Before replacing your current CRM system – even if the old “system” is just series of Excel spreadsheets – you will save yourself and your company a lot of headaches if you take the time to think carefully about data. While the focus of your may be customer service, sales, and marketing functionality, the value over time will depend in large part on the information you get out of the system.
Your investment in CRM and the long-term value to the business is the information that you gather over time to predict and affect the future. By getting clear answers about the flexibility of data management from your solution provider, you’ll make a better CRM decision. Questions to ask include:
- Where will the data in CRM come from? There really are two parts to this question. The first is “How will historic data be migrated into the new system?” And secondly, “Will data from other systems (like Line of Business applications) be integrated into the CRM system?” For a centralized view of the organization’s results, you need the data in one place.
- Will we be able to “easily” see results over time? The value of your CRM data comes from the ability to monitor performance through time. Monitoring trends on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis are fundamental for good business management. Dashboards that give you a snapshot of results instantly should be available to view any time, any place.
- Will we be able to perform analysis of the CRM data to look for patterns or exceptions? A CRM system that only offers a set of canned reports will prevent you from looking at data from more than one angle. True analysis requires that you be able to slice and dice your data on multiple levels and across fields. The ability to drill down through dashboards and reports can uncover root causes you wouldn’t otherwise suspect.
Taking a long-term approach to the information contained in your CRM system will help you get the full value from your investment.
When you ask us these three questions, we will be able to explain the unmatched flexibility of data management and analysis with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. No other system will make it so easy to uncover the meaning behind the numbers.
If you want to look at getting even more value from Microsoft Dynamics CRM, consider the cloud. You can limit your investment in hardware and IT support with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Find out how cloud-based CRM solutions bring information to life with "," an IDC whitepaper.
Let’s talk about how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can give you better insight. Western Computer has been helping companies be the best they can be for over 25 years. Contact Anu Tanwar at (805) 581-5020 or [email protected]
by Western Computer
