Dynamics CRM - Dec 2012 Update

With its Customer Relationship Management software, Microsoft makes enterprise management simple. This software attempts to connect and streamline the Marketing, Sales and Customer Service department in your organization. Started to suit the basic Customer care requirements, Microsoft Dynamics CRM software brings more convenience and edge with each new update it has to present. And so is the case with the December 2012 Update.

Some of the noteworthy additions in the CRM Software in the December 2012 update are:

Predefined Configuration of Sales & Service Process

Based on your industry, old customer base, sales history and priorities of actions, you can now predefine steps of lead generation and customer service. Each stage can consist of as many steps as you find appropriate to efficiently close a sales cycle, thus increasing productivity.

Compatibility with MS Office 2013

The upgraded CRM also facilitates the latest upgraded MS Office 2013, to get the best of documentation, calculations and analysis in MS Office as well as synchronization of emails in Outlook.

Add-on Browsers and Mobiles

Along with the latest Google Chrome and Mozilla in Windows PC, this CRM Software is compatible with Safari and Mozilla in Macintosh and with Safari on Apple iPad tablets. Such flexibility is of great convenience to sales persons, especially while traveling.

Skype Embedded

The December update has come with an inbuilt Skype support. Now you can easily connect and collaborate with your customers. The user can directly make outbound Skype to Skype as well as Skype to phones from the CRM software only.

Collaborate

This latest update enables you to collaborate all your date pertaining to a customer, services availed, sales person attending the client and all the pertaining stakeholders information at one point, hence, not only avoiding duplication of data, but also making lead generation and followup throughout the complete sales cycle a very easy and efficient task. Moreover, Skype and Yammer add-ons allows one to maintain a social contact and presence conveniently feasible. Exchanging data, making presentations and group conferences are a cake walk with such streamlining.

User Interface

The all new interface systematically guides you step by step through the complete orientation and acquaintance with the new CRM Software to perfection.

The updated version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 is strategically upgraded keeping the enormity of data in mind and with a clear focus on developing a software with a business acumen. Above mentioned were some of the major reasons for upgrading to CRM 2012. Though, there are numerous small and big changes which you might come across while exploring the upgraded software.

Write to us at inquiry@cygnet-infotech.com about your requirements and get bespoke solutions for MS Dynamics CRM.

xRM - The Future of CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as we know it are the sets of tools and processes that enable organizations to reach out to prospects, communicate with them, make them customers and retain them as long term relationships.  

Dynamics CRM from Microsoft is one such enterprise solution that provides CRM functionality. However Dynamics CRM goes much beyond simple CRM. 

With the ability to define new industry specific entities and the ability to determine various custom relationships between entities, Dynamics CRM allows extending CRM functionality to 3rd Parties like suppliers, vendors, assets, franchises, employees, re-sellers and many others. 

We found a nice video to share on xRM and its possibilities.

Cygnet's GITEX 2012 Coverage

GITEX, one of the largest trade events opened its doors on 14th Oct, 2012 at Dubai Exhibition and Convention Center under a theme 'Where Technology Meets Business'.

The opening ceremony was commenced with a Royal arrival of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who walked through various countries Pavilions and Stands. India’s Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal also paid a visit to the Indian Pavilion.

View more pictures

Cygnet Infotech exhibited at the week long event under the India Pavilion at Stand # S1-A5 from where it showcased its significant range of services and applications for various businesses.

• Document Constructor on Microsoft SharePoint - a smart and intuitive tool to construct documents on demand from pre-defined templates
• Inquiry Management Application developed on Dynamics CRM tailored for B2B companies
• Enterprise Project Management Toolkit (EPM) built on Microsoft Project Server
• Predefined Services for Microsoft SharePoint Implementation, Integration and Migration
• Predefined Services for Dynamics CRM Implementation, Integration and Migration

View the GITEX2012 Picture Gallery.

