Quick question: off the top of your head, could you name all the apps, software and web services you use at work every day? I’m willing to bet $20 that the answer is No. From time-tracking apps, spreadsheets, email clients and project management tools, all the way to design software or calendars, today’s Office worker uses a plethora of apps just to get through the week!
That’s OK. All these apps have a purpose. Where we sometimes hit a wall is when it comes to making them work together. Integration between each app is the key to higher productivity, better team collaboration and most of all, a better user experience.
In the market for a Customer Relationship Management application? CRM Online is a smart move if you’re thinking about inter-app compatibility. The recent growth and adoption of Office 365 have positioned Dynamics CRMOL as a no-brainer when it comes to managing the customer journey.
We’ll take a look at some of those integrations and why they matter. Keep in mind that, as Microsoft continues to develop both O365 and CRM Online, there’ll be more and more integrations.
Comprehensive Information on Every Lead
A winning scenario for a flawless customer journey is all about context. People in your organization need to have all the info at hand to understand customers’ cases and opportunities and act accordingly.
For context alone, we can list three Office 365 integrations that will equip your team to better respond to customers’ expectations.
First and foremost, it’s all about email and Outlook. Here, it’s important to realize that Microsoft offers two different apps that integrate with CRM Online: Dynamics CRM App for Outlook and Dynamics CRM for Outlook. We’ve put together a comparative table to give you a better idea of the differences between these two versions.
| Feature | Dynamics CRM App for Outlook | Dynamics CRM for Outlook |
| What you can track | Email, appointments, contracts, and tasks | |
| Works with Outlook on the web (OWA) |  |
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| Works with Outlook for desktop | |
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| Works with Outlook for Mac | |
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| Works with phones | |
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| Open and create CRM record directly | |
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| Apply custom forms and business logic | |
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| Work offline | |
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| Apply CRM email templates, and attach sales literature or KB articles | |
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| Sort, filter, format, group, and categorize lists (views) | |
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| Create Word mail merge documents | |
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| Control field synchronization | |
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In all cases, both apps let you easily see information related to a contact stored in CRM, right from your mail client. You can see upcoming activities scheduled as well as cases and opportunities linked to the record.
Image source: microsoft.com
The second important item for context and Office 365 is integration with OneNote. This note-taking app is becoming more and more popular in our office, and it’s easy to see why. OneNote is great for brainstorming ideas, taking meeting minutes and even sliding in a couple of screenshots of the whiteboard sessions you just had with your colleagues.
You can link those OneNote files to a CRM record to ensure everyone has a complete picture of everything related to this account.
Image source: dynamics.com
The third way to share information on an account is Yammer. Now that Yammer is coming to all Office 365 business customers, there’s no reason for you to pass on social collaboration. Even if all your users don’t have access to CRM, there’s a good chance they’ll be on Yammer.
Users working on a project without access to CRM can stay informed and update colleagues on tasks. They can also progress on different projects related to opportunities with Yammer feeds that are integrated to a CRM record. This makes it easier for you to quickly find a complete overview of the opportunity before contacting the client.
Image source: microsoft.com
Better Collaboration on Projects
Sales isn’t the only team that works on a customer’s case. Your operations, support and marketing departments will also be on board. And don’t forget the role Finance will play. The point is, with all these different people working on a customer’s project, you’ll need a centralized repository for all the documents related to each project. Office 365 addresses this with OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online.
Dynamics CRM 2016 lets users access documents, from PowerPoint presentations to Word docs, directly from a CRM record, from both desktop and mobile devices. The document opens up directly through the Office app. Once you’re done, simply click the “Back” button to get back to the record and continue working on your opportunity.
Image source: microsoft.com
Quick Data Analysis at Your Fingertips
CRM Online already comes with great dashboards and report capabilities. It helps create standard reporting scenarios that you might want to look at every couple of days and track with your team.
But with all that data in CRM, there’s so much you can do on the fly. That’s where the immersive Excel experience comes in. With a couple of clicks, you can see data in Excel—while you’re still in the CRM app—and apply all the formulas you want or create a graph that will help you visualize any data.
Image source: dynamics.com
And the practical use? Let’s say you want to calculate a potential commission for your deals in the pipeline. You can easily export all your opportunities and run a formula that would give you that info. You could also export all your activities and display them by type in a chart to see whether you’re more active on chats, email, appointments, etc.
There are as many uses as there are data. The breakthrough here is that it can be done in a couple of clicks – no more tedious data export needed.
One-click Instant Messaging
Dynamics CRM Online connects with Skype for Business or Lync. Which means what? Well, communication with your customers or colleagues working on a case is just one click away.
Presence indicators show if someone is online, busy or away, letting you know at a glance if someone’s available to talk about an opportunity. Want to chat or call? Skype opens up without leaving CRM, and offers you the possibility to track the call as an activity in CRM.
And it does all of this… seamlessly.
Image source: microsoft.com
Once again, this integration helps enhance collaboration and productivity in your team, ensuring a better communication across your company and a better handling of all opportunities.
CRM Online Offers Continuous Improvements
All of these integrations are already available in CRM Online. Microsoft’s cycle of releases also guarantees that these integrations will only get better and more complete over time. In the past few months, CRM Online added an integration to Delve, one of the new Office 365 apps. We believe that we’ll be able to write the same type of articles about new integrations a year from now to present more new features that will have been added to CRMOL.
So, what should you take away from all this? CRM Online offers an always up-to-date platform for businesses trying to streamline their customers’ journey. Its seamless integration to the other apps you already use improves your efficiency and collaboration. All this for a lower price than Salesforce.
And with SherWeb’s CRM Online, you get 24/7 free support, access to certified experts and a complete one-stop shop experience. Visit our CRM Online product section or give us a call at 1-855-780-0955 to have your needs assessed by one of our experts.
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