The world is going cloud. We use cloud-based services to complete a host of tasks.

The question many people are asking now is, how long before the majority of enterprises go the same way?

To find out, we carried out a survey at Future Decoded (2017), the annual Microsoft event where UK business leaders gather to learn about the technologies shaping our future. The answers provide insight into businesses who – despite their general positivity towards cloud – still have lingering doubts about how they’re going to adopt.

This whitepaper is for business leaders who want to dispel those doubts and move forwards on their cloud journey. You will learn:

• The key perceived barriers to adoption and why these are myths
• Why the perceived barriers can be turned into an opportunity
• How we can help you move to the cloud and optimise this investment

Over the next few years, you’re likely to hear a lot more about the term data centre modernisation.

And with good reason.

Right now, many data centre modernisation programmes are helping businesses to free up their organisation from technical constraints and achieve new levels of business performance.

Modernising your data centre will make your business more agile, allow you to take advantage of emerging business trends and be more responsive to change. This data centre modernisation whitepaper is for business leaders who want to transform their business and change the way it works. In particular, you will learn:

• Why data centre modernisation is the issue you can no longer ignore
• The key ways data centre modernisation will be transformational for your business
• How Cloud Direct can help you with your data centre modernisation programme

Keeping your business running, whatever the circumstances, is one of the most important things you will ever do.

This may sound obvious, but it’s never been more true. Cyber-attacks, extreme weather events, even human error. Any business can be affected by unexpected disasters that can take down your systems, disrupt services and cut profits.

In this short guide, we explain why that’s all now changing with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), a business model for DR that is powered by the capacity, flexibility, security and performance of a new generation of public cloud services. In particular, we explain:

• The challenges that many organisations have previously faced with getting DR right
• Why DRaaS will help you overcome those challenges
• The benefits you can expect to achieve from DRaaS: described in terms of performance, added value and the costs you will save

This whitepaper outlines the business case for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS).

Dynamics 365 combines the latest Microsoft CRM and ERP technology to help sales teams achieve growth targets, generate leads, increase account value, sell effectively, sell as a team and win customers. We’ve counted 33 ways Dynamics 365 can help your sales team hit the back of the net every single month.

 

Achieve growth targets

1. Manage sales goals

Sales teams need to know how they’re performing in comparison to their sales goals.

Are they on track? If not, how much is the shortfall?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 benchmarks performances against your key sales performance indicators to inform sales directors, managers and other sales professionals with easy to follow charts, dashboards and reports for real-time monitoring of progress towards individual and team goals.

2. Automate lead scoring

If you deal with hundreds, or even thousands, of new leads each month, how do you decide which ones are sales ready?

Dynamics 365 workflows deliver an automated solution that consistently grades and scores each lead based on your rules ensuring that sales teams receive the right leads at the right time. Any combination of data stored in Dynamics 365 can be used to score leads including: job role, location, tracked email activity, web click behaviour, product detail and purchase timeframe.

3. Understand which lead sources convert best

Dynamics 365 maintains lead intelligence enabling sales and marketing teams to identify which sources of lead create the most valuable opportunities, and which resulted in the best conversion rates.

With the benefit of this insight teams can prioritise activities and focus budgets on the most profitable sources.

4. Ensure user adoption

User adoption is essential if any customer relationship management initiative is to achieve its objectives.

Dynamics 365’s CRM and ERP capabilities works with familiar Microsoft tools that many users already know including Outlook, Excel, Internet Explorer, OneNote and Skype to quickly facilitate early user acceptance.

Click here for “22 steps for successful CRM user adoption”

5. Lead routing

Dynamics 365 captures leads from web forms and other sources and uses defined rules to route them to the correct sales team or individual.

For many organisations lead routing is a time consuming manual process. By applying routing rules leads are automatically directed to the right person for urgent attention.

Routing rules can be based on product, location, account status and any other criteria using data stored in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

Lead generation

6. Telemarketing

With its process driven interface Microsoft Dynamics 365 prompts telemarketing agents to ask to right questions that are needed to identify and qualify new sales opportunities.

By guiding agents through your unique selling steps it means that leads are consistently progressed to improve opportunity quality and ultimately increase conversion rates.

