TIDBITS on Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Justifying Marketing Efforts

One of the most common requests that bubbles up in some of the marketing professional forums is how do I justify and find ROI around the work that I do.

This particular request is even more predominate in professional service firms who are measuring time invested against return and staff utilization. The trouble with this in the marketing space is that the marketing seeds that are planted today and the time invested today can  sometimes take  a good two to three years to be realized.

You also have a progressive measure.

For Example: You might start working on building up the market to grow a set of standardized lunch and learns, but the first lunch and learn could have a smaller audience than your lunch and learns later in the year. Measuring can take a number of forms.

1) You can measure total attendence.

2) You can categorize and then measure total attendees, such as people who are attending for training credit, people who are interested in a new product, clients who are getting value add from your company, business development connections who will be better referral sources and more.

3) You can measure total number of people invited versus total number of people who attended.

4) You can measure total people within certain titled roles such as CxO vs. Administrative staff.

and the list goes on. One of the things you can't do is easily measure any of the above without the support of some good software tools. Now it is true that you can create numerous Excel spreadsheets, but this is not the best system. In fact if you really thought about it, you could consider using Excel fairly manual.

One of the features that has been built into Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the ability to track an entire campaign. In my example above a campaign could be 2008 Lunch and Learns or it could be configured to focus on one specific lunch and learn event. A campaign tracks all of the different tasks associated with getting this event off the ground, the time associated with any activities, the mailing list or lists of people, the responses from said people and more.

Many firms have not used campaign tracking so I recommend you start small and build up your knowledge as time goes on!   

Dynamics CRM Videos

For those of you who did not get a chance to go to a Microsoft Conference yet and for those who have yet to hear some of the big picture talks on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the Microsoft Dynamics suite take a peek at these videos.

Additionally there are a ton of other related videos right at your finger tips.

Jonathan Perera, ike Ehrenberg - Integrated Innovation with Microsoft Platform

Brad Wilson, Bryan Nielson - The Power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for Customer Choice

Bryan Nielson, Jon Bell - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0:  What's New 

Tracking work associated with a Project

One of the most frequently requested items when it comes to  a slight enhancement to Dynamics CRM is the enhancement to track activities and associated time to a specific client project.

To do this you can configure Dynamics CRM using what I like to refer to as the modify functionality. You do not have to write big custom extensions or .NET or JAVA code to do this (thank you Microsoft).

Utilizing the "Customize" menu in Dynamics CRM create a new Project Entity (this is a new database table and entity is a word you customizers want to add to your vocabulary)

Add appropriate attributes to the project entity (the data you want to capture on the head project record such as the project name, project budget, and timeline)

Create a relationship between Activities and Project: For any given project you can have many activities (unlimited actually)

Create a relationship between Account and Project (For any given account you can have unlimited projects)

Presto! You can now track activity records to a specific project in addition to direct to the Account, Contact, Ticket, User and more. Within the ACTIVITY RECORD is the ability to capture a start time, end time, duration and more.

New Resources

There are a number of new resources to support you in your mastering and use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that I want to share.

The first is a refresh on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM main Community page, as linked here.

The next are a set of new more role specific pages and resources listed as follows. These role specific neighborhoods help support very specific requirements within a specific business and the technology surrounding that business role and niche.

Take for instance Customer Service and all the Art of a great Customer Service department. Did you know that making 100% of your customers 100% happy is not only extremely difficult it also might not be good for your business or theirs.

·         http://community.dynamics.com/customerservice

        Or how about Finance? Does your Accounting Department really shine when it comes to efficiently utilzing all the software that they have at their finger tips?

·         http://community.dynamics.com/finance

        And what about the elegant and yet sometimes hated space of sales? Do your sales people feel loved? Do they realize that perhaps technology can reduce their pain? Do they feel that their CRM system is a typewriter for writing dreaded reports at the end of the day or a tool that can help them close more business?

·         http://community.dynamics.com/salesmarketing

and what about those small groups of marketing people, departments or teams? People who are now empowered to really work the profitability numbers by tracking marketing campaigns with budgets and campaign results?

