach more prospects.  Measuring marketing efforts will help you identify trends and determine what works and which efforts yield less desirable results.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help you fine tune marketing campaigns so that you spend less time throwing darts and more time hitting bull’s-eyes.

By Jonathan Taub, Rimrock Corporation Toronto Ontario Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Targeted Marketing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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It has been a year since the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and while last year’s conference expo was home to multiple CRM solution exhibits, this year will no doubt have more.  Just like the newest release of MS CRM 2011, partner solutions have had another year to grow, test and become tighter and more efficient.

Don’t miss this opportunity to visit the InterDyn AKA Booth 252 to see a live demo of DynamicsADvantage for CRM – a fully integrated ad sales management system that works within Microsoft Dynamics to improve the sales, marketing and customer services processes for media, broadcast, and publishing companies. DynamicsADvantage for CRM provides the ability to track advertiser-agency relationships, sales automation within Outlook, opportunity to proposal and order creation, as well as integration into Dynamics and other financial systems. DynamicsADvantage makes Microsoft Dynamics CRM relevant for an ad sales department of a media company, while leveraging the power of existing Microsoft products including Outlook. 

Booking your travel and setting a schedule of product sessions and hands-on labs to attend are all great ways to prepare for a successful conference but don’t forget to check out the list of updated and new exhibitors who offer products and services that will add to your existing solution. We hope to see you there!

by InterDyn AKA, New York Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Come See a Demo of DynamicsADvantage for CRM at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence in Houston Texas! is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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Advisor needs more insights on Household Relationship Management and Client Acquisition Tracking

• Link Clients to multi-generational affluent family Households and obtain consolidated 360-degree views of all Household Members, Accounts, Assets/Liabilities, Transactions, Market Values and be able to see their complete financial picture in one central location.
• Track related 3rd Party Advisors, Qualified Plans, Employers, and Client Interests and receive the extra knowledge and background to become the go-to trusted advisor and “quarterback” for any financial situation.
• Track Client Acquisition Prospecting efforts, RFP requests and responses, and lead conversion success rates to identify the most effective and efficient ways to win new business.

Advisor needs better recordkeeping for Compliance

• Uphold data integrity and maintain accurate Client, Prospect, and Partner records for individuals and companies.
• Track system and field data changes via historical Audit trail logs to meet tightening compliance requirements.
• Track and store all Client communication and correspondence to adhere to SEC and FINRA guidelines – emails, phone calls, portfolio review meetings and notes, service inquiries, client newsletters, buy/sell recommendations, Client Monthly Statements, Financial Plans, Investment Proposals, Monte Carlo Hypos, Investor Suitability Due Diligence questionnaires, KYC/AML compliance docs, proxies, research reports, and prospectuses.

Advisor needs more timely and robust Sales Pipeline Management reporting

• Sales, Marketing, Client Service, and Compliance Dashboards and Reports capture KPI’s and production results for each individual Advisor, Branch, Region, or the entire firm.
• Real-Time Sales Opportunity Pipeline Management and Forecasting help focus time and resources on more profitable relationships and shorten sales cycles.
• Target vs. Actual Goal Tracking of Closed Deals and Prospecting Activity promotes competition, instills accountability, motivates reps, and helps identify areas for improvement.

Advisor needs to automate New Client Onboarding Processes

• CRM can be tightly integrated with Portfolio Management/Trading/Rebalancing/Custody platforms to eliminate dual entry, save time, and further streamline and automate the Client Onboarding, Account Setup, and Ongoing Service Processes.
• Once the Onboarding Process is complete, ongoing monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual Review Meetings can automatically be set up to consistently and frequently stay in touch with Clients, earn their trust, and provide superior levels of service to the competition.
• Track and rate Referral Sources based on lead generation profitability.

Advisor needs an easier way to plan, execute, and follow up on Seminars

• Devise quick campaigns to plan, execute, and track the success of converted leads from attendees of Retirement Planning, College Savings, Tax Minimization, and Estate Planning Seminars.

Advisor needs to reduce the time involved on Client Allocation Change and Distribution Request Processes

• Create automatic follow-up tasks and deadlines for review of Account activity and maintenance to increase client retention and ensure consistent behavior amongst Client Service Teams.
• Identify At-Risk Clients based on recent, frequent high-dollar withdrawals; develop and execute client outreach and retention plans.

Please visit www.customereffective.com to learn more about Customer Effective: FinServ for Wealth Management and how its pre-designed wealth management tools and templates can vastly improve your practice’s customer-centric approach and widen your competitive advantage.

