LOVE IT OR
LEAVE IT

CRM that collects dust? Not awesome.

CRM that people love? Awesome.

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“Microsoft Dynamics CRM is training them for their jobs, rather than us having to train them to use the tool.”

Mark Miles, CIO, aden + anais

11X ROI

"The efficiency gains we saw translated into a 11x return on investment in the first year."

- Paul Williams,Head of Information Management, Element Six

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

CRM that collects dust? Not awesome.
CRM that people love? Awesome.

Mark Miles is the CIO for aden + anais, a boutique retailer of muslin wraps for babies that has seen double digit growth in the last year. In addition to dealing with skyrocketing demand, he is also overseeing an aggressive hiring plan. New sales and service reps need to understand the processes that drive the business as well as the products they sell. Existing employees need to adapt to new and evolving processes. In short, it is imperative that the people who represent the aden + anais brand can move quickly and make good decisions at all times, regardless of tenure, and especially when interacting with customers.

The reality is that Mark needs to keep everyone on the same page, and he needs them focused on the customers – not on their CRM system. While the business of customer relationship management has evolved dramatically over the last decade, two things have remained consistent:

All the features in the world won't help you succeed if people don't use them.
You won't see a return on your investment if people spend their time juggling applications rather than doing their jobs.

Like any relationship, the user experience needs to be about love

As more and more of our personal and professional lives move into the digital realm, users are holding their digital tools to higher and higher standards. One of the core design principles behind the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is to create tools people love to use. Here are three ways we're putting the love back into CRM:

Awesome Talk:

“With a single interface, we were able to cut 42% of the steps in our service requests.”

Todd Renaud

Vice President of Management Information Systems

SSFCU

1. By focusing on your outcomes with process-oriented design

You don't invest in CRM because you want people entering data or completing forms; you invest because you want faster sales cycles, bigger pipelines and more delighted customers. The December 2012 Service Update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online moves away from the traditional form-based CRM interface to actually visualize business processes from start to finish.

Users are allowed to focus on goals and outcomes instead of managing forms and data, and they can visually connect their actions to meaningful results. The experience is simpler and less cluttered because users see information and tools that are contextual to where they are in the process rather than having to sort through the same long menus at every stage.

2. By delivering rapid adoption through familiar interfaces & cross-platform device support

You don't need to use other Microsoft products to realize value from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, but if you do, you'll be more than impressed by how short the learning curve is. Not only do users see familiar interface elements, they can actually run Microsoft Dynamics CRM within Outlook, and it will help you realize even greater value from existing Microsoft investments like Office 365.

But we're also investing in your flexibility, to let people work on their terms, with their tools. Microsoft Dynamics Online works with a range of browsers that include versions of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome on Windows PCs. Firefox and Apple Safari will be supported on Macintosh desktop computers, and we offer Safari support on Apple iPad tablets for sales users. We are rolling out native mobile applications for Windows 8 and iOS devices (and other platforms in the near future), so that you can deploy once and access your data from anywhere on any device.

3. By putting an end to app-flipping

Distraction is the enemy of productivity, but can we really fault people for being distracted when we're asking them to spend their time juggling a CRM tool, email, a desktop messenger, a social listening plugin, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? When users are switching between all these applications, they are not selling, growing pipeline, or delighting customers. All too often, the tools that are supposed to make us more efficient are actually splitting our focus and costing us money.

One of the main goals of the recent design updates to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is to eliminate the scourge that is “app-flipping” by bringing all these outside functions inside the primary CRM application and smartly surfacing the right information at the right time. A great example is the way we've incorporated Yammer into the user interface. By enabling users to connect and collaborate without ever leaving the primary application, they save time and are able to work more effectively across teams, even if the people they're collaborating with aren't using Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

In the end, the choice for Mark Miles of aden + anais was simple: they needed a platform that could keep up with their employees' needs and their company's growth. They chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM because their people wanted to use it and because the process made them more efficient, not less:

“The user interface [of Microsoft Dynamics CRM] helps employees learn our processes quickly and easily, and it encourages them to think about their jobs strategically. The tool is training them for their jobs, rather than us having to train them to use the tool.”

Mark Miles, CIO, aden + anais

At Microsoft, love is at the core of our design approach because your success is at the core of our business. If you're investing in a CRM solution, we've provided some questions below that you should ask yourself—and your vendors— to find the solutions that your employees will love, the solutions they think are awesome.