Reasons for Migrating to Dynamics CRM 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a powerful customer relationship management system that gives users the capabilities to easily create and maintain customer interactions and get a clear view of pre-sales to post-sales activity automating sales, marketing and customer services functions. Dynamics CRM has been through many upgrades since its launch. The latest upgrade was seen in the year 2011 in which Microsoft launched the beta version of Dynamics CRM and thus it is now known as Dynamics CRM 2011.

The latest version of Dynamics CRM envelops next-generation features and enhancement and is specially developed for both Cloud and On-Premise deployments. Besides, Dynamics CRM 2011 has many other feature enhancements which forms strong reasons for businesses to switch towards it. 

Here’s a quick highlight of these new features of Dynamics CRM 2011

Dashboards: Dashboards provides a great way of locating essential information They give ‘Live CRM’ content which can be used to create multiple sets of visual charts and graphs which helps in taking better decisions.

Intuitive User Interface: The new CRM has intuitive user interface similar to OutLook which help employees easily adopt the new system and get acquainted with the functions without spending on training.

Contextual Ribbon: The integration of Contextual Ribbon makes it easier for users to perform tasks with a few clicks. Users can also personalize views, create custom dashboards and set up fonts as per their requirements through this intuitive feature.

SharePoint Integration: Dynamics CRM 2011 also comes with SharePoint integration which allows users to easily access data stored in SharePoint server from within the CRM giving a more connected experience. Moreover by installing Dynamics CRM List Component, the users can view, manage and share documents in CRM with the same appearance and behavior as stored in SharePoint.

Marketplace: The integration of Marketplace with new CRM helps users to discover new applications and services directly from the CRM making it easier for users to find solutions.

Integration with Office Applications: Dynamics CRM 2011 is also integrated with other applications such as Silverlight, Azure and Visual studio which gives more opportunities to Developers to build applications and lower overall development costs.

Auditing: Auditing in Dynamics CRM 2011 allows organization to track changes, maintain security, check history of records and comply with the rules.

Along with the above enhancements, Dynamics CRM 2011 offers several other benefits which are not available in CRM 4.0.

For End-User	For Analysts	For Developers
Advanced User- Customization	Visualization  of Comprehensive Reports/Activities	New Form Designer
Improved Outlook Integration	Flexible Definition of Goals & KPIs	Field level Security

All the above benefits instill strong basis for organizations to migrate to CRM 2011 if they are still using the Non-Microsoft CRM or older version of Dynamics CRM.

Cygnet Infotech provides Dynamics CRM Migration Services for businesses to migrate from their existing CRM system to a new and improved Dynamics CRM 2011. It offers different packages for business to migrate depending upon their current version and requirements. If you are looking to migrate to Dynamics CRM 2011, ask for a quote or download our brochure to view different packages.

Jump Start Your Dynamics CRM with Cygnet’s Service Packages

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to automate Sales, Customer services and Marketing functions. It offers a complete solution to drive measurable improvements across all customer management processes. It is built on the secure and scalable .Net platform integrating directly with different applications of Microsoft such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. which helps users to work comfortably and automate all their sales and marketing processes at clicks of buttons. It offers proven ways to make customer interactions more productive and profitable with improved lead generation and closing rates. Organizations looking for ways to manage their sales, marketing campaigns and customers effectively can certainly implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM in their business and give wings to their customer management capabilities.

Cygnet Infotech as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner offers expert Dynamics CRM implementation services.  It is experienced and qualified to assist businesses in their complete Dynamics CRM implementation needs depending on the requirements and size of operation. Cygnet offers both On Premise and On Cloud Implementation services that are fully tested to accelerate the delivery of tailored and easy-to-use Dynamics CRM system, each of which includes following:

On Premise Implementation	Online Implementation
Installation & Deployment	Sign-up and Registration Process
Business Settings Configuration	CRM Outlook Client Installation Setup and Documentation
CRM Email Router Settings	Microsoft Dynamics CRM Best Practices Documentation
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Best Practices Documentation	Data Migration Service
Data Migration Service	Javascript Creation
Configure CRM for Claims & Internet Facing Deployment	Creation of Custom Entities
Administrator and End User Training	Creation of Workflow Rules
Post Implementation Technical Support	Administrator and End User Training
	Post Implementation Technical Support