Post by: Kevin Wessels, Customer Effective

Wealth Management Firms turn to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Amplify their Sales and Service Results is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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Social media connected with your CRM software can bring together the sales, marketing, and customer service departments. When these three areas work together, it creates a great concoction of customer satisfaction and more effective lead generation. Here are a few examples of when it especially comes in handy:

Let’s say your sales representative is working on converting an event attendee into an opportunity, but he/she didn’t attend the event and doesn’t have a good handle on what the attendee may have learned or taken away. The sales rep can quickly video chat with the marketing rep to see whether there are offers or if attendees received particular information that he/she can mention. This creates a streamlined sales call for the rep and increases the chances of success.

Let’s say the marketing manager is making plans for the next year, but needs input from a few of the sales reps to get a good handle on what’s working for them and what isn’t. The manager can do some research in CRM to see what type of leads were generated from certain sources. They can also IM or message a few sales reps to get their anecdotal feedback that’s valuable for creating an effective marketing plan.

Connecting social media with your CRM is definitely a way to stay connected with your customers, but it’s also another way to enhance relationships in the office. Take advantage of the technology we have available today to make your job as productive as possible and contact us if you have any questions about how Microsoft Dynamics® CRM works with social media components.

By Memie Whiteside with Cargas Systems, Pennsylvania Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Building a Social Business with CRM Software is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 recognizes how important it is for Sales executives and top producers to track and achieve Goals. For instance, CRM 2011 offers Goal tracking and management functionality that Sales reps can use to view their individual performance results and see how they stack up against their respective Revenue or Sales Volume Goals. Plus, Sales management can use Goals in CRM to chart and analyze the progress of the teams or territories they oversee and really target areas for improvement based on how much time is left in the current sales period. The Sales Goals can be for a custom time period, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually or even set to a particular Fiscal period. Moreover, tracking and managing Goals within CRM will make the overall Sales Goal maintenance, roll-up, reporting, and review process far less cumbersome and error-prone, especially compared to the extremely time-consuming and manual-intensive approach of doing the same in spreadsheets.

Furthermore, the built-in robust Goal charts are great visualization mechanisms for Sales reps to see where they stand at a given point in time against their peers and their individual Goal(s). For instance, the chart below displays a comparison of Actual and In-Progress Sales Opportunity Revenue figures versus a Quarterly Sales Goal for three individuals. It is taken from “Tracking status against goals with built-in predictability” on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog, which I encourage you to reference if you want to get more insight on the use of Sales Goals in CRM 2011 and see more sample Goal charts. Being able to always refer to these instant individual Goal results via a Dashboard or an in-line visualization chart helps maintain Sales focus and momentum, instills accountability, and fuels competition among reps, managers, teams, and regions.

Additionally, I recommend watching this brief Goals tutorial video from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center to learn more about how to create and assign parent/child roll-up Goals and Goal metrics. It actually focuses on an example of Service Case Goals, but the steps are a great primer on how to create Goals in CRM, particularly Goals with a Goal Metric based on a “Count” as opposed to a Revenue $ Amount metric. The video really can serve as a guide if you have the need to create a Sales “Count” Goal, such as number of Opportunities or Products sold per month, number of outbound dials per week, or number of leads generated from a Marketing campaign.

Lastly, if you would like to discuss further and see first-hand how Customer Effective can leverage and tailor the Goal Management functionality in CRM 2011 to optimize your Sales Department’s processes, productivity, and performance, please e-mail us at info@customereffective.com.

Post by: Kevin Wessels, Customer Effective, Florida, Georgia Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner 

Use Goal Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Track and Improve Sales Team Performance is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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Sales & Marketing (Group and Individual) – February 2, 2012
Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm EDT
This webinar will touch on topics including:
> Managing Quote Activity
> Outbound Marketing Campaigns
> New/Renewal Opportunity Management
> Agency Performance Management
> Reporting and Dashboards

Operations (Group Plan Administration) – February 23, 3012
Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm EDT
In this webinar, the following topics will be covered:
> Policy Holder 360 Degree View
> Group 360 Degree View
> Underwriting
> Reporting and Dashboards

Call Center (Sales and Customer Service) – March 13, 2012
Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm EDT
The highlights of this webinar will include:
> Group and Individual Agent Case Management
> Telephony Integration with CRM
> Knowledge Base
> Reporting and Dashboards

Please visit our website for more information on how to register for this educational webinar series!

Post by: Hannah Mayer, Customer Effective 

Customer Effective Announces Microsoft CRM for Health Plans Webinar Series is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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First, let’s agree that some feedback from the sales team is necessary and they have to enter that information into some system. Whether that is Microsoft CRM, an internally developed tool or by typing an email to update everyone, some updates are necessary. The sales staff is constantly meeting with clients and prospects so they need to be the liaison to the customer. The issue we constantly see is that most of the updates are responses to ad hoc requests and “important updates for management”. How many times do you burden your sales staff with preparing a special report for an upcoming meeting? How many times do you ask for the same pipeline report in a different format to meet management’s most recent request? Whether you want to admit it or not, these efforts are turning your sales staff into data entry clerks. The same can be said for the myriad of emails that are sent between sales, marketing, executives, sales engineers and other contributors to the sales process.

