A large mid-west manufacturer producing a variety of battery solutions for the transportation, defense, industrial and medical industries was in an absolute quandary. After their implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM utilizing another partner, they were unhappy with their installation and the overall lack of project management for the multitude of sales and business objectives they needed to conquer and establish. They came to The TM Group looking for answers; to create, devise and implement a total solution that would enable them to overcome the quagmire of obstacles they faced. They were struggling with the following challenges:
- They needed to be able to forecast what their battery sales would be.
- They needed Customized and Appropriate Dashboards to analyze their metrics.
A custom FORECASTING ENTITY was the solution. With this forecasting entity, a variety of reports were built and generated so they could have the adequate reports needed for their finance and production teams. The entire sales team can add records, per month and year; as to how many batteries they believe will be ordered by their customers per month. A report will alert the production department as to how many batteries will be needed to be manufactured in any given month, or by year. This report can also be broken down by a variety of criteria; so they may sort by salesperson, battery model number, by their customers, by month and year, and manufacturing facility.
Comprehensive reporting allows this company to forecast their needs more intricately. This also provides the data and information to the finance team to forecast revenue and to the production team to calculate their resources in manufacturing the batteries.
DASHBOARDS enabled their ability to easily analyze the key metrics more effectively. Dashboards were created for potential sales per salesperson – allowing the conception of leader dashboards. Another depicts the number of batteries forecasted per month for each separate manufacturing facility. These dashboards were established in order to show the revenue by market and any open opportunities. These are drillable in stages; all are viewable by the records in the charts. This also offers the ability to see who the top customers are, the sales pipeline by stages, and predicting annual forecasting.
Another important application that was implemented for the battery manufacturing team was the “What’s New – Activity Feeds”. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds deliver real time notices and quick sharing of information and data that the team would need to know in short updates. The users are able to follow certain opportunities, exact accounts, and you may also review competitor’s information, as well. The feeds can be posted automatically based on pre-defined system rules and workflow or simply posted manually.
To learn even more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions for your business, please visit our website at , call 888.482.2864 or email: [email protected].