Each sales process can be mapped to Dynamics 365 to include branching logic, mandatory fields and stage gating that prevents leads being progressed until all steps have been completed.

7. Web lead capture

Using third party solutions, Dynamics 365 integrates with web forms to automatically import enquiries, registrations, downloads and other online activity.

It also uses these actions to trigger workflows that send automated email notifications and schedule follow-up activities ensuring timely communications are made and to develop increasingly efficient sales processes.

8. Importing data

Data purchased from list providers or collected from external data sources can be imported as a one-off import, or as using a recurring batched process. The result is a complete view of every relationship from a single interface.

9. Event management

As a highly scalable application, Dynamics 365 has the flexibility to manage all the steps to plan and followup your business events.

Post-event processes handled in Dynamics 365 can include attendance reporting, automating follow-up messages and converting registrations to opportunities helping sales team to maximize lead generation and assess the return from each event.

10. Social engagement

Microsoft Social Engagement integrates with the CRM system, enabling sales teams to monitor conversations around their products and market.

They can follow prospective customer needs, problems and concerns, and join the social conversation to turn a cold contact into a sales opportunity.

In addition to providing a new source of leads, the social insights gained by listening to these conversations will help to shape sales strategy, dialogues and even product development.

11. Email marketing integration

Integrated email marketing solutions enrich CRM with campaign reporting data, including which emails are opened and which links are clicked.

With real-time insight into customer behaviour sales teams are equipped with more intelligence when they make sales calls enabling them to tailor communications to known interests and anticipate new requirements.

Packaged Dynamics 365 e-marketing integrations include dotmailer and Click Dimensions.

 

Increasing account value

12. Account management

Connect sales teams across multiple regions to a shared customer account, including company divisions.

Sales users can access a profile for each account and follow hierarchy views in CRM that span multiple regions, contact levels and group companies to instantly see a true picture of each relationship.

Prepared with this detail, account managers are better able to understand the nature of each relationship and have productive conversations.

13. Contract renewals

By handling contract and agreement renewal processes Dynamics 365 helps sales teams increase recurring revenue streams including income from licenses, support and maintenance agreements.

14. Increased customer satisfaction

With tools to handle support issues and send automated email updates, Dynamics 365 helps to keep customers informed to drive positive experiences and contribute towards increasing account values and helping businesses to recognise and reward their most profitable customers.

15. Personalised nurture messages

Nurture campaigns keep your sales message in front of prospects who aren’t yet ready to buy – without over committing your sales resources. Campaigns can be configured to nurture prospects who aren’t yet ‘sales ready’ which ensures that matching prospects are drip fed personalised emails and triggering further actions when prospects react to your calls to action.

16. Single interface to manage all integrations

Dynamics 365 helps sales teams prioritise their actions and tasks. With full visibility you and your team know who to call first when following up customers, leads and sales opportunities.

With the benefit of a single view of each relationship and interaction the value of every account is easily understood helping managers strengthen communications and focus resources on protecting their most profitable accounts.

17. Account cross-sell & upsell

By integrating with external data sources, Dynamics 365 stores order and transactional data. As a result, sales teams can check the purchase history on each account to identify new cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and even formulate loyalty programs.

 

Sell effectively

18. Accurate sales forecasting

Forecasts, pipeline charts and sales statistics create insight into projected performance. This data is available on-demand in Dynamics 365 so sales time isn’t wasted compiling reports or making decisions with suspect data.

19. Product management

Dynamics 365 makes it easy to compare historic and current sales results giving product and sales managers the information they need to make changes based on market trends and the competitive activity.

By capturing why a sales opportunity was won or lost in Dynamics 365 provides insight into critical strategic strengths and weaknesses.

This may highlight changes in the win/loss ratio for a specific product line, due to new competitors, lower pricing or quality concerns.

20. Quote management

From simple quotations using standard product lists to proposals involving bundled products and services Microsoft Dynamics 365 quoting solutions help sales teams quickly produce professional quotes.

For quotes that consist of multiple line items the cost, profit, part numbers and revisions can be tracked to transform quote quality and cut administration giving sales staff more time to sell.

