I was recently speaking with some like-minded CRMers in the community and we were discussing what we find to be at the top of the list for help desk inquiries. The overwhelming consensus was CRM for Outlook.

Do you ever find yourself faced with CRM for Outlook just not cooperating? Whether it be that you are having undesirable or unresponsive behaviors, the CRM tab is greyed out, or the CRM tab has vanished. Have no fear, you are not alone, and with a few checks and few clicks, more often than not, one of the following suggestions will be your golden nugget for resolution.

Check the following machine related roadblocks for starters...

ü  Ensure that your CRM for Outlook version matches up with your CRM server version. It could be that you are out of sync.

ü  Could you possibly have add-ins that are not playing nicely with one another? Begin to disable your add-ins one by one and see if CRM for Outlook is positively affected.

The newest mobile app released by Microsoft for Dynamics CRM takes the user experience to a whole new level. The newest release is compatible with Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1 and above. Below are some notable tips and tricks for navigating the mobile app.

Choose your app carefully.When you search in your mobile device’s app store, the familiar, Dynamics CRM for phone express, and the newbie Dynamics CRM for Phones, will be available to select from. The simplest identifier is their distinct logos.

You want to choose Dynamics CRM for Phones.

This app exemplifies the catch phrase, “Write once, deploy everywhere.” The experience you have grown so used to in your web client is essentially replicated in your mobile experience. As you navigate the mobile app, screens intuitively reformat, making it far more conducive to the smaller real estate, without losing a bit of functionality, including business process flows. As you swipe right and left, you are presented with all the data and all of the fields that are relevant to the entity you are working within.

The main navigation in the CRM 2016 ribbon not only altered its look, it also made functional changes, vastly improving the end user experience. The Main Menu Button now replaces the CRM logo. Clicking this button enables the user to switch between each of the functional areas without waiting for the page to reload. 

To add, a functional area can be selected where sub-areas are neatly organized in rows by category to easily view and select from. The fluid transition and absence of endless scrolling make for ease of navigation.

A sleek button, aptly referred to as MRU (Most Recently Used) presents the user with up to 30 of their MRU Records and Views.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is set to see a substantial update this spring, with the release of Carina. This will serve as the first major update to the new CRM 2015.  Although an exact date for its release is yet to be determined, CRM users and partners are abuzz with the features and added functionality that Carina promises. Here are some notable features that can be expected:

1. Enhanced Excel Integration

The new update will allow Excel users to open their data in spreadsheets within CRM. This serves as a valuable feature for quick visibility and analysis of data, and eliminates any compatibility issues that may arise should you have a different version of Excel installed.

2. OneNote Online Integration

Users can now take notes, create voice memos, capture photos and clip web pages from any mobile device (such as iPads or Android phones) and attach them to CRM using OneNote.

In today’s digital world, it is vital for you to manage your relationships with your customers systematically by taking advantage of new technology efficiently and profitably. The traditional linear customer relationship management is being replaced by a multidimensional digital journey.

Salespeople’s and marketer’s focus has been shifted from selling products and services through a website to a targeted customer experience. While it is true that you can get hints of a visitor’s intent on your website, nothing can give you a clearer picture of their needs than a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013..

A CRM system can offer your business a powerful competitive advantage by capturing all the different states of a customer’s lifecycle, from visiting your website and downloading an e-book to signing up for a demo and buying a monthly subscription. In turn, you will be able to take action based on rich insight and not just assumptions about your costumers, i.e. find out how to retain existing customers, get new ones and increase your sales.

Here are some of the main benefits that a CRM system can offer to your customer experience journey: Identifying and anticipating your customers’ needs Forecasting and planning your sales Closing and following up sales Measuring your sales force performance and setting targets Managing customer service

The quality of the customer experience on your website is the starting point of any new customer relationship and then everything can be centered on your CRM system. This is basically your company’s integrated framework to fill in any information gaps about your customers track lead activities, measure customer satisfaction and provide excellent after-sales support at any given time. Also, CRM software can help you identify opportunities, automate your sales and marketing processes and provide an overall unified customer experience.

Retrieving data and metadata for reports In Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be done using SQL views. In Dynamics CRM, users can run queries on SQL views that are automatically created. As the image below shows, names within the SQL views are easy to identify. A Microsoft tip sheet notes that SQL-based reports in Dynamics CRM use the filtered views provided for each entity to retrieve data for the reports. 

To obtain the query, users can download the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) online. 

Apart from being automatically created, Filtered Views offer the benefit of being updated for custom entities, having security embedded in the view, and being supported after patches, service releases and upgrades.

To learn more about how WebSan Solutions can support your Dynamics CRM projects and implementation, visit our Solutions page or contact us. 

Linz Tan, Web Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence.