Here are some questions you should ask the vendors you are considering for CRM:

From within an account record, how many clicks to check a colleague's status or presence regardless if they are a CRM user?
From within an opportunity record, how many clicks does it take to email a colleague? Call? IM? Post to an internal social collaboration tool? What about a customer?
What effort and investment is required to embed communication and collaboration channels within the CRM system without the need to flip between applications?
When in an opportunity record, can users tell where they are within a specific marketing, sales, or service process without having to click around to see related information?
Does the interface adapt and provide contextual content depending on the information being viewed by the user?

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Bob Stutz

"User Experience is Critical"

Ask More of your CRM

From within an account record, how many clicks to check a colleague's status or presence regardless if they are a CRM user?

From within an opportunity record, how many clicks does it take to email a colleague? Call? IM? Post to an internal social collaboration tool? What about a customer?

What effort and investment is required to embed communication and collaboration channels within the CRM system without the need to flip between applications?

When in an opportunity record, can users tell where they are within a specific marketing, sales, or service process without having to click around to see related information?

Does the interface adapt and provide contextual content depending on the information being viewed by the user?

“In a given season, we track as many as 12 discrete campaigns with upwards of 1,000 pieces of creative. So there's a lot to monitor.”

-Brian Woyt, PGA Tour

Ask More of your CRM

How does a CMO or other marketing leader gain insight into overall marketing spend and returns?

How does the vendor provide performance insights across the entire marketing mix, including traditional and social channels?

How does the vendor support the marketing process from budgeting to project management to content storage and creation?

How many vendors are needed to make up the complete marketing solution that meets your business' needs? What effort and investment is required to integrate the marketing system(s) with the CRM system?

How does the vendor support broadcast and digital media tracking and insights relative to the overall marketing mix? Are any special integrations required?

Is Your CRM Solution
CMO-Ready?

Mono-channel marketing? Not awesome.

One view of marketing plans, spend, and ROI across

channels? Awesome.

Read the post

Is Your CRM Solution
CMO-Ready?

Mono-channel marketing? Not awesome.
One view of all marketing plans, spend, and ROI across channels? Awesome.

In a given year, the PGA Tour may run as many as a dozen distinct campaigns in multiple international markets, putting over 1,000 different pieces of creative in the field every 12 months. Like other businesses, they are continually challenged to track, measure and fine-tune their campaigns and content. And like other businesses, PGA Tour found it difficult to scale and measure success using an array of tools, from open-source CRM widgets to basic spreadsheets.

The situation that the PGA Tour faced is not uncommon. Today, the rise of social media and mobile device usage has driven different kinds of customer engagement, at a different pace. It is becoming the norm rather than the exception for companies to

listen to and participate in conversations with customers. As a result, the right marketing strategy for 2013 is hugely different than the right strategy was for 2003, and, shockingly, different even than it was in 2010 – just three years ago.

While one might simply describe the ideal marketing strategy in 2013 as one that needs to be “social and mobile,” the reality is that social and mobile are additions, not replacements. Like the PGA Tour, marketers are challenged to find the most effective balance across investments that span the new (eg, social) and traditional (eg, advertising, events, email). For CMOs, the challenge is to strike a balance in their marketing mix, and maintain the insight and flexibility to adapt it quickly to drive optimal performance.

A Higher Order Conversation about Marketing

Gartner cited the CMO's biggest challenges as reducing costs, decreasing time to market, generating leads, managing budgets better, and measuring performance. But how is a marketing leader supposed to manage these high-level objectives when marketing investments are scattered across a variety of point solutions, and new channels and cadences are disrupting the rhythm they once managed?

Awesome Talk:

"MarketingPilot is giving us the tools to do our job better as well as keep our clients better informed."

Brian Croswhite

Marketing Director of Nova Southeastern University

Like the marketing leaders at the PGA Tour, CMOs need a strategic foundation that provide insight into marketing plans, spend, and results across the entire strategy. As Gartner points out, “Just using digital channels is not the answer.”

Microsoft is for Marketers

Acquired by Microsoft in October of last year, MarketingPilot is an integrated marketing management solution that provides the foundation that marketing leaders need. It connects directly to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and provides visibility into marketing investments across all channels, helping you plan, track, optimize and measure ROI.