So many needs and so little time, but what is awesome today is that the technology features and the technology frameworks exist within Dynamics CRM and the Microsoft Application stack to support the high level crafted and artistic business processes being demanded by the cutting edge and agile management teams of today.

Doing Extraordinatry things with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

How to Do Extraordinary Things Every Day with Microsoft Dynamics CRM!

In this webcast training, Microsoft shows you how the productivity of sales, customer service, and marketing teams can be dramatically increased by taking advantage of the enhancements in the newly released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

I am sharing this as the presenter, Ben Vollmer, is an excellent resource for all Microsoft partners in the Mid-Atlantic region (and power users and other MS partners as well). He blogs regularly on Dynamics CRM. If you do not know about the resources that Ben shares then definitely check out Ben's blog. 

Extending Dynamics CRM (new offer)

Redware has been busy.

They have a new Dynamics CRM User Manual (available here) and

they are now testing their new text messaging module for Dynamics CRM v4.0. This two-way text messaging for CRM 4.0 allows you to text message to the mobile phones of users, contacts, and leads and receive a reply directly into Dynamics CRM (as an incoming phone call record). 

It is amazing what is offered through some of the many third party vendors when it comes to enhancing and extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The Rand Group, Inc has a partnership with SalesCentric for instance. This add-in offering GRAPHICALLY shows relationships so you can build org charts, and relationship maps visually. A picture really is worth a 1000 words.

Business Process

Dynamics CRM has a very deep offering around support and yet it definitely needs to be bundled with some thought. Each and every support department has a specific style. Some departments are very pro-active calling and anticipating every need with regards to services and others are reactive. Customers call and the immediate crisis of the day needs to be solved AND tracked. You also have departments which are a mix of both.

For the pro-active services the Microsoft Dynamcis CRM Scheduling functionality is a life saver. What I have seen however is a frustration because companies do not realize that they need to take time to originally configure it. This includes adding what services will be scheduled, who will be scheduled, what each person's working calendar looks like and more. You see if you setup an individuals calendar than the scheduling module can prevent that person from being scheduled in conflict or during time when an individual is not in the office. On the other hand if you do not take the time to learn about the scheduling component or if you try to hack through the setup in 10 minutes then you just generate confusion and misunderstanding.

When it comes to scheduling take a few extra minutes to read a chapter or set aside some time during your install to only focus on utilization of the scheduling component. 

When it comes to reactive support the most common question is how do I capture time? For any given ticket that is created you can have a long list of activities that you perform. Time is captured on the activity record. The activity record has a start time and an end time and a duration time field.

If you do not want to use activities or if you do not want to use tickets (both are optional) then these are business process thoughts. Decide on your business process with a knowledgable CRM resource. You can then move forward quickly with utilizing Dynamics CRM to capture and track not only all the activities associated with any given ticket/case but also all the time invested.

The Sales Pipeline Report

I have yet to meet a sales person who takes pleasure in the task of updating any CRM system and yet most have to submit a sales pipeline report at the end of the week to the Director of Sales.

When I was doing enterprise sales the exercise was painful for despite using a CRM system (that was not Dynamics CRM) the Director of Sales and the CEO wanted an Excel spreadsheet. 

Now only if we had Dynamics CRM! I could have saved myself at least an hour or two a week of work.

With Dynamics CRM you get the best of both worlds (even at the most basic out of the box level). You can update your unique opportunities from within Outlook in a nice user friendly entry screen. You don't have to reenter account names or contact people or even the total dollar value of the opportunity (although you can). Instead you update a few fields (percentage, stage, maybe the close date) and instantly your pipeline view is updated.

Additionally if you have a boss who wants the sales pipeline in Excel he can open his Dynamic Excel Sales Pipeline spreadsheet (or CRM) and as soon as he opens that Excel spreadsheet (or CRM)  it is updated with the data you just entered (believe me it is a timesaver).

New Categories

I have added a few new categories to this blog which will be role/job specific resources. These categories organize blog posts that are designed for a specific person, in a specific role who is using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to get the job done.

The Authenticity of Relationships

The Rand Group, LLC and Microsoft Houston are sponsoring a new Executive Lunch in May.

