Many of my clients have been asking why they should move from CRM 4.0 to CRM 2011?
Though there is a real talk about the many new features added to Dynamics CRM 2011 which were missing in its earlier version, Dynamics CRM 4.0. I will like to cover the features that will impact you the most as an end user. With this intention I though of writing a blog about the really cool features that matters most to an end user.
1) Dialogs: Dialog is a really cool feature added to Dynamics CRM 2011. Dialogs let you design a questionnaire which the sales executive can follow when talking to a prospect. The data received from the questionnaire can be pushed into any entity record of your choice in the CRM system. Thus a questionnaire on feedback post sales can push data into a case or a presale questionnaire can push data about allocated budget of client into lead/contact record.
Does it matter to you? Of course it does as it helps you stream line the process. It lets your staff get align with the business needs and sales process. It makes sure that all information pre-post sale/purchase is always captured.
2) Connections: In CRM 4.0 “Relationship Role” could be created between contact, account and opportunity. What this meant was social relationships like father of, mother of, employee of, employer of etc could have been created to store more information about the prospect. In CRM 2011 this is now extended to all entities. I.e. now you can link an order to a contact with relationship referred sale, or Invoice to a contract or Case with any relation you need depending on your business needs. Isn’t this cool? This helps you store ad-hoc relationships between entities, which is very useful when talking to a prospect.
3) Dashboards and reports: Users are now able to leverage Microsoft Dynamics CRM for advanced business intelligence functionality. Multiple dashboards can be managed to monitor the overall performance of the business, and the dashboards of Microsoft’s CRM are intuitive and easy to navigate. The new Microsoft CRM add on allows users to benefit from being able to utilize business intelligence information to quickly and easily identify customer and market trends.
4) Ribbon & usability: The new Ribbon added at the top of CRM 2011 screens has greatly improved the usability of CRM 2011. This not only far more easy to use but also reduces time to learn and train new employee.