There are always plenty of things to consider before purchasing a new system for your business and CRM solutions are not an exception.

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is used to refer to a system whereby a company's interactions with current and prospective customers are closely managed. It typically involves using technology to organize, synchronize and automate such disciplines as sales and marketing, tech support and customer service. Often CRM systems will be active and monitoring many different networks for marketing campaigns. Also, they can closely and accurately track customer habits and persuasions through customer clicks and traffic.

Physical places where customer relationship management is often and most heavily used include but are not limited to, banks, call centers, social media, operation centers and customer data query centers.

Ten things to consider

WebSan and the leading global independent authority in covering the world of Microsoft Dynamics, MS Dynamics World have joined together to offer a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM webinar. The free webinar will be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 12 PM EST.

The session will look at the different features of Dynamics CRM 2015 and explore how one can mold, manipulate and build upon the software to meet the requirements of your organization. The webinar will explore how to use Dashboards, data export from Dynamics CRM to Microsoft Excel, implementation of business rules and processes to promote data integrity and the use of Workflows.

This collaboration with MS Dynamics World promises to bring an insightful glimpse of Dynamics CRM’s capabilities. Participants will also get the opportunity to ask questions to the speaker. Register today and don’t miss out on your chance to attend this webinar. 

Click here to register for “Maximize Dynamics CRM Right Out of the Box” webinar

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

You can now brand your CRM! Themes allow you to apply your distinct logo and color scheme to your Dynamics CRM environment. Three simple clicks and you are well on your way to a CRM environment with a look of your own.

1. From the Main Menu button, select Settings

2. Select Customizations

3. Select Themes

Upon navigating to Themes, you will find the out of the box CRM Default Theme. The default theme cannot be modified, but it can be cloned, should you want a head start on designing your theme. Otherwise, you can put your designing skills to the test and get theming. 

With the 48^th NFL Super Bowl around the corner and the teams competing for the big prize, let’s take the chance to find out how Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 can relate to this sports event.

Microsoft successfully introduced Dynamics CRM 2013 to the sports industry by releasing special industry standard templates for free including a sports management template. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 sports management industry template has been developed particularly for helping sport clubs in their efforts for recruitment, ticket sales and various opportunities.

Following is a list of the template’s features:

• Dashboards for performance management by athlete and/or team, ticket sales, recruitment status and team standings
• Business Processes to manage recruitment, opportunities and ticket sales
• Business rules, workflows, and security roles to support the business processes.
• Custom entities including drug tests, event management, merchandise sale, profile album, injuries, results, scout reports and ticket sales
• Sports demo to experiment with the different capabilities of the solution

Notice here that this solution is only a template for customizations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. WebSan Solutions offers a hosted Dynamics CRM solution along with other integrated end-to-end software to improve your company’s efficiency. We simply provide you with peace of mind by taking care of all your business needs so you can enjoy the Super Bowl game. Take advantage of Dynamics CRM’s versatility and contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to learn more.

Doriana Kote, Web Marketing Coordinator, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

With Dynamics CRM 2016’s release, Microsoft aims to improve on supplying intelligent customer engagement solutions that are personalized, proactive and predictive. The release will focus on creating a single, unified user experience that promises to eliminate distractions people face by bouncing from application to application. To supplement this new release, WebSan will offer the “Top 5 Notable Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016” webinar on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 11:00 AM EST.

The free 30-minute webinar will offer attendees a glimpse of the benefits of upgrading to CRM 2016, the system’s new features that promote an improved end-user experience, as well as key new features for administrators or customizers of the system.

Attendees will gain more information about CRM 2016’s new interactive service hub, changes to the Excel export feature, new functions for Fields, Business Rules and Advanced Find and improvements to the system’s navigation.

Register today to reserve your spot for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 webinar!

Click here to register for Dynamics CRM 2016 webinar on Jan.21, 2016 at 11:00 AM EST

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Sign up for a free Dynamics 365 for Sales course! | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

While creating emails, people usually make two significant mistakes: in their emails, they sell too much without any useful content, or they put too much content without enough selling. So, how can you find "the golden mean" and make your emails more effective? Here's a handy guide:

1. Be Yourself

Let’s be honest – people are tired of emails that contain similar messages and don’t have anything personal. The vast majority of them is based on the traditional techniques, which make them look just like one another. To combat this, try to contribute a little bit of your personality into an email – tell a joke, share your opinion, be honest about the product that you sell. Soon enough, your personality can come through the emails and become a unique identifier that’ll make your company stand out.

2. Use Trends

On July 28^th, 2016, at 2:00 PM, WebSan Solutions will present a webinar showcasing the highlights and capabilities of one of the newest additions to Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Field Service. The module, known for being highly configurable and scalable, makes for a robust solution that can be of value to different types of users, particularly those who want to create and manage standard and customized reports.

The free 30-minute webinar aims to provide an introduction to Field Service and discuss what the solution is, who it’s a good fit for, and its components. The webinar will also feature a demo of Field Service highlighting the module’s key features.

