Microsoft CRM 3.0 is due for release in December and is offering an upgraded, cost-effective and productive CRM alternative that also meets sales and marketing`s requirement for working in the familiar environment of Microsoft Outlook for their sales and campaign management tasks.
CRM 3.0 is, in effect, Microsoft Outlook with a host of sales, marketing and customer management capabilities. It maintains one set of customer information throughout the organisation while also taking advantage of the simplified, integrated SQL Server data management tools. Built-in reporting and analysis tools further ensure easy access to information that can translate into knowledge about customers for higher impact decision-making.
Caron Mooney, director of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, IS Partners, says that marketing managers need to streamline the campaign process, from budgets, target markets and costs through to campaign effectiveness in terms of bottom line sales.
"The extent to which Outlook and Excel are being used by sales and marketing managers should not be underestimated. Microsoft CRM 3.0 buys into this reality, offering, for example, the ability to distribute reports in Excel while maintaining user access rights for viewing different levels of information.
"Leads can be registered in the CRM system and tracked through workflow into sales and marketing opportunities. The system capitalises on whichever sales methodology an organisation is already using by mirroring the existing sales process, no matter how simple or complicated," she says.
CRM 3.0 takes advantage of the open architecture of the .Net platform, making integration with any backend ERP system straightforward. The native BI capabilities in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 also place organisations in a better position to capitalise on the BI potential CRM offers for information analysis.
"Many companies already have the building blocks in place with SQL Server`s BI capabilities, and can easily slot in the tracking and reporting functionality integral to CRM 3.0."
IS Partners will host a series of CRM 3.0 demo sessions that will show campaign management in action, from campaign inception, targeting of customers, budgeting and communicating with customers, feeding opportunities directly into the sales process and campaign evaluation. The next session takes place on 7 December at Microsoft. More information can be obtained by visiting http://www.ispartners.co.za/events.asp or contacting Debbie Penrose on (011) 463-8155.
"The bottom line, which we will demonstrate, is how easily the effectiveness of marketing campaigns can be analysed to determine whether organisations have put their money in the right place," Mooney says.
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Established in 2001, IS Partners addresses the need for quality implementations of Microsoft solutions. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence, IS Partners specialises in empowering sales, marketing, financial and management in its customer base. This includes various industries such as retail, distribution, finance and IT.
IS Partners uses its own proven, streamlined methodology for all implementations. It also specialises in bringing bottom line value to CRM systems, providing business analysis, technical design, application architecture, implementation, training and performance tuning of CRM implementations on the Microsoft platform and Microsoft`s own CRM solution. For more information, go to www.ispartners.co.za.
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