The PGA Tour chose MarketingPilot for their marketing automation needs because it not only saved them time and money, but it also made their offering more valuable to partners and sponsors:

“Tracking media isn't just important to us; it's important to our partners. It used to take us days to prepare a report for a senior executive or a sponsor, but now with MarketingPilot, we have all that in one place. It's streamlined and it's accurate.”

Brian Woyt, PGA Tour

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM and MarketingPilot, you get an integrated marketing management solution that drives results and visibility across ALL the channels that matter to your business. One of the hardest jobs in marketing just got a little easier, and that's awesome.

Here are some questions you should ask the vendors you are considering for marketing automation capabilities:

How does a CMO or other marketing leader gain insight into overall marketing spend and returns?
How does the vendor provide performance insights across the entire marketing mix, including traditional and social channels?
How does the vendor support the marketing process from budgeting to project management to content storage and creation?
How many vendors are needed to make up the complete marketing solution that meets your business' needs? What effort and investment is required to integrate the marketing system(s) with the CRM system?
How does the vendor support broadcast and digital media tracking and insights relative to the overall marketing mix? Are any special integrations required?

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"Unlock Your Potential"

From leads to sales 25% FASTER.

"With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we were able to match sales to leads 25 percent faster and report on campaign results and ROI in real time."

John Johnston, Marketing Manager, Volvo

TRUST AND THE CLOUD: ARE YOU OPERATING WITHOUT A NET?

Opaque transparency about cloud service operations? Not awesome.

Deep clarity on commitment to data security and privacy practices? Awesome.

Read the post

“The latest SaaS vendor pitch on why they don't need a service level agreement (SLA) is they are so proven they don't have to offer one. Huh?”

Rob Desisto, Gartner VP/Distinguished Analyst

Microsoft offers a

99.9%

financially-backed SLA

TRUST AND THE CLOUD: ARE YOU OPERATING WITHOUT A NET?

Opaque visibility into cloud service operations? Not awesome.
Deep clarity on data security and privacy practices? Awesome.

Any company knows that the security of your data is paramount to the success of your business, and for any company handling customer data, the stakes are even higher. We need look no further than the latest news headline about information leaks to see that the consequences of data mismanagement can be dire for your operations and your brand. IT departments around the world take incredible pains to maintain integrity and accountability in their data handling. Shouldn't you hold a 3rd party cloud vendor to the same rigorous standards?

“The latest SaaS vendor pitch on why they don't need a service level agreement (SLA) is they are so proven they don't have to offer one. Huh?”

Rob Desisto, Gartner VP/Distinguished Analyst

Huh indeed, and SLAs are only one of many areas companies should be considering before making a cloud-CRM vendor selection. Today's business environment is fast, complex and global. Companies that conduct business in the cloud need a partner that they can trust to make sure their data is secure and private. Here are five areas any CRM decision maker should consider when evaluating a CRM vendor's ability to protect what's most important:

Awesome Talk:

"Gartner has seen a number of contracts for mission-critical applications such as customer service with little to no SLA. The bottom line is that many companies are engaged in trapeze acts without a safety net, and worse yet, in some cases, they don't realize they even need a net."

Gartner

"Predicts 2013: Software as a Service"

1. Service Health Dashboard

Data moves fast and often. The miracle of the cloud is instant access to data from anywhere, but that means the “paper trail” has gotten a lot more complex. A service health dashboard, like the one in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, enables users to easily see the status of their instance and more information if any problems should arise.

2. Certifications & Compliance

As privacy concerns have become more of a public issue, the regulatory environment has gotten much more stringent, and rightly so. Around the world, there are a number of data protection laws and regulations to consider when managing data in the cloud:

The EU Data Protection Directive, a key instrument of EU privacy and human rights law, requires businesses in the EU to legitimize the transfer of personal data outside of the EU. The EU Model Clauses are recognized as the best method for legitimizing the transfer of data outside the EU for cloud computing environments. Offering the EU Model Clauses involves investing and building the operational controls and processes required to meet the exacting privacy and security requirements of the EU Model Clauses. Unless a cloud service provider is willing to agree to the EU Model Clauses, it may be difficult for a customer to have confidence that it can comply with the EU Data Protection Directive's requirements for cross border transfers of personal data. Unlike many cloud-CRM providers, Microsoft signs EU Model Clauses.
For U.S. businesses in the healthcare industry, complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) while using an online service to store Protected Health Information (PHI) is the #1 concern. Executing a Business Associate Agreement with your cloud service provider is the only way to secure compliance with the requirements set by the Law; failure to meet these standards could entail penalties exceeding USD $1,000,000 and, in cases where there is a criminal offense, imprisonment.
In Asia Pacific, the financial services industry has been strongly influenced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore's concern over commingled data (i.e., data placed in same database as other subscribing companies). Singapore regulators are unlikely to allow a bank to put customer data into the cloud without significant due diligence, and offenders could be punished with a three year jail term and fine. In fact, the Monetary Authority of Singapore influenced one large bank based out of New Zealand to reduce risk by moving off a cloud-based CRM system in favor of an alternative.