Both these implementation services are offered on fixed cost basis to clients leveraging best practices and rapid deployment techniques that includes:

• Aligning the needs of the key stakeholders
• Implementing an organizational change management plan to avoid chaos and resentment among users and stakeholders
• Defining an appropriate data governance framework for customer, product and pricing
• Re-engineering organizational interfaces and business processes to enable team selling
• Initial data loading into the CRM application
• Designing effective and appropriate integration with other systems
• Keeping all the moving parts in line with the goal of a successful CRM roll-out through the guidance of experienced Microsoft Dynamics CRM Project Managers and consultant
• Developing Automation and Workflow processes that meet critical business requirements
• Designing and implementing best-of-the-breed CRM customizations and integration architectures

Following the above process, Cygnet addresses client’s complete Dynamics CRM implementation needs which enable them to jump start an effective customer, leads and campaign management which help them in accelerating and enhancing their customer services.

If you are planning to give your business a Dynamics CRM advantage, Cygnet Infotech will help you in your endeavor by providing its Dynamics CRM implementation services.

Request a quote for your Dynamics CRM implementation requirements

Explore our complete Dynamics CRM implementation, migration and integration services at GITEX2012 from 14th to 18th October, 2012

Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Application on Dynamics CRM

With a view to help B2B professional services companies get vital updates and statistics on inquiries generated and render quick conversion, Cygnet has developed a robust Inquiry Management Application on Dynamics CRM.

The success of B2B marketing lies in effective lead management and lead nurturing. However, leads are said to be managed effectively only when the processes are accomplished in a cost-effective manner, generating better ROI.

Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Solution meets these requirements giving a clear picture of lead and opportunity status which helps to speed up the sales cycle.

Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Application built on Dynamics CRM includes modules such as custom dashboards, reporting, sales pipeline management and duplicate detection which caters to all B2B inquires management issues on single screen. The application is capable of performing multifarious functions giving a comprehensive picture of all phases included in the sales cycle.

Capabilities of Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Application

• Captures inquiries from multiple sources such as website forms, emails, inbound/outbound calls, landing pages, etc
• Automatically assigns inquiries to appropriate sales staff
• Provides complete reports of inquiries with status, conversion ratios and sales person performance
• Detects duplicate inquiries
• Manages quotations
• Sets up follow-up reminders
• Integrated Microsoft Outlook notifies the sales person for assigned inquiries
• Tracks progress of each inquiry
• Manages Roles and Access Rights as per authorization

With all these intuitive features, Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Application based on Dynamics CRM helps business in bridging gaps between sales and marketing. It endows B2B managers with truly qualified sales leads helping them improve ROI and ensuing increased win rates with fewer resources.

B2B companies looking for ways to build stronger and effective marketing base for achieving quick sales turnaround can employ Cygnet’s Inquiry Management solution and lead forward in the path of earning, nurturing and retaining lifetime customer relationships.

Cygnet will be demonstrating this application in upcoming GITEX2012 Expo which is to be held in Dubai between 14^th and 18^th Oct, 2012.

Register to view Demo of Cygnet’s Inquiry Management Application in GITEX2012.

Cygnet Develops a Solution on Dynamics CRM for NGO Team Members

At the demand of a US based NGO, Cygnet developed a solution for its team members which comprise schools and learning institutions. The basic requirement of these NGO team members was to develop test models to help their administrators and policy makers identify learning disabilities among students and improve their reading skills. They wanted these test models to test the academic outcomes of first and second grade students so that they could quickly intervene after identifying disabilities and devise appropriate instructions to overcome these disabilities. Cygnet comprehended the requirements and stepped in the direction to fulfill the demanded solution.

To develop the test models solution, Cygnet utilized its proficiency on MS Dynamics CRM. The CRM team at Cygnet, worked incessantly for 8 months in line with the work-flows of the institutions to develop the test models and implemented them On-Cloud which produced outstanding results for assessing student’s potentials as well as disabilities in reading. The test models developed, helped the NGO team members in mapping and evaluating test results with related database of students maintained in the CRM system. Moreover, these test models also helped in comparing results of each student based on reading achievement, grade promotion, eligibility for special education services, etc.

