1. Introduction.
Who Should Read This Book?
Marketing Product Managers, Information Managers, Database Analysts, and Reporting Specialists. Strategic Planners, Business Development Managers, Change Managers, and Market Strategists. Financial Managers and Pricing and Profitability Analysts. Advertising and Public Relations Specialists, Sales and Service Personnel, Promotion and Campaign Managers. Account Executives and Regional Managers.
A Multilevel Reference.
Apply CRM Principles in Your Business. Implement Microsoft CRM for Your Company. Customize Your Installation of Microsoft CRM. Grow Your CRM System as Your Business Grows. Understand the CRM Marketplace. Manage Your Relationship with Service Vendors. Integrate Microsoft CRM with Your Other Applications and Data. Redesign Your Business to be More Customer-Centric. Access the CRM Community. Find Consulting Help for Implementing Microsoft CRM.
Special Features in the Book.
Tips. Notes. Cautions. Troubleshooting. Cross-References. Use Case Corner.
Summary.
2. CRM Basics.
CRM Is a Business Strategy.
CRM Is Comprehensive. CRM Helps You Put the Customer First. CRM Measures Business Performance.
Effects of E-business and Evolving Capabilities.
Enterprise Applications. Business Process Integration (BPI). Internal and External Integration. Business Performance Monitoring.
Microsoft's CRM Product.
Delivered in Editions. Introducing the Components of Microsoft CRM.
Interacting with CRM Systems.
Goals of CRM Systems. How to Set Up a CRM System.
Summary.
3. The CRM Landscape: Why Now?
CRM System Evolution. Marketing Department Changes. CRM and Transaction Processing.
Opposite Needs for Opposite Goals. The Horizontal View. The Holistic View. CRM Requirements.
Change Management and Market Strategy.
Introduction of New Channels. Business Process Integration (BPI). Business to Business Exchange. Information Technology as Enabling Partner.
The Technology of Microsoft CRM.
Benefits for Business. Distributed Computing. Vendor Collaboration.
Summary.
4. Microsoft CRM Functional and Conceptual Overview.
Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft, and Microsoft Great Plains. Microsoft CRM Product Positioning. Microsoft CRM Versions and Licensing. Microsoft CRM User Interfaces. Named User Licensing. CRM Platform. Microsoft CRM Concepts.
Leads, Contacts, and Accounts.
Opportunities and Cases.
Activities and Notes. Subjects and Products.
Core CRM Objects.
Contacts. Contact Status. eResources. Accounts.
Use Case Corner-Expediting Activity Record Creation. Summary.
5. Setting Up Microsoft CRM.
Arriving at Consensus. Global Settings.
System Settings. Auto-Numbering. Fiscal Year Settings.
Microsoft CRM Organization Structure and Security.
Users and Teams. Privileges and Access Levels. Business Units. Roles. Queues. Quotas.
Delete Versus Deactivate. Microsoft CRM, Exchange Server, and Active Directory. The Microsoft CRM Exchange Connector. Owners, Assignment, and Sharing. Subject Hierarchy in Microsoft CRM. Product Catalog.
Discount Lists. Unit Groups. Price Lists. Products. Kit Products.
Template Manager. Use Case Corner. Summary.
6. Home Page, Workplace, and Navigation.
The Microsoft CRM Home Page.
User Indicator. Menu Bar. Navigation Pane. Quick Create. Content Area. Bottom Bar.
Microsoft CRM Navigation Map. Setting the Miscellaneous User Options. Microsoft CRM Info Views and Searching.
Find Control. View Control. Action Bar. Grid Header. Grid Control. Grid Footer. ABC or Jump Bar. Advanced Find.
Workplace.
The Workplace Sub-area. Queues. The Calendar Sub-area. The Activities Sub-area. The Knowledge Base Sub-area.
Errors in Microsoft CRM. Use Case Corner-Navigation to Other Resources through a Simple Quick Launch Customization. Summary.
7. Sales Force Automation (SFA).
B2B Versus B2C. Leads.
Lead Conversion.
Sales Territory Manager. Quotas. Opportunities.
Setting up a Sales Opportunity.
Products.
