Over the past 10 years or so, companies have embraced Customer Relationship Management software as the best tool to manage sales, service and marketing. With solutions like , companies now track their interactions with clients and leads, identify new business opportunities, manage client support issues – and much more. These days, most organizations recognize the value of developing customer-centric systems, and software solutions like Dynamics have greatly increased CRM’s adoption.
Now, XRM - a greatly enhanced version of CRM - is all the buzz. If you are looking to gain a competitive edge over your competitors, understanding what XRM is and its potential for your company is important. If you’re thinking, “We don’t have a sales team, we don’t need a CRM product,” this information is especially relevant for you.
What is XRM?
Think of it as the natural evolution of CRM, only in this case the “X” stands for “anything.” XRM is the concept of using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform to build business applications that manage things other than customers. Put another way:
- Where CRM supports , marketing, and customer service teams, XRM can support any team in your organization.
- Where CRM automates marketing, sales, and processes, XRM automates any relevant business process or relationship
- Where CRM tracks interactions, activities, or tasks, XRM does the same – for whatever “X” is.
XRM Sharpens Your Competitive Edge
Companies that respond to market pressures and opportunities quickly gain a competitive advantage. That’s why a technology framework that provides rapid development of new technology tools is so important. And that’s the beauty of XRM.
XRM is a flexible development platform that leverages the Microsoft Dynamics framework to accomplish what would normally take highly skilled IT developers far more time, money, and resources. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM sits on the .NET platform, it offers outstanding out-of-the-box functionality and a huge assortment of Microsoft applications that can be repurposed to manage other relationships (there’s that “X” again).
With pre-built functionality, rapid customizations, and dynamic services, XRM can accelerate application development and enhance your organization’s competitive readiness.
- Functionality: XRM includes core application capabilities out of the box: data management, workflow, user experience, access and security, analytics, and reporting are all included. No need to reinvent the wheel.
- Customization: Fundamental application configuration is done through a visual user interface, so non-technical resources can create and configure applications quickly. More sophisticated customizations can be addressed via standard development technologies.
XRM can be a highly versatile tool for managing any business task that requires tracking. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a CRM solution in place, or even if your company doesn’t use typical sales and marketing hierarchy. XRM can be configured to conform to your needs, and has much to offer. With so much functionality built in, and familiar user interfaces, an XRM solution built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a pragmatic, and efficient, solution.
By Intellitec Solutions,