The Authenticity of Relationships

will be presented by a professional speaker from the Houston Speaker's Bureau and offers a chance for some interested Shared Knowledge and discussion on the whole concept of "relationship" and business relationship tracking using such software as Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

RSVP is required

Mapping Fields

One of the comments to this blog today was asking about how to push custom field data from LEAD into CONTACT or ACCOUNT once the lead is converted to a prospect.

To do this using  CRM Customization, you drill down into the specific RELATIONSHIP  within the entity (in this case LEAD to ACCOUNT) and then you can add a MAPPING that maps a custom field in the LEAD to a similarly designed custom field in the ACCOUNT. This map pushes data from one to the other when the Account is created. It is not ideal and can be supplemented with some workflow (for instance if the account already exists), but it is similar to how the current system fields are being populated during convert.

If you are still unsure as to how to approach this make sure you talk with your Dynamics CRM partner technical specialist. There is SO much that can be learned and mastered within Dynamics CRM! Tap into all that experience that surrounds you!

They changed the name!

For those of you who have heard about CRMLIVE you might want to make a little note that Microsoft has changed the name to be a bit more descriptive. Microsoft Dynamics CRMLIVE is now called Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Your other choices for Dynamics CRM v4.0 include

• Dynamics CRM OnPremise (Installed into your environment)

and

• Dynamics CRM Hosted (hosted by a third party not related to Microsoft)

No matter which version you choose The Rand Group, LLC can help you configure, modify, extend, customize and utilize the Power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM!   

The Product Catalog

The product catalog in Dynamics CRM is one of those configuration features that is a bit daunting when setting it up, but then incredibly useful once established. The key question today is have you entered your products into the Dynamics CRM product catalog? Have you spent the time on this one feature that needs to be spent to get it the way you like it?

There are a number of steps (some of which make you feel like you are going in circles)

1. You need to decide on what products you are going to setup (particularly if you are not integrating to other systems).
2. You need to choose a product name and description. (Pick names that offers consistency or a sysstem that sits well with  the vendor's name for the product)
3. How are products packaged and sold? What are the units? Do you sell individual items or bundled items? Do you sell quanity such as a box of a specific item?
4. Decide on a Price list/s method. Will you have one price list? Do you have many different price lists? Which price list is the default or standard? How do you determine who uses what price list?
5. Organize your prices.
6. Answer the question: Are prices discounted? Do you want to use discount lists? If you use discount lists where are the criteria for discounts? (specials, dated, quantity)
7. Think about your Accounting Software. When a quote comes from Dynamics CRM do the items/products on that quote make sense to accounting?
8. What about services that you sell?

As you can see this one small area can cause some thinking and thinking about it before you start entering data is always a good idea. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 Launch in Dallas

The Dynamics CRM launch today started out with a professional speaker, with years of "CRM" background and experience. My jury was out with regards to if this approach would be what the audience was interested in, but what I found as an audience member is that Mr. Pepper (of Pepper and Rogers) really offered some great insight. I like the approach.

One of the key barriers that I often run into in the field is this whole concept that many business owners and team members do not necessarily understand how much they can really benefit from investing in the organization and further management of relationships. We all hear statements in this arena so often that we tend to develop a deaf ear.  For instance the term "Great Customer Service" is so over used that we rarely give the statement the time of day.

I was also surprised at this launch to see the starting slide actually portray a worry. Yes, the statement that the statistics are still showing CRM adoption failures in the marketplace across all available technologies and vendor products and Microsoft is acknowledging this. They  acknowledge, the vendor (Microsoft) has a commitment focused on impacting (reducing) this long existing statistic on failure rates for CRM Adoption.

How? What are they doing?

They are offering choice and options when it comes to how you input data, how you access data, how you see data (through Excel or reporting or portals) and the learning curve for end users who just want to get their job done.

In terms of the Launch. We are now in the middle of the demonstration and the presenter is extremely professional, but I have to state my number on complaint that has continued through the last numerous presentations (including Convergence). When showing the product the audience can not see the tiny type on the screens. SO if you are a presenter and you are going to demonstrate the product might I suggest you tap into the new VISTA features that include screen magnification :) Yes, I know I have old eyes - but I did an informal poll and the people around me agree!