Register today to reserve your spot for the Microsoft Field Service webinar!

Click here to register for Microsoft Field Service webinar on July 28 at 2:00 PM EST

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

No programming knowledge? No problem!

Business Rules, which are delivered right out-of-the-box with Dynamics CRM, tackle client side logic in a user friendly way, allowing virtually anyone that is responsible for managing their company’s CRM to get off and running with this fantastic tool in no time. 

In a nutshell, this little gem allows you to create and add form design functions to the system and custom entities without a lick of development. Through “If…Then…Else” conditional statements, you too can create rules which monitor the behaviour of fields and subsequently define an action or actions to be taken upon the conditions being met.

Gone are the days of reaching out to developers for JavaScript and plug-ins each and every time a requirement rears its head. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not some sort of magic potion that will make all your wishes come true. But, you are bound to dazzle your users (and your boss), with fields that seamlessly appear just when they need them; field values which auto-complete right before their very eyes; field requirements changing on the fly, ensuring the most relevant data is always captured; and error messages, or what I prefer to call ‘reminder messages’ which prompt users to conform to best business practices. With a little creativity and some business logic in tow, Business Rules can do all that and so much more!

Here’s a quick guide to find the Business Rules section:

With over 4.4 million users working at 40,000 companies, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has long been used in a variety of sales, marketing and operational functions. For some, Dynamics CRM serves as an out-of-the-box tool to simplify operations, while others use the software to track client feedback, manage schedules and projects, and collect purchase information.

This series of blog posts will profile different customers’ unique approach to using Dynamics CRM and provide real-life examples of how the software is used to help improve business processes.

The first is a company that specializes in managing a loyalty card program and partnering with different retailers to offer students discounts and deals utilizes Dynamics CRM’s Inventory Management. This feature allows the company to use the newly released Rollup fields to create a running total for each product offering that has been sold.

Using the Business Management feature gives the company the ability to populate, change, show or hide a field based on the value of another field. Business Rules enabled the company to dynamically update Quantity on Hand for a product when a replenishment value is entered, while creating a workflow prompts members of the sales team of a reduced Quantity on Hand when a product is sold.

Dynamics CRM continues to benefit the company by giving the sales team a full view of their inventory and manage products on hand.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a fast, flexible and reliable CRM solution that helps manage customer information across different functions such as Marketing, Sales and Service. Here are the top 5 ways Microsoft Dynamics CRM can benefit your business:

1.Integration with Microsoft Office and Office Outlook

Microsoft Dynamics CRM easily integrates with tools like Microsoft Word, Excel and Office Outlook. With the system’s familiar and user-friendly interface, employees can efficiently pull information and gain quick access to the data they need.

2. Adaptable Dashboards

The dashboards feature adapts to job functions and each user’s preferences providing a real-time, overall view of business areas from lead generation, pre-sale to customer service. Users can also customize dashboards depending on the functionality that is most needed. 

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

Continuing from our previous blog post, we’ll further discuss the process of capturing leads and how to develop them into potential customers. Now that you’ve established your workflow and have found some promising leads, the next step towards gaining new customers is to build on your relationship with your leads and to nurture them.

What is lead nurturing?

Lead nurturing refers to the development of a series of planned actions and communication strategies for the purposes of eliciting certain behaviours from potential clients. The idea of lead nurturing is to guide consumers down their purchasing journey, sending them specific and relevant content which can help convince clients that you both understand their needs and assuring them that you have the solution to their problems.

How does lead nurturing work?

Part 2 is a continuation of the series of blog posts that will profile different customer’s unique approach to using Dynamics CRM and provide real-life examples of how the software is used to help improve business processes.

An engineering, construction, service and maintenance company that provides services for infrastructure companies approached WebSan to implement Dynamics CRM and maximize the Dashboards feature of the software.

Using the Workload Reporting of Dashboards allowed the company to do the following:

• Break down by user the current status of Open Projects
• Access the number of projects that have been created in a specific timeframe by Users and the status of those projects
• Create a list view that depicts total number of created, cancelled and completed projects by user
• Create a pie chart to show the number of open projects and order them by status

To add, an active activities Dashboard breaks down the many activities (tasks, emails, appointments, etc.) that are being tackled “this month” by all users.

Dashboards in Dynamics CRM act as a tool to provide a fast and easy way to view and communicate business data. It also acts as your homepage upon logging into your environment. Serving as a one stop shop to quickly get a peek at your data, Dashboards allow you to spot trends and monitor valuable metrics, while dynamically updating based on new data that is being derived.  

One of the powerful marketing tools on Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an Email Template which will allow your sales team to mass email groups of contacts.

To create Email Templated within CRM, navigate to the Settings Tab, then Templates under the Business section. Select the Email Template button.

Note: The Outlook Client & Web Client will both look slightly different. However, both have the same options, so users should be comfortable using both.

CRM will then ask the user for a Template Type.  This will restrict the template to certain groupings of data from within CRM.  For example, if one selects a Template Type of ‘Contact’, CRM will restrict the template data to CRM contacts.