21. Mobile CRM

There can often be a gap in communications between field and office based sales staff due to a lack of shared information. Dynamics 365’s mobile CRM apps enable all sales staff to access their opportunities, customers, activities and other sales data wherever they go which means you can get as much done outside the office, as you do inside, by using CRM on a tablet or mobile device.

22. Email tracking

By tracking every Microsoft Outlook email sent and received Dynamics 365 gives sales professionals a complete communications history on every account, contact and opportunity record.

23. Sales dashboards

Use live sales dashboards to monitor active leads and sales opportunities to react with informed, timely decisions. Including charts, statistics, sales metrics and KPI graphics, Dynamics 365 provides real-time visibility that help to raise productivity, increase sales and improve operational efficiency.

 

Winning customers

24. Tracking every sales opportunity through your selling stages

Whether you have an average sales cycle of a few weeks involving two or three sales steps, or a more complex series of stages running to several months, Dynamics 365 tracks every sales opportunity through your defined milestones.

If you want to be sure that your sales team is consistently following your selling methodology, Dynamics 365 enforces your rules with gated stages that prevent opportunities from being qualified until earlier steps are fully completed.

25. Competitor tracking

Build out detailed profiles for each organisation you compete with including known accounts they work with and which active sales opportunities you are competing on.

As well as building up a detailed knowledge of your competitors including their strengths and weakness this provides great information for sales teams, who can see what opportunities specific competitors may be in the running for based on region, industry vertical or other criteria.

26. Electronic order signing

To shorten the time from quote to order CRM applications integrate with electronic document signing solutions to create an effective contracting process with faster responsiveness.

27. Pipeline management

Without a CRM system, sales teams can struggle to understand their pipeline in real-time leading to efforts being focused in the wrong areas.

Dynamics 365 generates real-time pipeline reports which are used as the basis for sales and production forecasts which in turn increase efficiency and predictable management of cash flow.

28. Qualifying leads

It’s not uncommon for a prospect to be considered highly qualified by one sales representative but seem completely unqualified to another.

CRM processes guide users through your defined sales steps with guided steps that are supported by your business rules to remove subjective verdicts and improve opportunity quality by ensuring leads are consistently qualified.

 

Sell as a team

29. Sharing sales documents

Dynamics 365 gives your team an effective platform to share sales materials and other documents helping them improve communication and ultimately close more sales – especially if sales teams are spread out.

For advanced document management Dynamics 365 can be integrated with libraries on SharePoint and other storage resources.

30. Managing user access

Using sophisticated security permissions, customer relationship management applications safeguards sales and customer data by restricting access to authorised users and ensuring that permissions to access sensitive data is only granted based on defined roles or individual sales user names. Further permissions can be set to prevent users exporting data or deleting records.

31. Calendar integration

Microsoft Dynamics C365 synchronises calendars with your preferred email application to manage schedules, check availability and alert office or remote sales staff about newly scheduled tasks, activities, meetings, appointments, phone calls and recurring events.

32. Bringing sales & marketing teams closer

A major disconnect between sales and marketing teams can arise in defining when a lead should be qualified.

In an alarming number of instances the leads directed to sales reps aren’t actively worked on. Often this is cause by differing views of what a qualified lead is.

For better sales effectiveness, a precise qualification process can be mapped in Microsoft Dynamics 365 to remove uncertainty and provide sales and marketing staff with clear assessment if a lead is ‘sales ready’

Through other functions including lead scoring, automated lead routing and email campaign tracking, Dynamics 365 creates greater transparency to remove barriers between sales and marketing teams.

33. Territory management

Territory Management enables organisations with complex sales structures to organise their activities based on regions, product lines or other criteria.

CRM territory management handles any customer segmentation.

Simply apply rules to automatically place customers into defined territories for measurement of territory profit levels and plan resource allocation.

If you pour tremendous amounts of time, resources and money into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, you expect to see increased sales, better customer service and improved operating efficiency.

And, yes, the right CRM system can deliver on those goals. But only if you have achieved one key thing: user adoption.

According to Forrester, the technology analysts, 49% of CRM projects are threatened by low user adoption. The greatest single contributor to CRM project success is getting users on board. So, when you’re planning a CRM project, start by asking yourself these two questions:

• How will it benefit our team?
• Will it make their lives easier?

