Microsoft CRM Solutions - Anyone use/support/impliment. Do I need it?

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Microsoft CRM Solutions - Anyone use/support/impliment. Do I need it?

11 posts & 7 voices | Started 1 year ago by jontawn | Latest reply from tomato

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jontawn - Member

Hello,

It's been a long while since I asked a proper tech question, so to ease my way back in i'll start it off easily.

We are a small service related company with approx 5 (to soon increase) staff and approx 20 individual contracts. Using fairly normal and traditional helpdesk software to keep a log of what we are doing.

Have you been in a situation where you implimented some CRM, and if so why did you do it, what did you use, what benefits have you found?

I think we need to start keeping tabs on our customers from a centralised point of view, we of course want to grow the business and feel that keeping everything in one space/app would be just the ticket.

Any thoughts/comments on this greatly appreciated as i'm bored to the back teeth of promo video's telling me its great but no real substinance as to why.

ta muchly,
jt

Posted 1 year ago #
mrmo - Member

I currently work with a CRM, management and reporting, it is not dynamics but much the same will apply.

You need users to buy in, no point imposing it, junk in, junk out. Make sure you know what YOU want, not what the sales man thinks you want. Remember they are trying to sell you something.

Also think about how extensible the system is, can you do it, or will you need a support contract. What is the reporting like, can you, either get someone in house to do it or will you need the support contract to cover that, (get someone to do it inhouse it is far easier)

Do you have someone who can manage the CRM, check for conflicts, generate reports, ensure staff are trained etc.

Alot of CRM installs fail, and imo it is as much the customer not knowing what they want as it is the salesman selling the wrong tool.

Posted 1 year ago #
jontawn - Member

Thanks mrmo

That's half of my problem, I'm not sure exactly what we really want out of it, I know the shared contacts list in outlook works to a certain extent, but being able to document, track and audit what is happening with the customers and their contracts/our relationship with them.

We're IT types so the implimentation, support and reporting side of it is something we can handle.

I don't suppose you have any links to real-world examples of crm implimentations do you? Or any further reading on what benefits this could bring us? (vodafone, lotus and another one have bored me to tears on the ms website, so much so I stopped looking)

Thanks again,
jt

Posted 1 year ago #
RHSno2 - Member

Hi,

I'm a Siebel CRM consultant/Developer.

Agree with what mrmo says but if you are behind it its a very good tool for centralising and powering your business with process.

Happy to chat about it offline

robert(dot)hamiltonsmith(at)gmail(dot)com

Posted 1 year ago #
mrmo - Member

I can't give any specific case studies you can look at, all i know is how our business is/isn't implementing its CRM and how our sister companies have/haven't implemented theirs.

feel free to ask any questions.

Posted 1 year ago #
epicsteve - Member

Oracle CRM On-Demand info

It might be worth looking at something like salesforce.com or perhaps Oracle's CRM on-demand (although I'm not sure what the entry point for no. of users etc. is for that).

I run a IT support and consulting practice and we use a helpdesk system we developed ourselves (and linked to our ISO process) for call and incident management, but salesforce.com for all sales and marketing related activity.

Posted 1 year ago #
atlaz - Member

Have you tried SugarCRM (their hosted one, not the self-hosted)? I DO hear good things about the MS ones (particularly joined to Unified Comms), but it's not going to be cheap. SugarCRM being SaaS should be a bit more reasonable.

We wrote our own as the one we had when I started costs over 100k a year and was crap.

Posted 1 year ago #
jontawn - Member

Thanks for the replies people, very much appreciated.

Luckily we're MS partners and have all the software I could shake a sh*tty stick at (so long as its from MS!) and as its 'free' it would be my preferred option.

cheers,
jt

Posted 1 year ago #
b r - Member

TBH In a previous role I inherited a (standard) CRM app. Unfortunately management had not kept it up to date and it required a (couple of) version updates.

I did some work and discovered that very little of the standard functionality was used, and the business wanted to bespoke a load of work. Also the upgrade required that previous bespoke work had to be re-developed...

So I did a business case and discovered that it was cheaper (depreciation and opex wise) to develop our own solution, rather than upgrade. We developed it internal and it went well, plus the users got what they needed. And the app has been heavily added to and pushed into other business areas.

So, I'd set down your requirements, and look at whether its better just to develop your own - or implement a supplier 'framework' application.

Email in profile if needed.

Posted 1 year ago #
RHSno2 - Member

Just as a note. Mircosoft use Oracle 's(Lets call it Siebel cos thats what it is) CRM internally and not Dynamix

On Demand is cheap per user. On Premise ain't but is designed for enterprise sized business's (internationally) and not advanced Excel users.

Good luck and keep concept/process focussed not vendor focussed IMHO.

Posted 1 year ago #
tomato - Member

A just helped implement Highrise (http://highrisehq.com/) for my wife's business which is a similar size to yours. Much cheaper and simpler than the alternatives mentioned and a fantastic tool for keeping track of your customers. One of the best features is you can forward emails to the system and they are added as notes to the contact/company the email was from or to. You can also create tasks and monitor deals as you make them. Its hosted and costs around $25/month depending on the size of your database.

Posted 1 year ago #

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