3. Regional Datacenters & Redundancy

The cloud may be global, but many regions (including the EU) still require that sensitive data stay within their borders. Many cloud vendors knowingly sell solutions in countries in which they have no physical presence. Additionally, your data may be “off-shored” to a place where it is commingled with data from other companies, presenting an additional security risk and removing the option of in-region redundancy. In contrast, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offers in-region data centers and redundancy in North America, Europe, and Asia.

4. Transparency in Operations

There is no such thing as a risk-free data solution. Even the most secure cloud services require that people outside your company have access to your data. The next best thing to a perfect system is perfect transparency. Microsoft offers all of our customers a detailed report that outlines exactly where your data goes, when it moves, and who has access to it at every stage. Further details on data security and transparency is available at the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Trust Center.

5. Service Level Agreements

For all the reasons above, and more, Microsoft offers a 99.9% financially-backed SLA for its cloud service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Across every region and every industry, we work with our clients to ensure that you don't have to assume extra liability just to use our products.

Trust is the bedrock of any business relationship, but it's especially important when you're placing your vital information into the cloud. You need a cloud service provider that can meet the security needs of your business, your industry, and the countries in which you operate. When it comes to security, privacy, transparency, and trust, Microsoft delivers:

We respect the privacy of your data.
Your data is yours and its portable.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online does not build advertising products our of customer data
There is no mingling of your data with other customers' data.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online always allows you to keep your customer data separate from consumer services.

And that's not just talk. It's a commitment, and it's awesome.

Does the CRM vendor have data centers in the EU? If not, how does the CRM provider sign EU Model Clauses?
Does the CRM vendor commingle customers' data with other customers' data? What is the strategy to prevent accidental sharing?
Does the CRM vendor share information about its data center operations, including where data is stored & who has access to the data?
Does the CRM vendor offer a financially-backed service-level agreement (SLA)?
Has the CRM vendor lost customer data? Describe when, where, and the conditions in which the data was lost.

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Ben Ravani

"Focus on Data Integrity"

Ask More of your CRM

Does the CRM vendor have data centers in the EU? If not, how does the CRM provider sign EU Model Clauses?

Does the CRM vendor commingle customers' data with other customers' data? What is the strategy to prevent accidental sharing?

Does the CRM vendor share information about its data center operations, including where data is stored & who has access to the data?

Does the CRM vendor offer a financially-backed service-level agreement (SLA)?

Has the CRM vendor lost customer data? Describe when, where, and the conditions in which the data was lost.

“Our philosophy around mobile is that you should be able to get the data that you want anytime, any place, on any device.”

-Bob Stutz, Corporate Vice President of R&D;, Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Ask More of your CRM

How many mobile applications are needed to address my sales team's needs?

Does the mobile application cache recently viewed data to allow users to see information when offline? Does this application have a separate price?

Show how a sales person could pull up a list of accounts or opportunities.

Does the mobile application allow dashboard views, and is the application different than main mobile CRM app? Describe how a sales manager would drill into dashboard results to the underlying records.

Describe the workarounds, customizations, and additional costs associated with delivering a mobile solution that meets my specific business needs and processes.

A Different Approach to Mobile:
People First

Empty promises on “out-of-the-box” mobile solutions: Not awesome. Data anywhere on any device: Awesome.

Read the post

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
TO MOBILE: PEOPLE FIRST

Empty promises on “out-of-the-box” mobile solutions: Not awesome.
Data anywhere on any device: Awesome.

Mobile devices have transformed the way we live and do business, and mobile applications are as hot a topic as any in the CRM world right now. So hot, in fact, that it's getting difficult to muddle through all the hot air coming from various vendors. There are two terms in particular that should raise a skeptical eyebrow for CRM decision makers: “Out of the Box” and “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).”

Awesome Talk:

"While BYOD programs can reduce costs, they typically do not."