When does a developer consider the CRM Framework?

If you do not know Dynamics CRM and yet you get applications and .NET here are some things to think about. 

If you are looking at a project consider these two big picture questions.

1) Does the project require the need to track any type of relationships?

If yes then the CRM Framework is definitely something to consider. These relationships can include relationships between two people, relationships between companies, relationships between a person and a company, relationships between things, relationships between animals, relationships between parts and a final product, relationships between things and people,  and more.

2) Does the project require the need to automate and/or document process?

If yes then the CRM Framework is definitely something to consider. These automated processes can include  standardizing the steps  that need to happen to get a project done. Scheduling and completing specific steps, historical reference to the completed steps, the application of specific steps to specific people. The tracking of specific steps associated with a specific person. The automation of alerts and notices and more.

Additionally there is another core reason why including CRM as part of your development might make a lot of sense. This core reason is that built within the Dynamics CRM framework is a multi-layered configurable security system that helps you control who can do and who can access what and pre-built authentication options. Items you do not have to write. You also have the long term upgrade and update support from a maturing product, the development control and the CRM SDK. AND .. the added features that you might not have time to write such as duplicate checking, User Friendly Reporting, Integration to MS Office and layers of data import options.

New Dynamics CRM Books

I have updated the books list on the left hand side of this column to include some of the new Dynamics CRM v4.0 books that are available.

Marc Wokenik and Damian Sinay stepped up and wrote the Dynamics CRM UNLEASHED book published by Sam's Publishing

and

Sonoma Partners (Mike Synder and Jim Steger) have updated their series with the release of the new version of Dynamics CRM 

Connected in the Blogosphere

I was recently tagged by John Straumann to participate in a blogosphere connect game. The rules are straight forward

• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post the rules.
• At the end of your blog, you choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

I realized that perhaps people might want to know a bit more about me so I am taking this opportunity to post 8 random items that do not directly relate to Dynamics CRM

1. I played NCAA Volleyball for University of Maryland
2. I always have a book that I am reading, with business books as a passion
3. I am not into getting angry
4. I am a trained extrovert, by nature an introvert, by testing both
5. I like straight forward say it like it is
6. Being older is a joy
7. My inbox is generally empty
8. I am really proud of all three of my kids (young women and men now) and my husband for everything they face and conquer every day (as small or as big as those items happen to be)

People Tagged

Michelle Golden

Joe Rotella

Sean O'Driscoll

Greg Nicols

Matt Homann

Ilise Benum

John Burchett

Eivind Sandstrand

Ronald Lemmen

Update on CRM Licensing

Update on my Licensing Post - Direct from Microsoft 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 license keys for products obtained in Volume Licensing are embedded in media -- the keys do not appear on MVLS; as they do for some products; nor are they printed on the media itself (DVD) or on the media sleeve; The physical media and the downloads from MVLS/VLSC both will contain the license key in a text file, so Customers may either download the product or order the physical media and simply install it – the install will look for the license key file in either case!

If the Customer started with a TRIAL version, and is using a TRIAL key, the only reason they would need to look for a license key is if they do not want to reinstall the product over the TRIAL, in which case they find the license key file in the download files or on the media and enter the key into the license manager.   The key will be located in a file called ‘license.txt’ in the download or on the media.

For Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 media obtained through the Dynamics ERP product price list/Business Ready Licensing, keys ARE NOT embedded in the media, and must be obtained from the Dynamics CRM Partner, who can obtain them in PartnerSource. 

For Customers

If you are a Dynamics CRM Customer make sure you do the following things (Major thanks to Holly Holt, Microsoft Group Manager)

1. Log into CustomerSource
2. Register your Partner
3. Activiate your license www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa
4. Check out the training and certifications for users
5. Look at the Downloads
6. Tap into the knowledge base/self-help
7. Give Product Feedback
8. Cross your Microsoft Solution (all your products should be listed!)
9. Tap into the CRM Resource Center with the product
10. Check out your current Service Plan

Tip of the Day - More Canned Reports

There are 1342 downloadable Dynamics CRM reports for customers from the Microsoft CustomerSource website. A benefit for Software Assurance clients.

