Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement

Despite CRM, your customer data is still maintained in Excel lists or Microsoft Outlook? This is not an isolated case in many SMEs. Although CRM systems are installed, much of the potential remains unused. The reasons are manifold:

• Employees do not recognise the benefit and resist using the application
• The functions of the CRM systems are not sufficiently trained
• Internal interfaces are missing
• Strategy and goals for the management of customer engagement is not made clearly formulated

The costly consequences are often not visible to management. Too much time is lost for duplicate data maintenance, too much information is not consistently recorded, too much information is not centrally available but is guarded by marketing, sales, development and service like a personal treasure. In the digital future, inadequate alignment of corporate activities with customer needs will become an existential risk for many SMEs.

Modern customer relationship management requires more than installing CRM software for collecting customer data, managing appointments and marketing activities. In the age of digitalisation, CRM systems must be part of an agile, scalable infrastructure. They must be open to moving data from a wide variety of sources - be it customer-related machine data, be it data from social media channels or geo and sensor data from logistics processes.

One CRM tool that we prefer to use with our customers is Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement - formerly Dynamics CRM. Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement is part of the large Dynamics 365 family, which combines business applications for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Ordering, Human Resources and many more.

Dynamics 365 is designed as a cloud solution, but can also be installed on-premise. In the Dynamics 365 Cloud, all applications speak the same language. This allows optimal collaboration with other Microsoft Cloud Services, Office 365 or Power BI. In addition, individual business apps can be created much more easily thanks to fast access to the required data.

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft's answer to digital transformation. CRM and ERP are no longer part of a client-server architecture with separate databases and complicated interfaces. In the cloud, they provide Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Production and Technical Customer Service centrally with all information for customer-related processes. For you, Microsoft Dynamics 365 means: You use Software as a Service - as a service - and can therefore concentrate entirely on your core business.

Is digitalisation really just disruption and thus synonymous with the displacement and destruction of traditional business models?

It also offers an enormous opportunity, especially for traditional small and medium-sized enterprises.

Your CRM system is the central collection point for all customer-related information. However, an intelligent, cloud-based infrastructure such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 additionally enables your company to integrate IoT data from machines and devices and thus completely new possibilities for optimised service and maintenance processes.

In the vast majority of companies, technical service is geared towards correcting errors. This increases costs and has an impact on customer satisfaction. The Connected Field Service for Dynamics 365 brings CRM and the Azure IoT cloud platform together. The advantage for you: you can integrate diagnostics, forecasting, proactive maintenance and deployment planning with apps for augmented reality, remote assistance and service automation into a proactive, responsive service model.

Unformatted machine data such as sensor data and other measured values are stored in the cloud. Depending on the solution approach, they are structured here, i.e. assigned to specific purposes. During the subsequent analysis phase, the data is automatically compared with defined standard values and critical events are identified. These serve as the basis for forecasts, such as increased wear with lower machine performance as a consequence. Even before critical values are reached, actions can be triggered, such as the replacement of certain components. Why the integration with CRM? Machine data as well as service and maintenance information and supplier data are explicitly assigned to the customer. The customer history and communication with the customer are also stored in a central location. Among other things, this enables the simple integration of networked remote control functions in the event of a malfunction.