Gartner

Some CRM vendors will lead you to believe that they have all the capability you need “out of the box,” but the reality is that, today, most vendors' mobile offerings don't meet today's business needs without extensive customization, work-arounds, or bolting together different applications. Many vendors claim they can meet sophisticated mobile needs, but their solutions require deploying multiple apps on users' devices, each independent and disconnected from the other apps, and each with its own upgrade schedule and maintenance requirements.

Similarly, while the promise of “Bring Your Own Device” sounds appealing, it's not always a sustainable business model for either the vendor that provides the service or the company that deploys it: "While BYOD programs can reduce costs, they typically do not. BYOD is not for every company, or every employee. For the vast majority of companies it is not possible to force all users into a bring your own (BYO) program without substantial financial investments." (Gartner, 2012)

This is not to create a false impression that Microsoft Dynamics CRM necessarily offers better out of the box or BYOD mobile solutions. We face the same challenges as all of our competitors do, but we're taking a different approach to mobile. We're putting people first, not devices. Our philosophy is that our customers should be able to get the information they need anywhere, anytime, on any device. We believe that companies should be able to configure the app once and use it on any device.

This philosophy is the foundation of the vision that we're building toward, and we're building at an impressive pace. Today, like some of our competitors, we offer web browser access on mobile devices, such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android,as well as a Yammer mobile app for social collaboration. For more specific needs (eg, native multi-device support) we have great partner solutions.

Additionally, in our next release, we will be delivering hybrid native/HTML5 apps for Windows 8 as well as Apple, and adding additional platforms (eg, Android) in rapid succession. These apps will support native look-and-feel, a ubiquitous process-based experience (particularly for road warriors), native collaboration actions, and more.

Instead of out-of-the box promises or cobbled together solutions, we're selling you an approach built on steady, responsible innovation. Companies don't need an iPhone app, or a Windows Mobile app: their people need the information they need, when they need it, wherever they are. Instead of reacting to the devices we see today with one-off fixes, we're building a platform that will meet the needs of the people who use it, no matter what device they hold in their hands. That's not just good planning; it's awesome.

Here are some questions you should ask the vendors you are considering for CRM:

How many mobile applications are needed to address my sales team's needs?
Does the mobile application cache recently viewed data to allow users to see information when offline? Does this application have a separate price?
Show how a sales person could pull up a list of accounts or opportunities.
Does the mobile application allow dashboard views, and is the application different than main mobile CRM app? Describe how a sales manager would drill into dashboard results to the underlying records.
Describe the workarounds, customizations, and additional costs associated with delivering a mobile solution that meets my specific business needs and processes.

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Bob Stutz

"A Different Approach to Mobile"

"My absolute favorite part of CRM: I can be

Anywhere in the world,

it's linked with Outlook, so I can find any client's phone number, email address, or address, anywhere I want from my smartphone."

-Matt Gerhardt,

Financial Advisor, Raymond James

Social is a channel, not a Silver Bullet

Social only? Not awesome.

Social + the ways you like to collaborate today?

Awesome.

Read the post

“Social is just the canary in the mine. It is the indication of the way the landscape is changing and has changed. And it is then incumbent on us to look at how we structure the conversations between all these media nodes.”

Brian Harte, Tourism Ireland

#1 most credible

enterprise social application vendor?

Microsoft.

-Crimson Consulting Group:

Solving the Social CRM Equation

SOCIAL IS A CHANNEL, NOT A SILVER BULLET

Social silos? Not awesome.
New strategic possibilities with social? Awesome

Social media is kind of a big deal, as you may have gathered. But what exactly do we do with it? The meteoric rise of network-enabled social channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has reshaped the marketing landscape, yet many companies still struggle to realize and measure return on investment (ROI) in social channels.

CRM vendors have been quick to promote social measurement and marketing tools in response to their clients' overwhelming urge to “get in the social game,” but this haste is leading to some missteps and some bad investments.

In fact, new research commissioned by Microsoft* shows that almost 90% of CRM decision makers either have plans to deploy, or have deployed, social capabilities. Interestingly, CRM decision makers that have plans to deploy social (but haven't yet) are significantly more optimistic about their plans than those who have already deployed.

So what is driving this gap between the CRM decision maker who has deployed social vs. the one with plans? As the research shows, the CRM decision maker's single biggest challenge is demonstrating the ROI of an enterprise social deployment. But even before an ROI can be calculated, the social solution needs a strategy to drive business results. It needs to make your employees' and customers' lives easier. And the resulting benefits need to be measured and communicated internally.