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

No doubt, CRM plays a significant role in today's business world – it provides useful insights, improves customer service and automates everyday tasks. But what about one of the fastest developing industries in the world – the IT industry? How can a $200 billion worth industry benefit from a CRM system? Here are three ways how CRM helps software companies to increase their sales:

1. Determine the best marketing channels for quality lead generation

Does your marketing team know which leads bring you the most value – the ones that were acquired from LinkedIn or the ones that saw your ad on Google? Assessing it without a CRM system is tough.  A CRM system can also determine the most effective messages, which influence a sale, and the best time to deliver them. This makes a CRM system an irreplaceable tool for software sales.

2. Develop a well-established customer journey

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 new release, otherwise known as "Vega", is set to be launched before the end of this calendar year. Microsoft Dynamics CRM products help companies unite their marketing, sales and service teams with the insights they need to deliver amazing customer experiences every time.

Here are some of the new features that are going to be included in Dynamics CRM 2015:

Sales

Guided Sales Processes - The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 business process flows are improved in the new version and include a branching capability to allow organizations to implement complex business processes.

Marketing

Campaign Management Console – The Campaign Management Console will include A/B testing, multi–condition triggers and cross campaign offers with results displayed in real-time analytics.

Customer Service

Case Management – Agents will be allowed to pause and resume Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and track the time for which a case was on-hold.

If you are in the market for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or you are just not satisfied with your current CRM solution, then you should consider Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the following reasons:

One of the main advantages of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its familiar look and feel. If you are using Microsoft Outlook and/or Microsoft Internet Explorer, then you will find Dynamics CRM's interface very user-friendly. Research has proven that employees spend a significant amount of time daily using their Microsoft Outlook account. Compared to other CRM vendors, Microsoft doesn’t have to worry about integrating Dynamics CRM to Outlook because this is an inherent feature of Microsoft’s CRM solution.

Another reason to consider Microsoft Dynamics CRM for your business needs is flexibility. Not only can the system be customized to support your tailored needs but also the total cost of ownership (TOC) provides the best value in the market.

Last but not least, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a unified customer experience, connecting your employees around the world and empowering them with an integrated yet localized set of tools for success.

WebSan Solutions offers a robust hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution along with other integrated, end-to-end business solutions.

Join us in part one of a free webinar series on customizing Dynamics CRM 2015! The webinar is tailored for those new to Dynamics CRM who are responsible for the customization and upkeep of their organization’s CRM environment.

The webinar will offer a behind the scenes look at the Customizations area and discuss the different components that make up an entity and how one can interact with each of them. The session will wrap up with a sneak peek of customizations in action.

This webinar will serve as a preview of part two, where attendees can submit questions specific to customizations that will be addressed by the webinar speaker.

Previously, our Dynamics CRM webinars have received extremely positive feedback and proved to have given valuable insights to help during CRM implementations.

Part one of the customization for Dynamics CRM 2015 webinar will be held on Thursday, July 30, 2015, from 11:00-11:30 AM EST.

On Thursday, June 25^th, WebSan will present a free webinar to teach attendees how to jumpstart their Marketing efforts using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The webinar will feature tactics to create and manage Marketing lists, differentiate Quick Campaigns from Campaigns, manage Campaigns from start to finish and use Dashboards to track performance.

The 30-minute webinar will discuss the key components of the Marketing area in CRM, give tips on how to use Marketing lists to create Quick Campaigns, how to manage responses and measure the performance of Marketing efforts.   

Register and don’t miss out on your chance to take part in this new CRM Marketing webinar!

Register for “Get the 4-1-1 on Dynamics Marketing Webinar” on June 25, 11 AM EST

 Linz Tan, Web Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, also known as Dynamics CRM, has become a powerful tool that, when successfully implemented, can greatly increase sales revenue and improve customer retention by as much as 27%. Successful implementation can be difficult however, partially due to reluctance by sales representatives who are unwilling to overcome the initial learning curve that comes with the software. To help smooth over the initial transition process, here are three ways in which you can encourage your sales representatives to begin using CRM to assist them in sales:

1. Communicate Financial Benefits

The ability to improve lead management should be communicated to sales representatives, as well as the potential financial benefits that stems from it. D365 for Sales helps sales representatives better track and follow up with potential sales leads. This has resulted in businesses reporting upwards of 30% increase in sales revenue per sales rep.

2. Emphasize Personal Accessibility

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 was designed to address businesses’ needs to collaborate among different divisions and groups within the organization, and to meet the changing needs of their customers. In line with this release, WebSan will offer a “Top 5 Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015” webinar on Thursday, April 30, 2015 at 11 AM EST.

The free webinar aims to offer attendees insight into the key features introduced and understanding of the advantages of upgrading to Dynamics CRM 2015. Some of the features that will be discussed in the webinar include: global search, calculated and rollup fields, hierarchy visualization and nested quick create forms.

This webinar has been one of our most requested training sessions, so register below to reserve your spot and take part!

