Jason, myself and others have been working on this white paper for a long while now and I am very happy to finally be able to make it available to the world. Jason and I have been thinking and talking about Microsoft CRM as a full "application builder" since we were on the product team and before Microsoft CRM 3.0 even shipped. With the release of Microsoft CRM 4.0 and a lot of "wins" for Microsoft CRM over the years; this vision is finally taking hold. Steve Ballmer even referred to it as "XRM" during this years Convergence in Orlando. Here is the introduction: Take the "C" out of CRM and you're left with Microsoft Dynamics Relationship Management—and that's the right way to think about this product. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not just about sales and marketing. It's a platform for developing line of business applications—applications that manage and track information and processes around real-world objects. The object could be a customer, but it could also be a grant, building, or a potential candidate for hire. The key question is: "do I need to track the information and activities related to this entity?" If the answer is "yes," Microsoft CRM deserves some serious consideration.
You can find the full document here:
http://www.ascentium.com/blog/crm/Gallery/Ascentium%20-%20Microsoft%20Dynamics%20CRM%20as%20a%20Business%20Application%20Platform.pdf Cheers and enjoy, This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
posted at: 6:50 PM
by
Aaron Elder
locations: None
capabilities: None
Hi Jason and Aaron,
Thanks for a very interesting paper - I've been wanting to read something like this for a while, but nothing was found..! One of the key things I've found missing in the general conversation about Dynamics CRM is exactly its capability to be an XRM platform. While marketing material often mentions the diversity of the client base, from Defense to Oil Exploration, from Large to Small customers, I've been wishing for an expanded discussion around the potential of how the flexibility of MS CRM can be applied very easily to fit with a seemingly endless number of scenarios.
Although I haven't been in the CRM arena as long has the two of you, I have noticed some interesting tendencies as well. Many of the CRM implementation partners I talk to, even many customers, focus exclusively on the Vendor-Customer relationship. Even with a narrow focus like this, there is often a tendency towards over-simplification in the dialog around and analysis of relationships: "We're not very complicated" or "We don't have that many relationships" are mantras heard repeatedly.
While statements like the above can be true in a very few cases, all it really takes are a few questions to begin gaining some understanding from the other side that the life of business ain't that simple
* How many sales people do you have? (This is where they get "we're simple" from)
* How about service reps?
* How many customers do you have?
* How many employees do they have, on average?
* How many products and services do you offer?
* How many orders does an average customer place with you?
* Which products do they order?
* Who are the customers' other suppliers?
* Who are your customers competitors?
* Who are your competitors?
* etc, etc, etc
By this point I have usually hammered home the point that relationships are much more than the immediate "I'm your Vendor, you're my Customer", but not everyone is convinced still. After all, they've gotten by for a long time without worrying too much about these details so far. It's time to speak value. Depending on what industry the prospect is in, how sales-focused they are, we begin exploring pain points and how Dynamics CRM can deliver incredible value by offering "insight and actionable intelligence'", the capability of understanding and adjusting the business processes so they can perform better.
Still, the number one issue that plagues any business software solution is of course the old foe of User Rejection. It is an oft-repeated and well-established fact that users frequently find these solutions, MS CRM included, overly complicated and burdensome. A thorough analysis followed by a user-centric implementation will help overcome a lot of this, but there are some things that have remained complex in spite of all good intentions.
There is an undisputed value to be gained from understanding the relationships and connections that make a business unique and successful. Management and users alike can benefit from knowing who talks to who and how they're connected to the world of companies, products, services and other objects around them. But creating, managing and understanding this information is perhaps the most underutilized capability of a CRM solution today. The reason is simple: The interface is too cumbersome and complicated to capture or maintain hardly any kind of relationship or connection information. The result has been, and this will very likely not change, that Relationships are not captured, maintained or used on any wide scale.
A visual approach to XRM is needed to allow attract, not reject, users as they're trying to create and manage relationship data. Additionally, viewing and understanding relationships as they extend beyond the 1st degree of separation becomes impossible; In a 2-dimensional table you can see that Anthony's connected to Amy, but you cannot see that vital connection from Amy to the company who's your most ardent competitor.
A final, significant benefit to a visual approach lies in the fact that with the increased user adoption, through interfaces that caters specifically to the various users' needs and wants, you will achieve not only XRM, but also the profiling information, contact details, and all the other attributes and fields that help complete the information picture.
Thanks,
Eivind
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Relationship Charts for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
www.salescentric.com
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