Microsoft customer Tourism Ireland has a great social media success story because they've been very thoughtful about how they invest in and use social channels.

“We take social media very seriously. We have about 30 different social media platforms under active management. But it needs to sit alongside the other media. Our challenge is now to integrate across what were, in effect, different channels of media and marketing activity. Social is just the canary in the mine. It is the indication of the way the way the landscape is changing and has changed. And it is then incumbent on us to look at how we structure the conversations between all these media nodes.”

Brian Harte, Tourism Ireland

Supporting Content:

#1 most credible

source of enterprise

social applications:

Microsoft

Most frequently deployed

enterprise social app:

Microsoft

4x more

enterprise social apps

deployed than closest

competitor

Microsoft

Crimson Consulting Group Whitepaper: Solving the Social CRM Equation

Social media is not a magic bullet. Social CRM is just CRM. Social is just one more channel in your marketing mix. We need to stop treating social as though it is separate or disconnected from existing customer strategies. Businesses need to define their unique needs and goals for social and focus on how to connect social opportunities to their holistic marketing strategy.

Assess Your Needs: There is no Template

For companies with high brand awareness, high conversation volume and lots of eyeballs already in social channels, social measurement is vital. For many companies though, standalone social measurement platforms can offer a questionable return on a steep investment, without providing more actionable intel than basic analytics. Rather than investing in costly bolt-on solutions, consider investment in a CRM platform with social connectivity baked into it.

Our Philosophy: Social is a means to an end

Companies don't need social apps, they need the ability to address customers' needs quickly. Few companies have a need for social marketing or analysis that is not connected to other marketing channels. Our approach is not to build standalone apps, but to incorporate social functionality into our core platform, which we're doing through strategic investments and design updates.

Strategic Investments: MarketingPilot, NetBreeze, Yammer

In March 2013, Microsoft acquired NetBreeze, a company that offers social media monitoring and sentiment analytics solutions. NetBreeze enables enterprise organizations to listen to what is happening across social media and news channels, monitor sentiment, and take effective action to drive sales, optimize campaigns and engender customer loyalty.
MarketingPilot will enable new scenarios that encompass both traditional and social channels, while giving CMOs the dashboard they need to understand their investments and performance across the marketing mix.
For More on MarketingPilot, see “Is your CRM CMO-Ready?”
Yammer is a key part of our strategy to help connect people, and it is included with the Office 365 E3 SKU, or $3/user/month. The value of Yammer is that it is a cross-organizational collaboration tool, as opposed to a narrow, CRM-license-holder-only collaboration tool.

“Right at the heart of this organization is our customer data managed through our [Microsoft Dynamics] CRM system. It's not an exaggeration to say that we have an order of magnitude more data points on individuals than we had before. There are 5 million people in our Dynamics database, but through them we have access to over a billion connections.

It's important also for us that our relationship with our customers is not one-dimensional. As marketers, we talk about relationships, but we have to take responsibility for turning them into something that involves the consumer at a more fundamental level than just the transmission of information.

[With Microsoft Dynamics CRM], we get to evaluate our interactions across each of those levels of activity based on the depth and breadth of the personal relationships that we have through those media. It is incredibly important for us to unify this this view into one data source. And that's [Microsoft] Dynamics CRM. It allows us to consolidate what we know about our audience, but more specifically it allows us to make the strategic connection between our brand and our target audiences. "

Brian Harte, Tourism Ireland

Best Practices on Social From 1,200 CRM Decision Makers

To understand what CRM decision makers want in their enterprise social applications, Microsoft commissioned Crimson Consulting to conduct an extensive primary and secondary research study of over 1,200 CRM decision-makers worldwide.

What is becoming clear is exactly what Tourism Ireland's experience echoes: social CRM doesn't just happen when you put an enterprise social application alongside your CRM system. Social applications involve the entire enterprise and need to provide a collaborative infrastructure that extends beyond CRM. Why perpetuate another silo when breaking down silos is what social media is all about?

Social in a silo is not awesome. Social, when used to light up your strategy with new possibilities, is totally and completely awesome. To help you find the path of social awesomeness, here are some questions for your CRM vendor:

Does your CRM solution allow social collaboration alongside other forms of traditional collaboration, like voice/phone, IM, email, and video?
Is it possible to check a colleague's status or presence while using the social capability in CRM?
Starting from an opportunity record, how many clicks does it take to email a customer or colleague? Call? IM? Make a social post?
Does the social collaboration solution provide an audit log of the conversations? What about the IM tool?
How much will it cost for all employees to participate on the same internal collaboration network, with the appropriate level of functionality?

