One of the things I like most about my job is that each customer discussion is a wonderful opportunity to learn something new about Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Every day I hear about ways to use standard features that accomplish something quite simply.
My latest example came this week when talking with a prospect that needed to track properties and all the related parties for a property - architects, landlords, tenants, management companies - that are involved. That sounds pretty simple for CRM software, and it is, but a little further into the discussion, I discovered that the properties had values derived from formulas. The property had a valuation that depended on math from multiple fields. Again pretty simple except…
The problem arose when this prospect needed to update the valuation based on a ratio of budget divided by valuations of the entire data set. My original thought was to export the data to Excel, do a copy/paste to make the mass update, then reimport. Sounds pretty simple, and with CRM 2011, it’s even easier to update from a spreadsheet. However, there is another way. From any list view of entity records, highlight the records to update and then click Edit. The basic entity form appears and you put the new data in the appropriate field(s) and click save. All the records are now updated in one swoop.
Why am I talking about basic edit functionality? Because when choosing a , it’s the cool features that most people look at – the brightly colored dashboards, the real-time sales pipeline reports, the automatic routing of new website leads to the field sales staff that is on the road. Simple productivity improvements are implied or overlooked, and sometimes you’ll assume it’s there when it’s not.
Whether you are just researching CRM tools or are ready to purchase, choose the one that fits, not the one that is forced. Look for and hear what matters most. With Microsoft CRM, it’s all there. And that’s why I like it.
By Ledgeview Partners –