To improve productivity, users must understand the benefits and use the system on a daily basis. You must:

• Design your CRM platform with your specific users in mind
• Clearly communicate the benefits
• Teach them how to use it
• Make sure to get their buy-in

Tailor your CRM for your users

Best practice suggests that your number one priority, when implementing a CRM plan, should focus on user adoption and ease-of-use. Yet so often this doesn’t happen.

What users need in a CRM system varies depending on their role and function. Let’s look now at sales, marketing and customer service teams.

Target sales with CRM

A great CRM system delivers transparency and clear visibility of sales cycles by tracking each prospect through every step of the selling pipeline from initial lead to purchase, helping your sales teams convert more leads into revenue.

Your CRM platform should reflect the needs of your individual salespeople and their own unique selling cycle. So, they may want easy access to:

• Current opportunities
• Qualified leads
• The next step in the cycle
• Follow-up communications
• Forecasting

It should help your sales team hit their revenue targets, reduce sales cycles, convert leads to sales and increase their commission.

Fail to accomplish these goals, and users will lose confidence and stop using the platform. They will fall back on the old legacy systems and manual processes.

Get it right, however, and your business will have a comprehensive lead management tool. With easy access to solid, reliable and trusted data in their pipeline, sales people can quickly get the customer information they need – all from the same place.

Automate sales admin

If sales teams spend hours every week on administrative tasks, it’s an expensive drain on productivity. Imagine the extra opportunities that could be won each month if sales had less admin.

An effective CRM strategy frees sales staff from the burden of admin tasks by minimising, or even removing, repetitive processes that steal time from the working day and contribute little to profitability.

A good CRM system cuts out a bulk of manual tasks: your sales team no longer has to create records, key in data or send forms to accounts for processing.

It also displays a personalised dashboard, so each member of your team can view and analyse relevant, real-time reports quickly and easily.

Manage and measure your marketing

In the past, marketing was viewed as an ambiguous cost that couldn’t be measured or tracked. Today, despite sophisticated databases, many marketers still can’t easily assess or quantify the success of their efforts. The inability to substantiate results impacts marketing budgets.

Creating and executing new campaigns is easier to justify when marketing can capture measurable results. When your CRM system is architected correctly, marketers can demonstrate solid reports on leads generated, opportunities converted, close rates and ROI. Comprehensive marketing reporting and analytics provides transparency into marketing

metrics, thus providing a clear view of how marketing and sales activities contribute to the company’s bottom line.

With better metrics on how campaigns are performing, marketing has insight into how to improve campaigns. Setting campaign goals and benchmarking results opens doors to new possibilities in marketing effectiveness.

The nimblest CRM applications are those that can be integrated with other tools including marketing automation software and e-marketing platforms.

With a great CRM system, your marketers can create compelling and high-impact campaigns. They can:

• Plan activities
• Develop contact lists
• Organise campaigns
• Implement programmes
• Measure the results

And where marketing previously had to run campaigns manually, they can now run automatically.

Because they have more details readily available than ever before, marketers can segment contacts to run personalised campaigns and reap higher conversion rates. The result: more campaigns can be run with fewer people, and deliver more qualified leads to your sales pipeline.

Customer service

What does your customer service team want from a great CRM system? Most likely:

• Customer information
• Case management
• Service history
• Support knowledge

Why?

So they can deliver consistent, efficient service that enhances customer loyalty and profitability.

A great CRM system makes addressing a customer issue so much easier, because all the detail your people need are instantly available in a single interface, from a single system. Customer issues and requests are resolved quickly and efficiently.

Automating service processes with a CRM system enables you to assign, manage and resolve support incidents with automated routing, support ticket queuing and escalation of service requests, along with case management, service level agreement management and auto-response e-mail. With all details available in one place, CRM systems make everyone accountable for customer service.

People are able to provide responsive, personalised service that increases case resolution and ultimately reduces customer churn. Unprecedented access to data transforms the customer’s overall experience.

When service staff see they have more tools and information at their disposal, they will be increasingly motivated to use the platform, because they recognise that CRM will help them do their job better and deliver superb service.

2. Get employee input

CRM is a company-wide strategy that involves everyone who interacts with customers – either directly or indirectly. The most effective way of understanding what they need from a CRM system is simply to ask them at the start of the process. By including them, they won’t feel the organisation is imposing a new system. Instead, they can help drive change.