The test models developed on Dynamics CRM matched the exact needs of NGO team members to recognize reading disabilities in students and work out appropriate training to beat these disabilities at the earliest. Cygnet bagged many appreciations from the NGO and its team members for developing the solution after which it received many more projects on Dynamics CRM from the same client.

Cygnet has served many clients for their varied requirements with its Dynamics CRM services, the list of which is still expanding.

Have a project on mind? Let our CRM team assist you with its significant knowledge and experience in Dynamics CRM customizations and implementations. 

Cygnet's Dynamics CRM Solution Enhanced Client’s Customer Management and Order Processing Functions

With its expertise on Dynamics CRM, Cygnet delivered a solution to the client who is a leading Door installation services provider and consultant company based in USA. As the client’s business was run manually, it faced challenges like ineffective communication, mismanagement of customers and orders, irregular supply cycles and servicing functions which disrupted the operations of client’s geographically dispersed business.

Client approached Cygnet to develop a solution which could manage all business functions fulfilling the following concerns and requirements:

• Complete automation of business processes with improved collaboration and co-ordination of sales, services, orders and supply activities to enhance customer order and services management
• Standard platform to act as a centralized repository of all information and a medium to locate transactions details of all branches
• Eliminate manual process of order entry and circulation of spreadsheets among various sales and project managers which was time consuming and prone to errors
• Streamline materials receipts and processing activities which was lengthy and expensive due to mismanagement of suppliers and installers

Dynamics CRM Solution Offered to Doors Installation Company

Cygnet stepped ahead and developed a solution on Dynamics CRM which overcame all the challenges of client’s business in the following way:

• Cygnet chose Dynamics CRM cloud based technology to develop and deploy the solution as per client’s business workflow. This provided instant mobility and 24/7 access to business data to every member
• Created a centralized system which allowed members to view information and check data on measurements and installation schedules. This made the communication and co-ordination more clear between sales and services team
• Developed an automated background function which was scheduled to run on regular intervals for creating opportunities for customer orders in MS Dynamics CRM. This fulfilled the order to delivery cycle in less time and streamlined the whole workflow
• Implemented custom workflow to assign orders to relevant consultant, supplier and installer which notified each person for the upcoming process. This saved a lot of follow-up time for all departments involved in processing customer orders including shipping and services department

Devising above solutions on Dynamics CRM , Cygnet imparted huge productivity, flexibility and security to client’s business which streamlined and automated its complete customer management and order processing activities.

Looking at the solution addressing all concerns, the client expressed deep gratitude to Cygnet’s CRM team and hoped for developing long term association with Cygnet. The team is very happy to have resolved client's issue as per his expectations and is looking forward to fulfill such challenging work in future for all its prospective clients.

If you want to create a solution for your business requirements, Cygnet will be happy to assist you with its proficiency on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

How to use and configure Dynamics CRM Mobile App

The Windows Marketplace has released Dynamics CRM Mobile App that can help users receive latest notifications on their mobile phones.

Below are the steps to be followed to configure and start using this app from your mobile phone:

1. Download Dynamics CRM App from the Windows Marketplace. Install the application and launch it.
2. Specify user name and password to connect to your CRM Online instance. This is same as the one that you use to connect from web client or outlook client to the CRM Online instance.
3. Once the configuration is done, a window with ‘Success’ message is displayed.
4. To enable connection to IFD (Internet Facing Domain) environment, toggle the switch “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online” which then becomes “Custom”.
5. Enter your server URL and home realm URL (if any). Contact your administrator for these details, if you are unsure. Ensure you choose the right organization if there is more than one. 
6. The administrator must enable Activity Feeds for your organization to get the real time posts. In order to take advantage of this app, your mobile needs to run UR5 or greater version. 

