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“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” Thomas A. Edison I love this quote.  Ideas abound, especially in this day and age with the speed of technology change, new communication mechanisms, etc.  But there is one idea that warrants more consideration in the CRM (customer relationship...

The three most interesting things I saw at Microsoft’s Convergence Conference related to Microsoft Dynamics CRM were Bing Maps for Enterprise Integration, Netbreeze’s social CRM, and MarketingPilot. Netbreeze and MarketingPilot were both acquired by Microsoft.  One of the things that we have been asked...

The phone call started like this— Caller: “Hi Ken, I’m <her name is redacted to protect the innocent> and I’m your new account executive. Do you have a minute? I want to share with you all the great new stuff we have going on this year.” Sound familiar? This call was from...

A question that many people ask when evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM is, “How many companies are using Microsoft Dynamics?” Here is the official count from Convergence 2013. Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 39,000 companies with 3 million users Microsoft Dynamics GP has seen 30% year over year growth. Microsoft...

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM across an entire company can produce significant customer management and cost cutting benefits. However, this kind of large scale implementation comes with some very specific (and potentially difficult) challenges, such as the need for functional diversity between...

After several years of challenging market conditions, the residential homebuilding industry seems to have turned a corner and begun to rebound.  Firms that have invested in technology to help them drive revenue and margin will be positioned to outperform their competitors as the market returns to health...

We’d like to introduce you to a different approach for thinking about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software implementations in a series of blog posts over the next several weeks. Our company focuses on Microsoft CRM so naturally we’ll keep it mostly in that context but we think the insights...

With all the great functionality packed into Dynamics CRM , I realized the other day that I have one favorite. This gem of functionality can be unleashed with one little button. It’s not a button that controls some great fancy customization we created (although we have a few of those). It is a...

The top customer relationship management (CRM) trends for 2013 were outlined in a recent Forrester blog by William Bland.   The second trend, “ Companies will transform to become experience-driven organizations ,” really resonated with me.  He explains this customer-experience strategy: “ More enlightened...

Marketers utilize a multitude of comprehensive and intelligent tools and software applications intended to enhance marketing automation processes, gather market intelligence, increase lead generation, and in general optimize, monitor, and measure marketing ROI. The rise of the Internet has brought...

It’s been a busy year for those of us associated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With the feature releases, Update Rollups, growing customer base, fantastic Gartner and Forrester reviews it’s clear why Microsoft Dynamics CRM is still the software of choice. Sometimes it feels like there’s too much to...

We recently began using a set of solutions in our internal Microsoft Dynamics CRM system that has just been phenomenal.  Since starting to utilize Broadlook’s Contact Capture, we no longer have to undergo mundane and time consuming data entry tasks to create new contact records into our Microsoft Dynamics...

Organizations rely on accurate and timely information to make informed business decisions, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 includes a powerful reporting engine for report generation.  Traditionally, the generation of reports is the responsibility of a system user and they were run upon request or at...

At the heart of every high tech company are front-and back-office business pro­cesses that are ripe for unifying.  With all of today’s investment in enterprise applications, it still puzzles me how often I find global high tech companies with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship...

Absolutely, plus from a business standpoint, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is more cost effective than other CRM’s or no CRM for that matter. To start, let’s put it into perspective. All businesses need efficiency and a growing customer base in order to reach the next level. In order to do achieve that...

Microsoft just announced what’s going to be in their next service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 , codenamed “R8″, under the headline: CRM Anywhere. The R8 service update is expected to be available Q2 2011 and is built on six broad themes: Mobility, Browser Flexibility, Social, Industry Templates...

Green Beacon Solutions , a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics® business solutions , and business technology consulting and managed services , today announced that they have successfully completed an implementation of Microsoft Dynamics® CRM for the Boston Red Sox™ . The Red Sox are leveraging Green...

My experience in the world of CRM has taught me that many companies using a CRM system do not necessarily use it to its fullest potential.  Here’s the essence of an article that was recently posted on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM site highlighting suggestions for making the best use of functionality that...

In addition to the flexibility Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers in managing any information that is important to your organization as an xRM platform, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 offers a ton of new features that allow users to personalize CRM for themselves. Here are 5 new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 personalization...

In a tight economy, many businesses are holding on purchase decisions, even purchases that could provide immediate benefits.  When every dollar is counted, it is easy to quantify the cost of a new CRM system, but what about the benefits?  When a prospective customer wants consulting on Microsoft Dynamics...

When it comes to planning a CRM implementation project, I have learned the importance of two things: 1) create and keep the project scope manageable, and 2) ensure adequate training for all users.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is fairly intuitive, especially for anyone that uses Microsoft Office (isn...

Is your organization currently using or evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM ? If so, you won’t want to miss 5 hours of Microsoft Dynamics CRM training and information that will be presented at OTT, Inc.’s 2011 Summit, on Monday, November 14, 2011! OTT, Inc.’s annual Summit delivers a unique educational...

Below is an article that I wrote for Green Beacon Solution’s newsletter earlier this year. I thought it worthwhile to re-post here, not only since it’s still relevant, but also due to a tie in to a post on Microsoft Dynamics blog, “ Liberating Microsoft from Oracle/Siebel CRM ”...

At Green Beacon Solutions , our focus is not only on providing quality consulting and managed services , but we also work closely with our prospective clients to assess their needs and help them select the customer relationship management (CRM) solution that’s right for them. Below we’ve highlighted...

One of the best features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is its ability to fulfill functions that were not designed out of the box, a concept known in the CRM community as “xRM”. One such potential function is project management. Maintaining some project-level information in CRM can be incredibly valuable...