Looking beyond the dozens of features that various CRM Systems have to offer, there are specific features which your CRM system must adequately provide to ensure your business is able to attract and retain customers successfully.  Here are 5 CRM Features your company needs and should look out for:

Remote Access

Your CRM System should give your employees access to customer information remotely from any location and device. Remote access is critical to obtain real-time information as well as provide your employees a way to update your CRM system with vital information on clients and partners.

Security

If you are a company where there is an overlap between departments in terms of roles and responsibilities, it would be easy for the wrong person to gain access to confidential information from your CRM system. It's important to put in measures which monitor what information is accessed through your CRM system. Additionally, encrypted access and a secure server is important if you're remotely accessing your company's real-time information from your CRM system.

If you use Microsoft Dynamics CRM, chances are you are also using the Outlook Integration that allows you to access and update CRM data directly from Microsoft Outlook. Have you now noticed that the CRM tab in Outlook has disappeared?

The most common cause of this is that the CRM add-in has been disabled in Outlook (unfortunately, why the add-in got disabled is difficult to determine). This has been known to happen in Outlook with several add-ins, but particularly CRM.

To get your CRM integration back, use the following steps:

1. In Outlook, go to File > Options
2. Select the Add-ins tab from the left side
3. Under the “Manage” dropdown at the bottom of the window, change the selection to “Disabled Items” and select the “Go…” button
4. Highlight the CRM add-in and select the “Enable” button
5. Hit OK to close the Outlook Options window

You may have to close out Outlook and restart it for the changes to take effect, but that should be all you need to get your CRM functionality back in business.

Rahim Jiwani is an Implementation Lead at WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Silver Partner & 2012 Microsoft Impact Awards Finalist. Rahim can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 217.

Lead – This is the qualifier for a sales opportunity. Perhaps someone you met at a trade show that might not be a qualified lead, but you want to keep in touch with them.

Opportunity – Once you qualify your leads, you would convert them to an opportunity. For example, a lead that you have spoken to whom has shown interest in your product.

Account – Once you have closed business with that person, you would 'win' the opportunity and convert the person / company to an account.

Adam MacIntosh is the Manager of Client Services with WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics Partner firm.

Is your company considering upgrading to CRM 2015 as part of its New Year's resolution? Worried that time and training would not be worth the transition from your existing CRM? Well, your company will be happy to know that with the upcoming release of CRM 2015, many users will find key UPDATES made to CRM 2013 rather than face an entirely new system! Consider the benefits!

CRM 2015 delivers powerful updates to its sales tools! As the following features demonstrate, your company will benefit from the system’s capabilities of producing faster and higher profits!

Sales Hierarchies

Running a well-oiled support desk is not for the faint of heart. There are so many moving parts…Does the customer have a support agreement? Does the contacting party have authority to open a support ticket against the agreement? What is the issue? Is the issue covered under the support agreement? What is the expected turn-around time? How does this relate to its priority in the queue? Which support resource should be assigned the ticket? Is the support resource staying on top of the ticket? 

Did you know there is a whole area inside your Dynamics CRM environment that is fitted with tools to manage your support operations? It is neatly tucked away in Settings under Service Management and contains a slew of menu items to manage the many facets of the support process. 

Through the combined forces of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Entitlements you are armed with a pairing which allows for a flexible support model. SLAs offer variable levels of support, with varied turnaround times and price points, while Entitlements allow you to define the variable by which support is measured (time vs count), who can open support tickets against the agreement, the products/services covered under the agreement, and the channels by which a support ticket can be submitted.

Depending on how support tickets are received, Automatic Case Creation & Update Rules may prove to be a mighty ally. This feature automates the process of creating/updating records based upon predefined settings and conditions. One such condition is whether an Entitlement exists for the submitting customer. Take your automatically created cases, and make use of Routing Rule Sets, which read the properties of the Case and route the records to your various Support Queues to be picked up by your Support Resources to be worked on. It is worth noting that Routing Rule Sets can also be applied manually if your support tickets reside in a “bucket” for assignment.

For in depth details about Service Management, tune into this webinar.

Being part of the help desk support team affords me the opportunity to learn about little idiosyncrasies in Dynamics CRM. And I like to pass along these sweet nuggets to our loyal blog readers in case you find yourself in a similar pinch.

Have you ever wanted to add ‘Company’ to an existing Lead view, and the field is nowhere to be found?

In order to see the field, you need to perform a bit of trickery…

ü  Choose any other entity from the ‘Record Type’ dropdown,

ü  Then switch back to the Lead entity

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

It's a big misunderstanding that if you just buy and implement a CRM system, it will immediately boost your revenue. Getting a CRM system on board, is just the tip of an iceberg. Below are three tips on how to get the most benefits from your CRM system:

Accurate Data is a Key

You may have the fanciest features in your CRM system, but they won't get you any useful insights, once your data isn't accurate. Make sure that the process of data input is easy, quick and clear, so your employees will be motivated to provide your CRM system with accurate information.  

Customize it