Reports are easily importable into CRM so this might be an easy way to meet a need.

• Log Into CustomerSource (www.microsoft.com/dynamics)
• Choose Downloads on the left hand side menu
• Choose Reports Menu
• filter on Dynamics CRM

SharePoint to Dynamics CRM and vice versa

Listening to Ben Vollmer on the interConnect between Dynamics CRM and either SharePoint Services (WSS) or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and what is fascinating is that both CRM and SharePoint are frameworks and depending on your development background and team and the current business need, the emphasis of product use can be different.

You can embed SharePoint into CRM or you can embed CRM into SharePoint and/or you can integrate actual data. Given that they are both portal oriented, knowing the strength of each product is key.  The business goal is to elminate silos of information and offer the user access to what that user needs in one central place.

Thoughts on Discussing the Microsoft Application as one Offering

Given the depth of the Microsoft Application stack one of the key business concepts that prospects, clients, partners and everyone else who is interested, need to get their head around is that you might have many different names (MOSS, CRM, GP, etc.), but in the end you have one seamless user integration and deployment.

If you document your business process, the tool you use to solve each of the business processes and department needs is specific to the need. Just as within any Accounting system you have an AR and AP feature set and a supply chain feature set, when you have a solution with CRM, SharePoint and GP you are working towards the total best solution.

For the partner with depth of understanding in the Microsoft Application stack  they are empowering the user to have the right solution for each of the business needs.

Perhaps where we all continue to get tripped up is in the thought process when trying to explain the licensing. Customers naturally do not want to include a module or product if they do not have to because it increases the cost. On the other hand these same customers are often looking to Microsoft to replace 4 or 5 other systems.

 

Interesting Announcements

I am listening to one onf the keynotes here at Convergence and it is interesting to note that Microsoft is offering Keyword Integrated Marketing Services between Microsoft adCenter and Dynamics CRM. Makes sense and pretty cool.

Of note Microsoft adCenter populates search engines and manages advertising via the internet.

The webservice offers a ton of depth and functionality.

Do you know about my other blog?

There are times when I have items to share that are not necessarily associated with Dynamics CRM. For those times I have another blog called InterminglingOutlooks.

If you want to read more on all technologies check out that other feed.

http://www.InterminglingOutlooks.com 

It is not just the software, It is also the VAR and Vendor

When selecting a CRM Solution one of the key factors you need to consider is both the vendor and the partner. The vendor is important because of some of the historical yuck that has happened in the marketplace.

Take for instance that FrontRange Goldmine was the premier product of the 1990's, but through poor channel management and internal corporate battles the product went from peek of 1999 to struggling through 6-8 years of management issues.. These vendor issues impacted every partner and the product growth and development. Needless to say Goldmine today still looks a bit like the 1999 product.

You also have to take into consideration the VAR! unlike some other applications CRM is a business changing application. When adopted and installed correctly (yes big when) it can make a huge difference to the plumping and functionality of any company. A good CRM VAR insures adoption, helps with product understanding and has configured, modified and extended the solution for many other businesses. They also become a huge value add through their connections to other resources in the CRM Niche.  It is such a thrill to meet with prospects, because many times these meetings are businesses expressing interest and a need already solved in other locations.

CRMLive at Microsoft Convergence

If you have not thought about CRMLIVE and what it will do to your partner business then you might want to schedule to take a look. With two versions and sweet spot pricing it definitely brings more choice to the customer and solves some key issues that partners have faced with their smaller and larger clients in the field.

The product offers Microsoft hosted access to Dynamics CRM v4.0. Despite the software being hosted there are still a number of areas where a partner makes a lot of sense.  These include custom reporting (when has reporting ever been about writing the code, usually it has a lot more to do with setting up proper compliance and look and feel),  workflow automation where CRM expertise is helpful (nothing like an expert in business design to efficiently help with defining rules), and fine tuning the forms to be just what you want them to be (small changes make a BIG impact).

Let me give you an example. I had a client who was happily using ACT!. They wanted the CRM data entry screen to look more like ACT!  Well one easy change is to move the notes to be on the first Account TAB and the client was that much happier.  There are many small items that can make a HUGE difference to an end user. Best of all these small changes do not take a lot of time.