Gather both vertical and horizontal knowledge from within the company by including all key users – from project stakeholders to cross-functional employees who focus on day-to-day tasks. Ask questions about how CRM helps in them, what steps seem unnecessary and what changes or enhancements would make their jobs easier.

First, identify existing frustrations relating to data management and automation. The consultancy partner you work with can then design practical and functional CRM solutions to suit. Get users to test and pilot programmes for invaluable input into what does and doesn’t work for them.

For example, service teams are unlikely to need access to marketing campaign functions while sales teams probably won’t need access to marketing project tasks. These options can be hidden from users’ groups. Displaying only the functionality avoids overwhelming and confusing users with too irrelevant options. What’s more, your CRM interface should extend beyond individual user personalisation; it should also be designed to adapt dynamically, by role.

Your new CRM shouldn’t simply replicate current processes. The goal is to develop improved, more efficient processes. As a result of user input, a CRM system can be built with enhanced processes, refined

approaches and richer information that enthuses users, streamlines tasks, increases user productivity and ultimately improves ROI.

3. Have a communication strategy

Sell the system internally

Change management is a big deal in any organisation. With change comes resistance. Many employees are set in their ways, comfortable with predictable routines and familiar tools. They see no need for change. Some will sit in the “we’ve always done it that way” category, while others will fear change.

Your workforce builds an opinion about the system before they ever use it. Some organisations mistakenly assume a new CRM platform will sell itself once the solution is rolled out, their message being, “We’ve got this great new CRM platform that everyone is going to start using. You will love it.”

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

Lead by example

Successful CRM projects need visible buy-in from the top. Strong leaders will communicate the bigger picture, convey why change is needed and how it will positively impact the organisation as whole. Promote the CRM platform as an integral part of the company culture. Position it as an ongoing, value-driven process that is continually fine-tuned to benefit the entire organisation.

Improved processes fostered by CRM can even reduce employee churn and be used as a basis for attracting high calibre staff.

It requires a change in thinking and a change in behaviour. Leaders must be willing to lead by example to demonstrate how CRM helps every level of the organisation. A consistent positive attitude on the leader’s part inspires others. It is imperative that leaders are early CRM adopters themselves. Buy-in occurs at the highest levels of the company and filters down through the ranks.

Keep users in the loop

Keep users informed as the system nears completion, continuing to communicate how CRM will directly impact them. Before launch, stress that ongoing support training is available to guide them. Explain that trainers will work with them until they feel comfortable on their own. Then, follow up systematically to ensure that the change is happening. After the CRM ‘go live,’ schedule post-implementation sessions with teams and individuals. Gather user feedback and use this as the basis to apply CRM tweaks and begin prioritising new requirements.

4. Provide training

It is important that users’ first experiences are positive. If employees don’t learn how to use the system, it sits, untouched. Employees fall back into their old ways of finding information in disparate systems and using manual processes.

Employees can’t be given a one-hour course and expect to know how to use the CRM system. A leading package like Microsoft Dynamics 365 may be intuitive to any Office user, but don’t assume training is not important. Dynamics 365 has specific nuances and functions that require in-depth training, customised to specific roles.

So allocate time for training sessions at all levels, giving plenty of notice and planning staff coverage where needed. Make sure employees can focus without interruptions. They shouldn’t feel like training is delaying their work.

Choose a partner who will stand by you

Many consultancies will deploy a CRM system and leave you to your own devices, never to be seen or heard from again.

Project leaders need to think and invest beyond the CRM system introduction training. Take into consideration on-going needs and training that supports users throughout the lifecycle of the CRM project. Choose a proactive partner who is available to support you at every step and who fully understands your business and user challenges.

Introduction training ensures basic familiarisation with CRM menus, navigation and essential processes. After implementation, you can work with your consultancy partner to roll out further training that will develop users’ skill beyond the basics.

More advanced CRM topics and role-specific training builds confidence and competence, and keeps the users’ experience positive and their expectations met.

Leave training and support to the experts

With a professional CRM consultancy firm that offers managed support services, your employees have access to the training and support they need, anytime they need it. The initial knowledge they gained should be topped up with regular sessions to introduce and master more CRM functions, or recap learning points, helping them to achieve incremental gains with each session.