Register for “Top 5 Features in Dynamics CRM 2015 webinar” on Apr. 30, 11 AM EST

 Linz Tan, Web Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence

In December 2016, the world got to know that Microsoft acquired LinkedIn. Now we can see the first results of this deal – Microsoft has announced that Dynamics 365 for Sales is integrated with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The new LinkedIn solution is a widget, which integrates into your dashboard and consists of 2 parts – a member profile and a company profile.

A LinkedIn member profile allows you to get general information and some insights about your prospect. It also helps you to find the best ways to get introduced to your prospect as well as proposes a list of related leads based on your target audience.

According to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, there are 1.1 million small companies (1-99 employees) in the country. However, 60% of small businesses fail within the first five years, so there's a big concern for entrepreneurs on how to stay competitive. Here are three ways you can stay ahead of your competitors if you run a small business.

1. Be passionate

Usually, small business owners started their business because of passion. Passion drives motivation, which makes small business owners the busiest people in the world. They don't finish their work when it's 5 o clock and rarely think about vacation. This drive and passion are factors that make them successful.

Convert your passion into hard work, and you’ll be one step ahead of the pack.

2. Use CRM

Businesses looking for a Hosted Dynamics CRM solution are driven by key needs that include: Integration with third party marketing automation software, a holistic view of each customer on the go, and a need to increase productivity without increasing costs.

So what makes Dynamics CRM stand out from the rest? Here are a few reasons why Dynamics CRM is right for your business:

• Focuses on critical factors for building long-term customer relationships, such as Sales Automation, Customer Service and Marketing Excellence.
• Familiar Microsoft interface that makes the system easy to use.
• Native Microsoft Outlook client and embedded Microsoft Office features.
• Access anywhere, anytime, using a web browser, a tablet or directly within Microsoft Office Outlook.
• Customization options allow the system to adapt to your business needs and then continue to grow along with your organization.
• Automation features, such as workflows, increase your employees' productivity and reduce errors.

If you are interested in viewing Microsoft Dynamics CRM in action, download our free interactive demo!

Natalie Williams, Marketing Manager, WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence.

WebSan Solutions is taking their Dynamics curriculum to the next level, by offering training in Dynamics CRM!

We’ve received a lot of praise from the Dynamics community for our GP course catalogue, so we decided to create a CRM training catalogue.

Our Learning Management System provides you with interactive material, such as videos, tests, documents as well as video conferencing that will accelerate the process of learning Microsoft Dynamics.

Get trained in WebSan University and gain the skills needed to help your businesses automate their customer relationship management.

At this time we have the following courses available: 

With the recent release of Dynamics CRM 2015, Microsoft has introduced calculated fields in Dynamics CRM. Calculated fields allow you to define the value of a field using calculations operators or functions. You no longer need a developer on hand to write code, you can now create calculated fields using the CRM user interface. For example, a salesperson might want to automatically apply a discount based on an order greater than “X” dollars. The calculated field would be able to change the value using basic math operations or conditional operations.

Here is an example of a calculated field:

Order Total = ((quantity*unitprice) – ((quantity*unitprice) *Discount%/100)) + ((quantity*unitprice) – ((quantity*unitprice) *Discount%/100) *Tax%/100)

Here are some fields that are considered calculated fields:

•           Weighted Revenue: Estimated revenue multiplied by probability
•           Net Worth: Assets subtracted from the liabilities for a given account
•          Follow Up By: Follow up on an activity by a specified number of days based on priority

The type of mathematic operations that you could use are:

On Thursday, May 28^th, WebSan will present a webinar that will feature fascinating Microsoft Dynamics CRM Tactics that can help your business grow. The webinar will highlight the sales area, data that will comprise charts, different types of dashboards and tips on how to use visual data to drive your sales process.

The free webinar will discuss valuable concepts and processes such as the business process flow, global search and goal setting. A rundown of timesaving tips to help users make the most efficient use of their resources when navigating through CRM will also be given in this webinar.

Our CRM webinars have been some of our most requested, so register below to reserve your spot and take part in this webinar!

Register for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Tactics Webinar on May 28, 11 AM EST

 Linz Tan, Web Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence

Microsoft has announced general availability of its first update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015. The update promises to offer intelligent customer engagement that delivers enhancements. These changes will enable employees to efficiently collaborate across sales, service, and marketing departments, to allow them to better engage with customers. Below, we outline the features which make this update noteworthy:

1. A makeover for Dynamics CRM’s User Interface enables the user to do more with less including ease of navigation through less scrolling and fewer clicks. The new User Interface and navigation bar gives the ability to find information easier and faster.

2. If you're working in a complex form with lots of fields, the new form navigation drop-down list makes it easy to get to just the data you need. Choose the drop-down list next to the form title, and then select the section of the form you want to go to.

3. The new navigation User Interface contains the Recently Viewed Items icon, allowing you to quickly get back to the record you were working with.

4.You can add a logo or change the color scheme to stay in sync with your organization’s theme