The CRMLIVE presentation has an interesting twist. Turns out that SCRIBE has a new integration bridge between CRMLIVE and GP. You can now have GP on-premise and CRM hosted with all the power of both. Not only that the demonstration of the SCRIBE tool was instant and updates could be made either in GP or in CRMLIVE.  SCRIBE gets kudos for stepping up to the plate.   

Convergence Session 2 - Dynamics CRM

There are times when I am sitting in some of the general sessions  that I ask myself what is new, how do I filter, what do I really, really benefit from retaining? Is it worth my time being here?

What is curious and what a key question to Microsoft is:  If you ask the audience how many partners are working with Dynamics CRM v4.0 and 90% of the audience raises their hand, then how can you, as a professional speaker, shift your presentation to offer even more value?

Key Partner Change Variables:

1) Growing an Annuity Practice with the Software as a Service model

2) Which ISV to partner with vs. which need to custom develop

3) Which segment, which market, which niche, which roles?

 

Microsoft Convergence Day 1

Welcome to Convergence 2008

Partner Day started out with a bang with a warm meeting of Microsoft Partners listening to direction across all business solution product groups. The message continues around customer choice and this concept is huge for the technology niche in general. Business Users should always have a choice of partner, a choice of install and a choice of configuration. As much as businesses can be similar in their needs (most all businesses use accounting software) they are also unique in the people who get the work done, in the culture which drives the business and in the management team who decides the path to take to meet their goals.

Dynamics CRM v4.0 releases to customers

There are two types of generic licenses for Dynamics CRM v3.0 and the release and fulfillment of media for software assurance for these customers can be a bit tricky.

First if you are an Open VALUE licensed Dynamics CRM user then you will need to request the Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4.0 Media Kit from your partner or distributor. You must get the media kit to get a valid v4.0 license. (It is printed on the CD)0

Second take this opportunity to double check your licensing. Ask your partner to work with you to confirm that you have a valid software assurance agreement for every license that you purchased. Open Value Licenses are listed under the customer's eOpen account which the partner does not have access to, but if you work together you can possibly get all the details.  For instance if you as a customer purchased software from a variety of distributors or if you purchased licenses over a period of time directly then you might have MULTIPLE contracts and MULTIPLE software assurance expiration dates. Software Assurance can not be renewed if it expired more than 30 days ago. To get CRM v4.0 for those licenses a new license needs to be purchased.

If you are an Open VOLUME licensed user of Dynamics CRM v3.0 your partner has the organization of your licenses listed under your account and the Dynamics CRM v4.0 Media Kit can be requested for you via the Partner. If you have not heard from your Partner about Dynamics CRM v4.0 and you are ready to install or start an upgrade project reach out!

Lastly the whole concept and use of the word licensing is a bit confusing. Realize that you have basically purchased Dynamics CRM v3.0 and that product is yours forever (support might expire but it is yours). Software Assurance is the prepurchase of the next version at a reduced rate and the pre-purchase covers a period of either two or three years depending on what you purchase. Customers with valid software assurance contracts receive Dynamics CRM v4.0 for the cost of the media kit.

Questions?

Way to go Brett - Microsoft Central CRM Team

I have to admit that I have given Brett a hard time about being a bit too Kool-aid when presenting on Dynamics CRM.  Now I do realize that I am over sensitive to the subject given that I have attended numerous presentations on Dynamics CRM over the last three years, but still.

Anyway my point of this post is to give kudos to Brett taking his presentation to a whole new level. He actually managed to present the corporate message and make it human .

Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4 Launch in Houston

I am spending the morning at the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Launch in Houston! Despite the fact that Houston is not one of the Official Tour stops, the local team stepped up to the plate and has a packed room!

Congratulations to Microsoft Houston and the Houston Partners for getting the word out.

A great first statement in Mr. Ross Muery opening presentation: "CRM is a Business Strategy, not just an IT strategy". I love it when the presentation is aligned to what the market is experiencing and what the market needs to hear.

Getting It - CRM

Microsoft loves to count total number of licenses, but when it comes to ERP solutions there is another variable and that variable is long term success with the solution. I would even go so far as to say it is the more important variable. 