Ensure courses can be delivered face-to-face or remotely and be scheduled as hourly or full day sessions. Employees can also get assistance via ongoing email, telephone and remote dial-in support. Managed support service enables your organisation to regularly book “bite-size sessions” with their regular consultant who knows their system.

A managed agreement includes training hours to ensure that users have the resources they need to get the most from CRM, acquire new skills and unleash the potential of their CRM package.

Because CRM training hours are included in each managed agreement, users can quickly schedule additional tuition and consultancy advice without needing to apply for additional budget or raise a new purchase order.

Technical support

When users have a problem, they want answers right away. Ensure CRM technical support is always available via multiple sources and channels. Make it easy for users to connect with the right person and the right knowledge at the right time to answer their service needs.

Running a help desk probably isn’t your organisation’s core competency, and your resources are best focused on revenue-generating tasks. An inclusive managed CRM support service alleviates the burden of technical help from your business, and ensures your employees get all the help they need. A CRM consultancy partner who offers managed services will ensure:

• Your CRM system is running smoothly,
• Users experience minimal downtime
• All questions are answered and struggles addressed
• Your CRM fulfils its potential

Because managed support has a bank of consultancy hours, CRM administrators and authorised users can quickly allocate these resources to deal with changes that go beyond routine technical support. This time is already held in your account so it can be immediately allocated for your CRM partner to complete these tasks. There’s no need to get approval or apply for more budget. This is an ideal solution to help organisations evolve their CRM package over time.

Make sure your CRM solution is future-proof, scalable, agile and flexible enough to keep pace and adjust to changing needs.

• Seven of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Dynamics 365 serves more than four million users and over 40,000 organisations
• Dynamics 365 is deployed in more than 80 countries

– Source: Microsoft

5. Review & implement change requests

As we’ve demonstrated, CRM projects don’t end when a new system is first implemented. They evolve over time in response to:

• Changing business strategies
• Shifts in operations
• New opportunities
• User requirements

The solution is to future-proof your investment. Your system should be scalable, agile and flexible enough to keep pace and adjust to meet changing needs. Even though an initially successful implementation of CRM can bring early payback, the initiative can still fall short of expectations if the system doesn’t adapt to change. Scalable CRM systems, like Dynamics 365, can easily:

So, you’ve invested time and money researching and buying your CRM system. What then happens when it comes to getting your people to actually use it? Poor user adoption is consistently blamed for CRM project failures. So how do you get users on board? Here are 22 proven steps for a successful CRM adoption strategy.

1. Tell them the day-to-day benefits of CRM

Remove the barrier that CRM is a reporting tool to keep an eye on users and replace it with an inspiring outline and demonstration of the clear benefits to the various individuals and teams. Show them how it’ll help in their day to day work, whether they’re a marketer, a sales person or a customer services rep.

2. Involve users from the outset

Give users a voice in the CRM implementation planning process. With a real stake in the project, users will feel encouraged to invest time and effort into making the new CRM system a success.

3. Recruit ambassadors

Empower enthusiastic and influential individuals to evangelise CRM. They can help secure buy-in from their peers and provide solid support when challenges arise.

4. Train users

It isn’t enough simply to take new CRM system users on a brief walkthrough demonstration. Instead, develop a training plan that starts with the basics and progresses to more sophisticated functions and processes as users grow in proficiency.

Training should be role-specific so your sales, marketing and service teams can start using CRM with confidence.

Get in touch if you’d like to arrange training for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

5. Make it personal

From the outset, personalise your CRM database to match your business processes and terminology, as well as passing the critical test of user relevancy.

For example, you can adapt field titles, work flows and reports to fit your business’s way of working.

6. Keep it simple

Avoid introducing too many features at once. There’s nothing more off-putting for a user than a cluttered interface with irrelevant features.

Instead, personalise Dynamics 365 for a clean interface, with only the features that users currently need. You can always switch on more functions at a later date, when they’re needed.

7. Communicate across departments

By connecting teams to a single data source, processes can be integrated between teams. Make sure, though, to communicate well, so information flows smoothly throughout the organisation and duplication is avoided.

