Microsoft socialises CRM

It is, of course, a rather nebulous term, but the management of the experience end users have when using the services or products of any business is now becoming one of the main tasks for those businesses. And applications and services vendors are picking up on the trend with increasing speed.

One of the latest is Microsoft, which has just introduced the latest version of its Dynamics CRM suite. This adds one of the core components of building Customer Experience Management (CEM) capabilities, the ability to integrate end user input from social media sources.

Known as  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, it also adds a new set of industry- focused business process templates. These are designed to deliver customers with step-by-step process guidelines designed to improve performance in specific industries.

The new version, which will be available for both partner-hosted and on-premise use, is designed to offer customers an enhanced user experience includes interoperability with social media tools, though the primary targets are Microsoft’s own services of Yammer, Lync and Skype.

 “CRM today should be an enabler that detects trends, facilitates decisions and suggests actions that lead to successful outcomes and relationships,” said Bob Stutz, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “This major new release delivers on this promise of customer centricity by bringing together Microsoft technologies in a way that helps businesses and organisations better engage and nurture their customers.”

The new industry templates offer pre-defined and configurable processes where each stage of a process is clearly outlined. The company is introducing new templates for a number of specific industries such as professional services, manufacturing and financial services, as well as processes for event management and solution selling. 

The templates are fully configurable and incorporate best practices from industry experts. They give customers a starting point to build a solution to fulfill their specific industry requirements. In addition, they flow onto all mobile devices supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM, meaning customers can get the benefits of these processes on their favorite supported mobile device. 

These templates provide what the company describes as an outcome-driven user experience featuring guided processes that help customers reach their desired outcomes. These processes can be tailored to accommodate particular business requirements that enable sales staff to deliver an experience that matches their customers’ expectations. The benefits to organisations include shorter sales cycles, increased win rates, and less ramp-up time for new hires. 

It also features what the company calls a new, people-first design that offers a simple layout where all customer information is on one screen, helping sales staff see everything they need to know about their customer interactions.

The social tools provide the ability to stay connected to customers and resources. With Yammer, customers can quickly comment on posts or start contextual conversations from within Dynamics CRM. Yammer extends across an organisation bringing everyone into the conversation, including non-licensed CRM customers from within Yammer.

Customers also get access to new mobile client applications on Windows 8 tablets and iPads, as well as touch enabled experiences on all the major smartphone types, without a separate license fee. These new tablet experiences keep people connected to their data, their team members and their customers.