Apart from getting real time notifications, the below activities can be done from the mobile phone once the configuration is complete:

• User can view both auto and user posts
• User can make or refresh a post or comment
• User can delete a post or comment if they have proper permissions
• User can move from one post to another by using right and left arrows
• By tapping on blue text on the form, user can navigate between entities
• User can view CRM entities such as accounts, contacts, leads etc.
• User can search and view a record
• User can also reconfigure the app for a different organization
• User can launch email, phone and Bing maps tasks from record form

Apart from the above, with the help of system administrator, user can enable specific entities for mobile and choose the right columns for every entity’s view.

Also, when you set up personal views on your web or outlook client, it will automatically get downloaded to your phone after 24 hours. Additionally, if you make any metadata changes to the server, they will be reflected on your phone as well. Read more. 

Cygnet Infotech offers professional services in developing mobility solutions for business applications. 

Developer Tools and SaaS Capabilities introduced for Dynamics CRM

In order to provide more advanced features with respect to development of custom components in Dynamics CRM, Microsoft has released new tools. Till now, the developers have had difficulties in developing code-based solutions such as plug-ins, custom workflows as well as UI web resources like JavaScript. The developers have had to update such solutions with latest available version of these components from time to time. 

With the new developer toolkit, developers have been granted an easier mechanism to code the additional components such as a new form or an extension to an existing schema. The recently released toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: 

  

• Provides integration of Dynamics CRM with Visual Studio
• Accelerates development of custom code components
• Enables developers to write the code from within Visual Studio
• Enables developers to use Visual Studio 2010 templates to develop custom component projects in Dynamics CRM
• Supports automatic deployment of code to CRM service in the cloud
• Supports automatic deployment of code to in-premise environment
• Supports complete development, editing and deletion of CRM Plugins and workflows
• Supports both XAML and customer workflow activities
• Installs browser module that can be used to browse various artifacts present within Dynamics CRM instance

 Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit

The package can be embedded with Visual Studio 2010 development environment that enables to streamline the development of custom solution components. A familiar development studio is provided to those who are already well acquainted with Dynamics CRM development. Also, this toolkit can guide the developers who are naïve to the CRM extensibility but are well versed with VS and .NET to start coding within ten minutes. With this toolkit, the Silverlight applications can also be created, updated, deployed and deleted.

Apart from this toolkit, the below tools have also been released by Microsoft to aid developers: 

  

1. Plug-in profiler which can make troubleshooting plug-ins an easier and quicker job for the developers
2. Entity Metadata Browser which can be used by developers to view the entities and their properties in the system

More information on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM developer toolkit

Read more about Cygnet's professional services for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 

Integration of SharePoint Online with Dynamics CRM is Here

Several new and enhanced features are being introduced to SharePoint Online service by the SharePoint team in order to provide its customers with more useful functionalities. These features of SharePoint online service are expected to be rolled out to all the data centers by end of November.

One of the most notable features in this release is the integration of SharePoint online with Dynamics CRM application. With introduction of this feature, creating, editing and managing documents with Microsoft Dynamics CRM has just been made easy. SharePoint Online document management facility is accessible from the Dynamics CRM application that enables quick creation of document libraries as and when needed by the Dynamics CRM users.

The document management capabilities can be added to all the entities including the following (the below list is not exhaustive) within the Dynamics CRM application:

• Accounts
• Opportunities
• Cases
• Custom entities

However, before one can take full advantage of this functionality, the below steps need to be taken:

1. Login to the SharePoint server as SharePoint site collection administrator.
2. Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component. Click on the below links for the detailed steps and more information. 
1. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5283
2. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/
3. Open an account as the Microsoft Dynamics CRM user.
4. On the left hand side panel, click on Documents.
5. A document library is automatically created in SharePoint Online, if there is none. Click Ok on the dialog box displayed.
6. Once the SharePoint Online document library is created, it is directly rendered with Dynamics CRM.
7. User can then start uploading of contents to the SharePoint online library from within the Dynamics CRM application.

While configuring data management system in Microsoft Dynamics Online, the user can select the entities that need to have document management capabilities. The user can also specify either Account - B2B or Contact – B2C mode of organizing document libraries in SharePoint Online.