Other Contacts. Sales. Quotes. Orders. Invoices.
Competitors. Activities and Sales Process. Marketing Functionality.
Lead Management. List Management and User Data Imports. Direct Email. Mail Merge. Marketing Encyclopedia (Sales Literature).
Use Case Corner-Tracking Marketing Campaigns. Summary.
8. Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook.
Offline Concepts. The Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook Interface. Mailboxes and Folders.
Exchange Mailbox. Personal Folder File. Offline Folder File. Public Folders. Archive File. CRM Folders.
Typical Microsoft CRM Configuration.
Promoting Emails to CRM Activities. Mail Merge.
Going Offline/Synchronizing.
Amount of Data to Take Offline. Data Conflicts. Recovery from Dropped Connections or Hardware Failure. Scalability.
Synchronization Under the Hood. Configuration and Customization. Deployment Considerations. Use Case Corner-Mobile Portal: Extending the Reach of Microsoft CRM.
Access Customer Data. Maintenance and Installation. Availability.
Summary.
Acknowledgement.
9. Customer Service.
Customer Service Concepts. Understanding Customer Service Object Relationships. Contract Templates. Service Contracts.
Invoiced Status. Contract Object Fields. Contract Line Items. Contract Line Item Calendar.
Cases.
Using Activities with Cases.
Queues.
User Queues. Public Queues. KB (Knowledge Base) Manager. Article Queues. Subjects and Articles. Search Tab.
Use Case Corner-Gracefully Transitioning a New Customer to Your Service Department. Summary.
10. Microsoft CRM Reports.
Report Navigation.
Searching within Reports. Filtering Reports. Grouping Reports. Drilling Down to Subreports. Charts. Exporting Report Data. Reports Table.
Report Creation and Modification. Use Case Corner-c360 SearchPac for Microsoft CRM.
Multi-Field Search.
Summary.
Acknowledgement.
11. Configuring Microsoft CRM.
Why Configure? Configuration Tools. Deployment Manager.
Schema Manager. Attributes-Adding Schema Fields. Entity Mapper. Attributes-Adding New Mappings. User Manager. License Manager. Server Manager. Importing, Exporting, and Publishing XML.
System Customization. Customizing Forms. Status and Status Reason.
Customizing Previews. Adding and Customizing Views.
Use Case Corner-Adding Java Script to the OnChange Event of Picklist Fields. Summary.
12. Workflow.
Workflow Manager.
Triggering Workflow. Manual Workflow. Assign Workflow. Create Workflow. Change Status Workflow. Rules Versus Sales Processes.
Workflow Actions.
Create Activity. Create Note. Send Email. Update Object. Change Status. Assign Object. Post URL. Run Subprocess. Stop.
Workflow Conditions.
Check for Conditions. Wait For Conditions. Wait for Timer.
Creating a Sales Process. Workflow Monitor. Workflow Security Settings. Use Case Corner-Automating Business Processes Through the Microsoft CRM Workflow Monitor. Summary.
13. Microsoft CRM Integration and Data Conversion.
Integration Basics. Integration Components. Integration Points. Integration Deployment. Integration Architecture. Integration Settings. BizTalk Document Tracking. Initial Data Migration. Use Case Corner-Scribe Migrate for Microsoft CRM: Data Migration.
Migrating Customer Data. Connectivity. Availability. About Scribe Software Corporation.
Summary.
Acknowledgement.
14. Customizing Microsoft CRM.
Microsoft CRM Configuration Files.
web.config. isv.config.
Links Customization. Web Resources Customization. Microsoft CRM SDK.
Before We Begin. The Run Method.
Clone Customization. Activity Summary Customization. Summary.
Acknowledgement.
15. Redesigning Your Business for Customer-Centricity.
Make the Customer the Basis for CRM Design. Integrate CRM Across the Enterprise. Adopt the Strategic View. Manage Customer Information as an Asset. Fuse Traditional and e-Channels. Utilize CRM Across Business Models. Understand Your Business Process.
The Goal. Identify Roles and Resources. Build 'Best Guess' Models. Validate 'Best Guess' Models. Conduct Interviews with Internal Experts and External Sources. Analyze and Improve Models. Generate Recommendations. Present Deliverables. Understand Different Viewpoints in Your Business. Aligning with the Customer View.
