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Our sales person is always irritated with having to save proposals in CRM, and on the other hand documents in Sharepoint. The way CRM handles attachments is not the most user friendly or eye catching of features.

I have not told her that there are custom integration solutions between CRM and Sharepoint; that is our secret.

But I did tell her that in the future release of CRM 2011, the ability to integrate Sharepoint and CRM comes with the product.

I swear I thought I saw a tear of happiness come to her eye. When I told my fellow consultants they got down right giddy.

Sharepoint 2010 and CRM 2011 are a match made in document management heaven. With Sharepoint 2010 installed along with a special Sharepoint list part and a few configuration items set in CRM 2011 you can have document folders set up automatically in Sharepoint when you create entities in CRM.

And documents created, updated, and saved in those Sharepoint folders will be available in CRM. Plus you can do this integration with a combination of on premise and online solutions between the two products. The online to online integration is still in the works but promises to be ready for the release of CRM 2011 at the beginning of next year.

Though the integration works with Sharepoint 2007, the list part that allows the automatic folder creation is only available for Sharepoint 2010. So do yourself and your salesperson a favor;  be sure and put a line item in your budget for upgading to Sharepoint 2010 right alongside the line item for upgrading to CRM 2011. Your salesperson and the rest of your staff with thank you for it.

Microsoft has been known to design solutions that deliver simplicity, value, and innovation and Microsoft Office 365 is yet another example of this. Microsoft Office 365 is the next generation in cloud productivity, bringing together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online, available in an always-up-to-date cloud service. We are really excited about it here at The TM Group as Microsoft Office 365 combined with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online equals an affordable, complete solution.

This greatly improves and streamlines a number of things.  For example, the document merger within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to an Office product like Word creates numerous possibilities:
With the connection to Exchange Online, documents can be emailed to your customers, perhaps while you are still verbally communicating.
With the connection to SharePoint Online, creation of documents can be stored in a repository that non-CRM users can immediately access.
With the connection into Lync Online, CRM users can target specific CRM contacts for a webinar or whiteboard discussions, then immediately attach a record of it to the specific contact records.

The benefits of Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are definitely there, but which type of cloud will work best for your business?

• Public Cloud: a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet.
• Private Cloud: a proprietary network or data center that uses cloud computing technologies, such as virtualization. A private cloud is managed by the organization it serves.

Ultimately, you can get more functionality with Private Cloud services, but you need to determine what your company needs and where it is going. Create a software roadmap for your business, complete with a detailed timeline of where you will be in 5-10 years. This will help you make the decision whether to go public or private. Keep in mind that the public cloud has some restrictions for customization.  The good news is that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online does allow for custom reports, custom workflows, and custom plug-ins.

So by now you’re probably wondering what all this hype about “xRM” is (or so we hope)!  Heck you may even be wonder just what it is in the first place!!

To make it simple, “xRM” is the next generation of what most organizations traditionally refer to as “CRM”.  The “x” replaces the traditional “Customer” value in the acronym to become a variable.  This means that while the product name is “CRM” it can be configured as a xRM system.

For example, in a traditional environment, the “Customer” might be a purchaser of a product that is for sale (like a bike).  However, in a medical office, the role of “Customer” is replaced with a “Patient”.  “Patient” now becomes one fold of the usage for the new variable of “x”.

Alternatively, a veterinary office might replace “Customer” with “Pet”.  A Pharmaceutical sales organization might replace “Customer” with “Doctor” or “Provider”, and so on.
If you look a little deeper under the covers of “xRM” you’ll note that the last part of the acronym is also taking on new forms.  While it stands for “Relationship Management” and will continue to stand for this, the concept of which relationships is also taking new meaning due to the extreme flexibility in the CRM product.

Traditionally, CRM systems related buyers to purchases (Customers to Orders), but now in the world of “xRM” these relationships can get much more complex and unique.  For example, a General Practicioner’s medical office may have a relationship with their Patient who then has a relationship to his/her insurance provider who then has a relationship to a Dermatologist’s medical office.

In an “xRM” environment ALL of these relationships can be managed to whatever level the organization requires.

For this reason you’ll see lots of xRM deployments use the CRM application to replace many other internal applications other than just things like Patient Relationship Management systems.

We’ve seen xRM applications replace EVERY transactional line of business application in an organization with the only exceptions being with ERP and collaboration technologies (SharePoint).

Otherwise anything becomes replacable with an xRM solution!!!

LinkedIn is een fantastische tool als je het voor de goede doeleinden gebruikt. Niet iedereen maakt er gebruik van. Hier zijn 7 tips om meerwaarden te creëren voor je moeite.

Lees meer >

1. Ga naar de post, bank en (super)markt in één trip.

2. Schakel je e-mail en sms-en op je telefoon uit zodat je niet kan gestoord worden.

3. Reserveer een specifiek uur om klanten terug te mailen en terug te bellen.

4. Voer de 3 D’s in: delegeer, delegeer, delegeer!

5. Volg een cursus “Speed-reading”

6. Doe je bestellingen via online winkels

7. Vermijd zaken als nutteloze Youtube filmpjes, AngryBirds, Wordfeud,…

8. Mik niet op 100% perfectionisme, 95% is ook goed

9. Werk met een agenda gedurende presentaties en vergaderingen

10. Max 30min voor Social Media

11. Combineer ontbijt, middag- en avondeten met een meeting

12. Neem je TV programma’s op zodat je reclame kan skippen.

13. Goed slapen zodat je uitgerust en efficiënt kan werken ipv met kleine oogjes…

14. Creeër een to-do lijst. Staat het niet op je lijst, doe het dan niet!

15. Controleer het verkeer via Google maps en kies je ideale route

Nog tips? Laat het ons gerust weten!

Het lijkt erop dat Google Glass momenteel consumentengadget nummer één aan het worden is. Hoe deze gadget zijn nut zal bewijzen in de zakelijke wereld, is nog niet volledig duidelijk. Ook in CRM-middens circuleren verschillende denkpistes. Benieuwd hoe dat zal evolueren. Avento is al wel volop bezig om toepassingen te bedenken voor uw business Lees meer >

Mobile BI betekent Business Intelligence via mobiele toestellen, typisch via touchscreen op een smartphone of tablet. Lees meer >

Online/Offline

Het steeds online in verbinding staan met een database werkt vertragend en een data abonnement blijft kostelijk. Offline werken is steeds instant en zorgt ervoor dat de verkoper op iedere moment data kan beheren of consulteren.

Het synchroniseren kan eenvoudig via WiFi vanop het bedrijf, van thuis uit,…  Lees meer >

Hebt u een mobiele app nodig maar hebt u niet de design en ICT-competenties om zelf een app te bouwen? Gebruik dan iBuildApp. Met deze ‘app van de maand’ bouwt u helemaal zelf uw eigen bedrijfsapp. En dit zonder enige technische kennis. Lees meer >