Is CRM an art form?

Originally Blogged 9th October 2014

Blogging? Me! Who would have thought?

I’ve held off for so long from blogging; purely for the fact that I prefer to vent my anger in under 140 characters, a la Twitter, anyone? But the time has come, and I feel that there are far too many ideas and/or craziness bouncing around my head. I thought perhaps sharing some of them will release the burden, and let me go freely on my own way or will fuel the fire I have for typing words, but not really saying anything. I’ll not be blogging about “I’ve done This” & “I’ve done that” for a customer blah blah, it’s great if you want to find out about “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” I’m more talking about: the traveling, stupid idea’s, new Gadgets that I’ve bought, and how I rationalise buying them (and anything that is on my mind at the time)

Initially the title of the blog was going to be something catchy; but to capture my quirky side,

But then I got bored and went for the basic “Scottish CRM Guy” (on Wordpress), so you will be wondering what qualifies me to talk about “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” (If you have ever been to see a band, public speaker, wrestling event they will always give a shout out to where they are or what they are promoting known as a Cheap Pop – I will be throwing lots of them about) Anyway… I have worked in the Dynamics CRM marketplace for 8 years on versions 4, 2011 & 2013 in all positions starting as a Technical Installer to Application Support to Consultant. Next step, you may ask? Who knows?

So the topic is a leading question. You hear that artists or musicians have wonderful minds; they can go into a field and paint a picture of farm animals or the surrounding areas; the dulcet tones of a front man crooning down a microphone about the girl that got away, the result of which can conjure provocative thoughts or feelings for us as viewers and listeners (If you swing that way, who am I to judge?) Well what about a mind that see’s the same scenery, and thinks about: how the farmer could keep an inventory of his cattle with barcodes, volume of milk produced, sales to the supermarkets, sales at the local trade fairs and possibly schedule his delivery drivers using service activities and GPS location tracking? A bit too far? Possibly, but that is how my mind is always ticking.

The other day I was sitting in the airport waiting for another flight to finish off a long day and I had no other option but to overhear a guy [or foghorn, perhaps?] on the phone complaining to some unfortunate soul about the lack of organisation at his driving school – as polite as I can quote him on here the phrase was “There are 18 driving instructors who can’t turn up to lessons, can’t bring the cars back to the yard or fill in timesheets, but these **** would complain if their cheques (yes cheques) didn’t get handed out on time”. I’m trying to just relax and chill out after a busy week but my hyperactive mind is at it again. I can feel myself morphing into “Hulk CRM” mode, the muscles tense, the ideas run around wild and oh, here we go again! I’ve already planned: the cars are equipped with all registration, car service details & value depreciation are all stored on the equipment, bookings and allocation of drivers can be done through scheduling with the car used as part of the booking, you can then see what car had been used on what lesson and what instructor was in charge, hell you could even use geo-plotting so that you never use the same route twice! Now I think (and I stress, I only think) the reason for the call was due to a complaint. The solution is very simple; it’s a case and in lovely “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SP1” (Cheap pop #2) you can set SLA and resolution times for complaints so they should never even get to Director level.

In all honesty, at the moment, it’s like I can’t switch off. All of these problems that people have, can be sorted using the thought process and mind of someone who is slightly overactive, and has the vision and belief that “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013” (Cheap pop #3) although it’s not the cheapest solution in the world, it can improve productivity or resolve admin errors.