Learn more about configuring data management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 

Thus, with the aid of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for SharePoint, all your documents that are stored on SharePoint can now be accessed from Dynamics CRM in a format that is consistent with Dynamics CRM display properties. Dynamic creation of document libraries or folders is possible from the Dynamics CRM application as well.

Cygnet Infotech is a specialist services provider on Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Implementations. Read more about our Dynamics CRM services and SharePoint services

Nov Release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Introduces Social Collaboration

A good news to all the organizations which rely on Microsoft Dynamics CRM to carry out their customer relationship management activities - Microsoft has announced the release of its latest November 2011 Microsoft Dynamics CRM service update, the main feature of which is social productivity.

The two most important functionalities that have been incorporated into this release are:

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds solution
2. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile

The Dynamics Activity Feed aims to provide real time updates in form of notifications to its customers about people, accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities. The activity feeds include:

1. Facebook status updates
2. Twitter micro blogs
3. The New Facebook Ticker

These updates can either be displayed manually or can be automated based on pre-defined rules. The already available API of Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables posting of these status feeds to external applications as well.

As another add-on - this Dynamics activity feed support is also being incorporated into the Windows 7 phones thus promising a better and continuous collaboration amongst the customers and sales executives. However, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM mobile application needs to be installed on a per phone basis to enjoy the benefits of this new functionality.

Apart from these two major add-ons, several valuable enhancements have also been provisioned into this latest service update:

1. Multiple data series is supported in charts
2. Sub grids and notes have been included to the reading pane in Outlook
3. Dialogs and workflows support hyperlinks
4. Additional CRM data types have been included

Also, improved disaster recovery mechanism has been offered as a part of this service update to help protect data and ensure uninterrupted business flow during a disaster.

Through these enhancements, the ability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help agents satisfy the customers has been taken to the next level. The lack of a proper technical document or an implementation guide may come across as a downside to some users of Dynamics CRM. Despite this drawback, the November 2011 Microsoft Dynamics CRM service update promises some exciting and extremely useful functionalities.

This update has been made available through Microsoft Download Center from October 25, 2011 onwards and as a separate Microsoft Update from November 8, 2011 onwards. All the CRM online data centers have already been updated with this latest version.

Read more about the professional services on Dynamics CRM offered by Cygnet

Cygnet launches its brand new Microsoft services website

Cygnet is proud to announce the launch of http://microsoft.cygnet-infotech.com - a new website highlighting all of Cygnet’s professional services offerings in Microsoft technologies.

The development of this site is part of a larger re-look at Cygnet’s overall website strategy. In due course, we will be developing different sites for each of our service offerings which will all come under the banner of the main corporate website.

To reiterate, Cygnet has earned a Microsoft Partner Gold competency in web development and Microsoft Partner Silver competencies in software development, portals and collaboration, search, data platform, mid-market solutions provider and content management.

The main service offerings are related to software development in Microsoft .NET, collaboration and document management solutions using Microsoft SharePoint, CRM with Microsoft Dynamics, web applications with SilverLight, legacy application integration with BizTalk, cloud solutions with Office 365 and mobility solutions.

Get a taste of Cygnet’s expertise in delivering solutions in Microsoft technologies by reading the case studies section.

Speaking on the launch of the site, Cygnet’s Executive Director Tejinder Oberoi said, “The purpose of creating this exclusive website is to reiterate our commitment to Microsoft technologies. In the entire Microsoft stack, we have everything that is required for building best of breed technology solutions that translate to better returns on investment for our clients.”

Mr. Oberoi is attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, USA from 10^th to 14^th July and this was planned in advance as an appropriate event to introduce the site to other Microsoft partners and potential customers.

A special vote of thanks to the entire team which has made this site possible under extremely tight deadlines – from concept to live in just a month! Just goes to prove that if Cygnetians decide to do something, take it for granted that it shall be done.

Three Cheers to http://microsoft.cygnet-infotech.com.