Tracking leads and opportunities, resolving customer service issues, managing marketing campaigns; these are the ‘Holy Trinity’ of CRM. There’s been plenty of ink spilled on all the tools, tactics and tips for making CRM do those three things better. That’s why today I wanted to focus on three things you might not know CRM can do.
Whether you’re looking to get more out of your CRM, build a case for CRM that doesn’t depend on sales and marketing or just trying to stay on top of trends, you might want to consider CRM for:
- Collections
You’ve got an accounting or ERP system where you’re tracking invoices. (Dynamics GP, perhaps?) That system should be able to show you all of your paid and outstanding invoices, but does it give you a way to track activities, assign tasks or collaborate? And what does the user interface look like?
We developed a system internally that involves pulling invoices into CRM from Dynamics GP. We use simple views to display unpaid invoices to our accounts receivable manager and, in turn, she tracks her collections activities directly on the invoice record. You can see more about our solution .
Using CRM to manage collections has expanded adoption, increased transparency and improved efficiency.
- Record Keeping
Even if you never print it out, paperwork is still a big part of your business. You may have actual signed documents (quotes, contacts, etc.) related to specific accounts and opportunities. Or you may need to track renewal and expiry dates for warranties or subscriptions. CRM can be a great tool for doing both.
Dynamics CRM Online is deeply integrated with Office 365, which includes SharePoint. Linking SharePoint to Dynamics CRM is a simple process that, once configured, allows you to upload documents as notes of CRM records. When managed like this all documents related to a record accessible within CRM are backed up to the cloud.
For renewals and expiries and, we’ve also developed some simple custom entities and workflows that track important information (dates, model #’s, etc.) and automatically notify team members when it’s time to start the renewal process.
- Project Management
Unlike the other two topics, we haven’t developed anything internally for project management… but that’s only because there are so many fantastic ISV solutions. Whether you’re looking for something or a general , there are a host of solutions out there that turn CRM into a tool for managing the complete customer journey, from inbound lead to satisfied customer.
- Cody Pierson,