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Tourism Ireland

"A social CRM story..."

Ask More of your CRM

Does your CRM solution allow social collaboration alongside other forms of traditional collaboration, like voice/phone, IM, email, and video?

Is it possible to check a colleague's status or presence while using the social capability in CRM?

Starting from an opportunity record, how many clicks does it take to email a customer or colleague? Call? IM? Make a social post?

Does the social collaboration solution provide an audit log of the conversations? What about the IM tool?

How much will it cost for all employees to participate on the same internal collaboration network, with the appropriate level of functionality?

Less talk. More awesome.

It's time to change the conversation.

Take the Microsoft Dynamics CRM TestDrive now.

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

11X ROI

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

CRM that collects dust? Not awesome. CRM that people love? Awesome.

Like any relationship, the user experience needs to be about love

Awesome Talk:

“With a single interface, we were able to cut 42% of the steps in our service requests.”

1. By focusing on your outcomes with process-oriented design

2. By delivering rapid adoption through familiar interfaces & cross-platform device support

3. By putting an end to app-flipping

Share:

Bob Stutz

Ask More of your CRM

Ask More of your CRM

Is Your CRM Solution CMO-Ready?

Is Your CRM Solution CMO-Ready?

Mono-channel marketing? Not awesome. One view of all marketing plans, spend, and ROI across channels? Awesome.

A Higher Order Conversation about Marketing

Awesome Talk:

"MarketingPilot is giving us the tools to do our job better as well as keep our clients better informed."

Microsoft is for Marketers

Share:

From leads to sales 25% FASTER.

TRUST AND THE CLOUD: ARE YOU OPERATING WITHOUT A NET?

Microsoft offers a

99.9%

financially-backed SLA

TRUST AND THE CLOUD: ARE YOU OPERATING WITHOUT A NET?

Opaque visibility into cloud service operations? Not awesome. Deep clarity on data security and privacy practices? Awesome.

Awesome Talk:

"Gartner has seen a number of contracts for mission-critical applications such as customer service with little to no SLA. The bottom line is that many companies are engaged in trapeze acts without a safety net, and worse yet, in some cases, they don't realize they even need a net."

1. Service Health Dashboard

2. Certifications & Compliance

3. Regional Datacenters & Redundancy

4. Transparency in Operations

5. Service Level Agreements

Share:

Ben Ravani

Ask More of your CRM

Ask More of your CRM

A Different Approach to Mobile: People First

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO MOBILE: PEOPLE FIRST

Empty promises on “out-of-the-box” mobile solutions: Not awesome. Data anywhere on any device: Awesome.

Awesome Talk:

"While BYOD programs can reduce costs, they typically do not."

Share:

Bob Stutz

Anywhere in the world,

Social is a channel, not a Silver Bullet

#1 most credible

Microsoft.

SOCIAL IS A CHANNEL, NOT A SILVER BULLET

Social silos? Not awesome. New strategic possibilities with social? Awesome

Supporting Content:

#1 most credible

source of enterprise

social applications:

Microsoft

Most frequently deployed

enterprise social app:

Microsoft

4x more

enterprise social apps

deployed than closest

competitor

Microsoft

Assess Your Needs: There is no Template

Our Philosophy: Social is a means to an end

Strategic Investments: MarketingPilot, NetBreeze, Yammer

Best Practices on Social From 1,200 CRM Decision Makers

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Call 1-888-477-7989 to get started today.

LOVE IT OR
LEAVE IT

CRM that collects dust? Not awesome.
CRM that people love? Awesome.

Is Your CRM Solution
CMO-Ready?

Is Your CRM Solution
CMO-Ready?

Mono-channel marketing? Not awesome.
One view of all marketing plans, spend, and ROI across channels? Awesome.

Opaque visibility into cloud service operations? Not awesome.
Deep clarity on data security and privacy practices? Awesome.

A Different Approach to Mobile:
People First

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
TO MOBILE: PEOPLE FIRST

Empty promises on “out-of-the-box” mobile solutions: Not awesome.
Data anywhere on any device: Awesome.

Social silos? Not awesome.
New strategic possibilities with social? Awesome