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Get some insights and suggestions on the brand and the other customer management system

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Posted on by Microsoft Employee

Hi all,

I am done using excel and outlook to do our own version of contract management software and, really failing our customers. We have 20000+ customers to manage and we are not able do a good enough job. We sell heavy equipment. So, we need to stay relevant to our customers without being annoying. So they remember to use us when the right job comes.

I have never used CMS so I don't really know what I don't know. But I am thinking of getting a customer relation management solution suggested by one of my friends. So, I’d like to get some insights and suggestions on the brand and the other customer management system based on your experiences. I’d like explore my options before moving forward.

My goals include:

  • Integrations with other tools such as Zapier (Handwrytten, etc)
  • Quote Generation- we get lots of part orders
  • Customer Management -we talk to our customer on our own. Seeing who is doing what with who would be amazing.
  • Automation - Anything that works so that our small company doesnt have to remember small things.

I would appreciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks in advance

  • RE: Get some insights and suggestions on the brand and the other customer management system

    , Wahaj Rashid really outdid himself with such an extensive response!  What I would add is that Wahaj Rashid was actually going quite "lightweight" in terms of his comments.  There is a lot more than he even touched upon!  For example, D365 natively integrates with SharePoint Online in Office 365 as a files repository or you can also enable integration with MS Teams, both in terms of interacting with D365 data in the Teams clients (web and desktop) and using Teams within records in D365.  And that can include, depending on what you choose to license) full Teams telephony capabilities such as "click to call" right from a record in D365 and even having D365 open up to specific records (Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, etc.) for incoming calls!  And MS just announced at their Inspire conference 2 days ago that orgs that have Teams licenses (via an Office 365 subscription) will be able to interact with D365 for free (there has been some required licensing up to this point to enable that).  Of course, D365 also has a rich integration with Outlook/Exchange across all platforms (desktop client in Office, web, Android and iOS).  On top of that MS recently released a brand new and redesigned mobile client for Android and iOS, separate from the integration through Outlook.  So there are a LOT of options.

    As Wahaj pointed out, because D365 Sales (and Customer Service, Marketing, and Field Service) are largely built on top of what MS calls Power Platform, you can absolutely take advantage of the over FOUR HUNDRED (and counting) connectors that Power Automate and PowerApps support.  No other vendor provides the range of functionality and connectivity that MS can through the combination of Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Power Platform.  Not even SAP at many, many times the cost.  You can even create authenticated PowerApps Portals for customers, vendors, events, etc. that are driven and controlled from D365 and allow external parties to interact with the system and data without having to be licensed. 

    Amazingly, even though Wahaj listed 3 different automation capabilities, that's actually not all that are available in the platform!  There are Dynamics-native workflows, sales sequences, custom actions, and more.

    One thing Wahaj didn't touch upon that you can take advantage of as well is Microsoft Appsource where you can find an almost dizzying number of addon and companion solutions for D365 (as well as Office 365 and other Microsoft offerings. There are literally thousands of options and it continues growing constantly as MS is really incentivizing the worldwide partner community (I'm a partner if it wasn't obvious already) to create more offerings for the Appsource store.  And specifically to your statement that you would like "contract management", D365 offers some contract management capabilities out of the box, but there are also multiple 3rd party solutions that extend the capabilities from slight to extensive.  One specific such solution for contract management that is pretty much "gold standard" is from a company called iCertis.  They received Microsoft's Partner of The Year award (ISV) in 2020.

    Hopefully all the great info Wahaj provided, plus my more modest additions, will be helpful to you!

  • Suggested answer
    Wahaj Rashid Profile Picture
    Wahaj Rashid 11,321 on at
    RE: Get some insights and suggestions on the brand and the other customer management system

    Hi,

    Thank you for your query.

    I appreciate your interest in the Dynamics 365 products and communty.

    Let me answer your questions in the same order you asked:

    1 - Integrations:

    Dynamics 365 for Sales is built on top of the PowerApps (Dataverse) platform. Using PowerAutmate we can build no-code integrations with external systems (using readily available connectors, APIs, or custom connectors). Also, Dynamics 365 for Sales have built-in ODAT APIs which can be used in any platform for integrations (it supports CRDU and other operations using HTTP methods).

    Furthermore, Zapier also has a ready-to-use connector for Dynamics 365 for Sales (CRM) integration:

    Connect your Microsoft Office 365 to Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM integration in 2 minutes | Zapier

    2 - Quote Generation

    In my opinion, Dynamics 365 Quote process is good enough for general scenarios, for part orders, you might have to customize it a bit (which is not a big deal as customization is mostly No or Low code).

    Further evaluation can be performed based on your exact requirements.

    More on Quotes:

    Create and manage quotes - Sales Professional | Microsoft Docs

    3 - Customer Management:

    Dynamics 365 for Sales Customer module is quite extensive, you can very easily track collaboration with your customers, do follow-ups, assign tasks to your salesforce team, escalate not contacted customers, track goals (per team or salesperson), reporting, automated notifications, and processes are also available.

    Overview of Sales Insights Add-in for Dynamics 365 Sales - Dynamics 365 AI | Microsoft Docs

    You can also utilize AI features such as Sales Insights with tools like Relationship Assitant to understand how effective is your collaboration with customers.

    Overview of Sales Insights Add-in for Dynamics 365 Sales - Dynamics 365 AI | Microsoft Docs

    4 - Automation

    You can utilize Processes and Power Automate Flows to automate your organizational and personal flows, not only withing Dynamics but also with Microsoft and non-Microsoft products.

    Business process flows overview Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) | Microsoft Docs

    Workflow processes with Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (on-premises) | Microsoft Docs

    Create a cloud flow with Dynamics 365 (online) - Power Automate | Microsoft Docs

    I would suggest, to create a Trial (it's free for 30 days) and try it yourself.

    Start a Free Trial for Microsoft Dynamics 365| Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Also, you can get assisted demos from Microsoft, you can also evaluate the product with a Microsoft partner to get more relevant answers.

    Dynamics 365 Partners | Microsoft Dynamics 365

    I would like to mention that Dynamics 365 has a strong and vast community, contributors support users/admins/developers to accelerate their projects and make them a success.

    There are community tools available (free) to help you with certain tasks (like Ribbon Workbench and XRM Toolbox).

    To summarize, Dynamics 365 is packed with features and as a platform, PowerApps/Dataverse is highly customizable (and mostly no/low code), which makes it a perfect choice.

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