For example, Microsoft’s CRM system, Dynamics 365 automatically sores leads. But are sales and marketing teams on the same page when it comes to defining what makes a lead ‘sales’ ready?

8. Make sure your CRM is mobile friendly

To keep up with user demand, your CRM database needs to be easily available on multiple devices. So choose a system that’s widely accessible by smartphones and tablets, that will support mobile teams.

9. Mimic social media features/tools

Users’ familiarity with social tools makes it a smart move to apply these features or tools to a CRM system. People should be able to ‘follow’ accounts, sales leads etc so they receive relevant alerts. Similarly, they should be able to ‘like’ or share entries that promote better team collaboration.

10. Get executive buy-in

As with any new system, securing executive support is key. Otherwise, users aren’t necessarily convinced that this isn’t just another passing fad and that, in a couple of months, they’ll be starting over again with a different system.

So make sure they realise you’re serious. Top execs have a lot to gain from CRM, so they need to set an example by talking about, promoting and – most importantly – using your CRM system.

11. Inspire users with friendly competition

Celebrate and reward success for users who, for example, close the most cases, convert the highest number of leads or demonstrate the highest data entry accuracy.

This kind of healthy competition should provoke emotional commitment and instil system acceptance.

Make sure, though, that you maintain transparency, using CRM dashboards so that users can char their own progress.

12. Cleanse data

Start as you mean to go. Before you migrate legacy records, purge duplicates and expired contacts so you have quality data before you start using your new CRM system. This will give users confidence in the data they’re using.

13. Make CRM easier

Personalise your users CRM so they clearly see how it makes their working lives easier.

For example, show them how it reduces repetitive manual tasks by replacing them with automated processes – saving users time and helping them avoid unnecessary errors. Or let them see how the ondemand reporting can save them the hours it would normally take them to collate all that data.

14. Appoint a CRM champion

Choose someone internally to assist with internal training – a go-to person who can manage user requests for future database customisation.

15. Little steps

Start small. Implementing your CRM on a small scale initially has two clear benefits:

• Users can gradually build confidence in the application without feeling overwhelmed by a project that attempts to achieve too much, too quickly.
• The business avoids large upfront costs

16. Create a record card view

You can personalise your CRM system so users can clearly see all the information they need in a concise display. For example, for a service case, this single view would include a brief case description, current status, priority level, last contact date, customer name and responsible user.

17. Integrate your CRM with existing apps

CRM is more relevant to users when it works with applications they already use. This can include, for example, Microsoft Outlook, an accounting database such as Sage, an email marketing service like Eloqua (Oracle’s automated marketing tool), your company website and SharePoint (Microsoft’s cloud solution for file-sharing and collaboration).

18. Get feedback from staff

Keep open the lines of communication following your initial CRM training. This will encourage users to share their experiences and recommendations. You can then use this feedback to modify future updates, further strengthening your relationship with users and improving long-term adoption success.

19. Connect your CRM with social networks

You can help users develop closer relationships with customers and other contacts by allowing them to use the CRM interface to follow updates on their social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google etc.

20. Love the haters: keep CRM issues open and public

No matter how great your efforts, some CRM sceptics will remain. But don’t ignore them or sweep their opinions under the carpet. Left unchecked, they can spread dissent with their negative influence.

Instead, get these individuals to express their points openly, and tackle genuine CRM issues directly. This way, others can make up their own minds on their validity, and you’ll have limited the potential damage to user adoption and motivation.

21. Future proof your business with scalable CRM

If your CRM can’t keep pace with new requirements, user adoption will drop immediately. So it’s wise to choose a CRM system that can scale, based on your assessment of future requirements. At the very base level, assess how scalable the platform is to accommodate any likely customisation or integration, and ask how much the manufacturer is investing in its development.

While you may not be able to define your future needs bang on, a simple approach to making sure you’re getting a product that will future-proof your business as much as possible, is to define your vision for CRM and ask potential vendors how they will support you in achieving it.

22. Keep all customer data in your CRM system

Don’t let your people store their own customerrelated data independently or your CRM system will never achieve its full potential. The whole point of CRM is to share and increase the visibility of customer relationships. The more people contribute, the more value for everyone.