If you look at all CRM rollouts over the last 10 years, across all vendor products, you get a very high percentage of failure. This single statistics should not generate fear to move forward with the tool, but should be a key alert to increase training for all staff using the product, to increase training for all management leveraging the tool and to increase communication with all vendors and VARs offering the solution.

This failure rate can be ignored, brushed off as related to poor features, software, partners, business or other comforting variables, BUT the reality is that correct adoption of CRM and long term continuing to work with CRM correctly in a learning/modifying/using and mastering the tools to increase business and fine tune business best practices is important.

AND despite any marketing  it is not easy!

Just as being the CEO or CxO of a business takes years of training, practice, successes and failures so does the proper mastery and adoption of a CRM solution.

What is the ultimate goal? The ultimate goal is to have a software product (tool, core plumping application, something you depend on) that allows you to go beyond any limitations in practice that not having that application would create.

I chose to focus my application expertise, experience, sales, marketing, development and passion for technology on the CRM niche. Why? Because no other application that I have mastered (and that list is not short) is as important to me as my CRM solution. 

Archiving solutions and best practices for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

IDUG24	Archiving solutions and best practices for Microsoft Dynamics CRM	W103B	3/11/2008	3/11/2008 12:30	3/11/2008 13:30	Anne Stanton
IDUG24R	Archiving solutions and best practices for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Repeat)	W103B	3/11/2008	3/11/2008 15:30	3/11/2008 16:30	Anne Stanton

Are you going to be at Convergence? Come join in on March 11th!

Dynamics CRM and E-Mail

When it comes to E-Mail and Microsoft Dynamics CRM you will find that users have a number of questions. In fact partners have a number of questions. These questions range from what is the CRM Tracking token and can I get rid of it to why are some e-mail addresses red and others blue within the activities view.

One of the great resources that is available for answering e-mail in Dynamics CRM questions is the Troubleshooting e-mail in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 FAQ.

Take a look!

A new partner survey

Thanks to DynamicsWorld for Sharing the following summary from their recent partner survey Some of the findings:

• Partners credit Microsoft with helping create an upbeat business environment, with more than 60% rating the company's overall support of partners as good.

• While partners are upbeat about their business prospects, they are also concerned about the perception that Dynamics software fails to meet the needs of too many industry verticals. Just over 60% of respondents agreed that Microsoft's failure to align with the needs of industry verticals means that significant customization and add-on products are required from software vendors.

• And though partners credit Microsoft with providing good overall support, they're not enamored of the company's role in helping partners exploit market opportunities; some 78% rate Microsoft's marketing support in helping customers link up with the appropriate partners and other vendors as poor (43%) or fair (35%).

A Complete Recap of the Results

Daniel Hunter Rocks

I had the rare opportunity to spend the day with Daniel Hunter, Technical Solution specialist for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Daniel is an expert at all things Dynamics CRM in both a technical and a sales capacity and is a key technical contact for our Texas offices. 

I can't share enough thanks with Daniel for spending time with TRG!

The Rand Group's Lunch and Learn Series

For those of you who are in Texas (or who are visiting) take a look at The Rand Group's new Lunch and Learn Series. The series has a keystone product of Dynamics CRM but is focused on Business.  There is limited space available so if any of the subjects are of interest register soon by dropping us an e-mail.

Tuesday        March 4 - Houston

Wednesday   March 5 - Austin

People, Process, Technology: Getting the Right Mix

Presenter: Anne Stanton, Director CRM Practice

Keystone Product: Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Tuesday        5-6-08 Houston

Wednesday   5-7-08 Austin  ------------------------ The Authenticity of Relationships

Speaker: Kenan Doyle Branam (Tentative)

Tuesday        8-5-08 Houston

Wednesday   8-6-08 Austin ---------------------------Sales Process Designing

Speaker: Jack Warenthien (Tentative)

Tuesday        10-7-08 Houston

Wednesday   10-8-08 Austin --------------------------Social Networking: Technologies Impact

Speaker: Anne Stanton, Director CRM Practice

CRMLady eNews - 2nd Edition released