User Review
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The growing trend toward Cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems is not without merit. Cloud computing can offer features and processes unavailable in on-premises solutions.
Cloud CRM can help you make the best use of your data. It allows you access to the newest technologies. It integrates seamlessly with familiar and indispensable processes that your staff uses every day. It contributes to efficiency and intelligent decision-making in a way that older, on-premises applications cannot, and it does all that while also providing a better user experience.
CRM solutions have been around for decades, helping those in sales, marketing, and customer service. But often, the information used by those departments was available only to a few users within the department. Others in the organization who wanted some of that data had to wait around for someone to supply it. In the current fast-paced business world of today, that approach no longer works. Cloud CRM allows better communication and collaboration between departments as 24/7 access is available to all who need it.
If your organization is considering upgrading to a new Cloud-based CRM solution such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, three key areas should be discussed in your planning phase: data, user adoption, and technology.
1: Data
Now is the time to re-examine your data. Focus on where your business is today and where you want to take it in the future. Like most businesses, you have a lot of data. Do you need to move it all over into your new CRM system? Is the information you’ve been capturing truly useful? Is there other data you wish you had been collecting? Evaluating the quality and quantity of your data now will make your CRM migration, and user adoption, so much easier and will set you up for increased efficiency and success down the road.
2: User adoption
To encourage acceptance of a new system, you need to get your users on board at the beginning of the CRM project. In your research into migrating to the Cloud and choosing the appropriate software, you no doubt discovered the benefits of both. Your teams, particularly your key users, need to understand those benefits. Most people don’t like change, and they may not want to spend the time learning the ins and outs of new software and processes. It will be much easier for them if they understand how the new approach will actually help them accomplish their work. Before moving
to a new CRM platform like Microsoft Dynamics 365, learn how users are currently interacting with data and identify any repetitive tasks that are candidates for automation.
3: Technology
Once you have addressed your data and the user experience, consider how to expand your CRM solution to take advantage of new technologies integrated with Dynamics 365. Collaboration,analytics, and AI (artificial intelligence) are three areas in which Dynamics 365 can help your teams be more efficient and more productive. With an increasingly mobile workforce, employees must learn how to collaborate remotely. Microsoft Teams organizes everything you and your employees need in one place so they can access necessary data and collaborate within the Cloud-based platform. Additionally, analytics and AI provide insightful and actionable data for your team. Integrate Microsoft Power Automate with CRM to improve productivity through business process automation.
As a top Microsoft partner, BroadPoint has helped hundreds of organizations transition from legacy CRM to Cloud-based Dynamics 365. Contact our CRM experts at BroadPoint to learn more about this process and the critical steps involved in optimizing your organization’s current CRM.
By BroadPoint, www.broadpoint.net