So how do reduce that administrative burden?  The answer is by comparing CRM software solutions and finding a solution that meets your requirements.  We at, Logan Consulting, believe Microsoft CRM is great solution for reducing the administrative burden on the sales team.  First of all, Microsoft CRM provides a common database for accounts, contacts, opportunities and other important sales and marketing information. People often dismiss this as a “glorified contact management system”, but it is one of the biggest time savers that drives efficiency within an organization. The sales team at most companies wastes too much time looking for information, entering redundant information in systems and responding to emails with the latest contact information for a key client.

The second part of the answer is integration between Microsoft CRM and Outlook. As a principal at Logan Consulting, a Microsoft parnter located in Chicago, Illnois, and a heavy sales user of Microsoft CRM user I can speak firsthand of the time savings from the integrated environment.  I spend my entire day and only use Outlook and Microsoft CRM is essentially CRM for Outlook.  Regardless of whether I am working in or out of the office and connected or not connected I can use Outlook as a CRM tool. Other systems claim to have an “Outlook plug-in”, but it is not true integration. I can access my entire Microsoft CRM environment from within Outlook. Furthermore, there is no exporting and importing of information, it is true integration. Allowing users to engage with a single application that they are probably already familiar with is a huge time saver.

I know this may seem like a basic topic for an application that has been around for over six years, but hopefully everyone is finally beginning to realize that Microsoft CRM will reduce the administrative burden on your sales staff and this is a key consideration when choosing CRM software.

By Logan Consulting – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Don’t Let Your Sales People Be Data Entry Clerks Just Because You Want Information – use Microsoft CRM is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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CRM for Associations is a new concept that’s taking hold within the NFP marketplace.  It’s CRM, but CRM that is tailored to meet the requirements and speak the language of today’s associations.  As a membership-based organization, you have members, events, campaigns, sponsors, and other sources of revenue.  Your challenge is to manage and interact with all of your constituencies and audiences more effectively.   A CRM for Associations solution helps you do that while also boosting revenue.

Most AMS systems are lacking in sales, marketing, and service automation.  They do just fine with operational management such as event registrations and dues management, but many of the sales and marketing features and functions they offer are either afterthoughts, bolt-ons, or poorly integrated into the overall AMS system.  They fall well short for organizations with more sophisticated requirements.

With a CRM system that is designed and built for associations, you can break out of the limitations imposed by traditional AMS.  A CRM solution offers many sales, marketing, and service best practices:

• Constructing your membership team more like a traditional sales team.
• Developing ongoing nurture marketing programs to capture new revenue.
• Establishing a measureable lead management process.
• Utilizing integrated case management to establish a high-end membership service program.

Where a CRM for Associations solution shines is in centralizing your sales, marketing, and service efforts for your membership.  You can manage the details of recruiting and retaining sponsors, donors, supporters, and members.  Plan and manage marketing campaigns of any size and complexity including direct mail and email marketing.  When a revenue opportunity is identified, you can track and manage it through the revenue capture process.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the foundation for our CRM for Associations offering.  We have taken the base functionality and customized it to meet the specific needs of membership-based organizations.  It retains all of the extensive features found in the base product but is extended and tailored to work for associations.   Here is just a brief list of its features:

• Access the system from within Microsoft Outlook or use it from a web-browser.
• Use the solution as a stand-alone application or as an integrated component to your current AMS solution.
• Create and automate marketing campaigns.
• Deliver personalized campaigns for specific members.
• Develop nurture email marketing campaigns for training, newsletters, and events.
• Track and report on marketing and revenue generation activities.
• Manage comprehensive buying and demographic profiles for all important constituencies.
• Provide top-flight service to members through integrated case management.
• Easily deploy the solution either on premise or “in the cloud”.

A CRM for Associations solution is a great alternative for any membership-based organization looking to grow its revenue. This new concept is being adopted by many leading organizations today and forms the foundation for better, more effective sales, marketing, and service management.  And the best part is that organizations are seeing improved success in generating non-dues revenue.  You can too.

Contact Steve Kane (skane@broadpoint.net and 301-634-2404) at BroadPoint Technologies, the mid-Atlantic’s largest Dynamics reseller, for more information on our CRM offerings.

by BroadPoint

CRM for Associations: A New Era in Member Engagement and Revenue Generation is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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