Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 – the benefits it provides to businesses
As part of its continual investment in product development, Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 will be released in December. The updated software will bring a vast selection of new features, which will increase staff productivity and allow companies to improve the services they give to clients.
"The 2016 update includes all of our CRM services – Dynamics CRM, Parature, from Microsoft, Dynamics Marketing and Microsoft Social Engagement - and covers four major themes: Productivity, Intelligence, Mobility and Unified Service." (Microsoft)
The new update enables businesses to be able to improve three key sectors within their companies: Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. One of the key advantages that comes with CRM 2016, is that businesses will be able to be more time efficient. This, in turn, will enable employees to have more time in order to deliver more effective service to customers.
Sales Department
The sales department will greatly benefit from a large influx of updates and new features in the software. Examples of the functionalities CRM 2016 offers are:
- OneDrive for Business: This allows users to have a consolidated view of documents across SharePoint and Office 365 in context with CRM
- Document Generation: Microsoft has devised templates for Word and Excel which means you do not need to manually extract information in order to create a new document in CRM
- Information Discovery: display of information is transformed from static to dynamic as the CRM dashboard helps you discover new content and connections
- Cortana Integration: The intelligent personal assistant for Windows now has embedded CRM sales activities and accounts in order for it to be easier for sales people to use in both a professional and personal sense
Two noteworthy updates are changes to CRM for Outlook and Excel Integration. CRM for Outlook has been modified so that salespeople can more efficiently see contextual information from Dynamics CRM directly in the email inbox, allowing for employees to be more efficient. Improved Excel Integration will increase productivity as data can be analysed straight from CRM itself. You will no longer have to waste time switching between applications while attempting to complete a sale. This is one example of how Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 increases productivity and reduces costs for business by removing a time wasting exercise in an everyday situation.
Marketing Department
As customers increasingly research, seek peer recommendations and buy online, marketing tactics have needed to keep pace. CRM 2016 has improvements to SMS and Email Marketing services. You will be able to create and push campaigns from your mobile devices with only a limited amount of clicks, so marketers can truly go mobile. Campaigns can be multi-channel and CRM 2016 provides support both outbound and inbound. New features in the email marketing side of things include being able to interact with HTML directly from your inbox. This is another way CRM 2016 will increase the productivity of employees, by streamlining key marketing tasks.
Customer Service
CRM 2016 brings customer service to the forefront. The software includes features such as:
- Interactive Service Hub: This has a modernised design that introduces a multi-stream dashboard as well as a single-stream dashboard.
- External Party: This new feature allows restricted, permission-based access to CRM data from outside of your organisation
- Knowledge Management: Whole organisations have access to a global content model within CRM so are all able to access the same information, subject to the restrictions you wish to set, to give a single source of truth
- Unified Service Desk: This is a desktop application which helps call centre representatives to be more efficient and to deliver a seamless experience across multiple channels, through access to back-end systems and third party applications. Companies are able to send out surveys and questionnaires through the feature
- Voice of the Customer: This allows for customers to give their feedback and for employees to easily see their queries and resolve them. This in turn aids the development of rapport between clients and the business
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 has even included a Guided User Experience which provides online training for employees. The guide is tailored so that different job roles have access to specified information relevant to them. This ensures employees are well trained and clients will receive the finest service possible.