From Business Ambiguity to Technical Precision. Enabling Customer-Centric Processes with Microsoft CRM.
Automating Business Processes. Automating Your Sales Process. Marketing and Communications. Automating Your Customer Service Process.
Architecting a Shorter Time-to-Market. Use Case Corner. Summary.
16. Managing Your Service Vendors.
Establishing Your Requirements.
Defining a Required Technology Service. Adopting an Iterative Approach. Staging Delivery Through Releases. Prioritizing Your Business Needs. Getting Early Customer Feedback.
Finding the Best Products and Services.
What to Look for in a Vendor. Developing a Vendor SWOT Matrix. Contracts and Employment Agreements.
Communicating Your Requirements.
Who Are You Communicating With? What's the Plan for Communicating? Owning a Business App. Building Proactive Communications.
Integrate Your Vendors.
What Are Technical Components? One-Stop Shopping. 'Best of Breed' Composition.
Tying It All Together.
Identify Roles and Resources. Build 'Best Guess' Models. Validate 'Best Guess' Models. Conduct Interviews with Internal Experts and External Sources. Analyze and Improve Models. Generate Recommendations. Present Deliverables. After Implementation.
Partnership Model.
Strategic Vision. Business Case. Project Scope. Business Requirements. User Model. Component Design. Construction. Test. Implementation.
Use Case Corner.
Step One. Step Two. Step Three.
Summary.
17. Installing and Maintaining Vendor Software and Services.
Set the Direction.
Identify Solutions and Solution Providers. Work Through Requirements and Project Planning. Select a Pilot or Prototype Project. Evaluate Results.
Implementation Strategies for CRM Projects.
Utilizing 'Early Returns' To Promote Your Project. Selecting and Developing Component Sponsors. Organizing the CRM Project.
Handling Changes and Continuous Improvement.
Selecting a Project Approach. Choosing the Best Approach. Continuous Corrections. Convey Corrections. Model Corrections.
The Validation and Verification Processes.
Quality, Testing, and Test Planning. Categories of Testing. Recommended Approach. Identified Testing for Release I.
Use Case Corner. Summary.
18. Understanding the CRM Marketplace.
Market Dynamics.
The CRM Market. CRM Competitors.
Microsoft's Reseller Partner Channel. Three Aspects of Corporate CRM. Data Warehousing.
Reporting. Analytic Applications. Customer Information.
Other Services Related to CRM.
eCommerce. Campaign Management. Helping Customers Help Themselves. Web Content Management ASP Vendors. Customer Contact. Field Service Automation. Sales Force Automation.
Solutions for the Small and Mid-Sized Business. Use Case Corner. Summary.
19. Accessing the CRM Online Community.
Online Communities.
Site Rules and Regulations. Practice Safe Interactions.
CRM Communities Benefits.
Peer Support. Replies to Questions. Information Exchange. Read Other's Questions and Answers. Resources for Further Research. Vendor and Consulting Sources. Links to Other Publications. Work, Partnering, and Collaboration Opportunities.
Translating from Corporate CRM to Microsoft CRM for the SME.
What to Look For. A Word of Caution.
Categories of Sites.
Communities and Associations. News. Publications. Resources. Inspiration.
Sites by Category.
Communities and Associations. News. Publications. Resources. Inspiration.
Summary.
20. Selecting a Consultant for Help Implementing Microsoft CRM.
Reasons to Hire a Consultant.
Familiar with Best Practices. Technology Transfer to Your Employees. Proven Methods Can Shorten Implementation Time.
What to Look for in a Business Technology Consultant.
Loosely Coupled Relationships with a Variety of Resources. Experience Across Industries. Orientation and Education. Variety of Communications Models. Ability to Act as Translator.
Due Diligence.
Credentials. Referrals. Professionals. Written Proposals. Customer First.
Defining Specialists. What to Expect after You Sign. Summary.
21. Future Directions for Microsoft CRM.
Background. Market Timing. The Next Step-Microsoft Business Framework (MBF). Short- and Long-Term Direction. Summary.
Index.
