Customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Complex …hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/cw10.26.06.pdfCUSTOMIZING MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR COMPLEX FIELD SERVICE AND SALES ORGANIZATIONS The easy-to-use

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

Customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Complex Field Service and Sales Organizations White Paper CRM in Health Sciences: Somagen Diagnostics

Date: July 2006 www.microsoft.com/crm

2

CUSTOMIZING MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR COMPLEX FIELD SERVICE AND SALES ORGANIZATIONS

About the Author Carlos Wood is senior CRM consultant and Business Analyst at Ideaca Knowledge Services. He has worked with customer relationship management (CRM) applications for more than five years and has extensive knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM software. As a senior CRM consultant at Ideaca Knowledge Services, Carlos has gained broad experience working with Microsoft CRM to provide effective solutions to organizations across diverse industries. His experience includes capturing and analyzing requirements, conducting application design sessions, performing system configuration and customization, and facilitating end user training. Carlos attended the University of Oregon in the United States and Capilano College in North Vancouver, British Columbia, where he completed the Business Computing Co-operative Program (BCOP).

About Ideaca

Ideaca Knowledge Services is a leading Canadian-based consulting firm with over 120 employees that sells, develops, and implements business software solutions. As a trusted advisor, the Ideaca team has a proven knowledge, experience, and track record deploying the complete Microsoft solution that empowers organizations to make better business decisions. With offices in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver, Ideaca focuses on providing the following services:

o Microsoft Dynamics CRM o Microsoft Dynamics AX o Business Intelligence o Portals and Collaboration o Custom Application Development

Ideaca Knowledge Services www.ideaca.com Toronto Suite 502, 36 York Mills Road Toronto, ON M2P 2E9 1.866.816.4332

Calgary Suite 110, 308 11 Avenue SE Calgary, AB T2G 0Y2 1.866.231.4332

Vancouver Suite 200, 560 Beatty Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2L3 1.866.797.4332

3 CUSTOMIZING MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR COMPLEX FIELD SERVICE AND SALES ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM software is the fastest and easiest way to add customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to any organization that uses Microsoft® Office programs or the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client. Because it was designed to partner with Outlook, Microsoft CRM delivers lower training costs, broader user adoption, less application-switching, higher productivity, and an incredibly rapid impact on investment.

Somagen Diagnostics recently deployed a Microsoft CRM solution in an effort to address business challenges and to establish a dependable, scalable platform that will support its business needs as it continues to grow.

4


Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................5

Business and Technical Challenges..................................................................................5 Customer Service Challenges ......................................................................................................................................................5 Sales Force Automation Challenges..........................................................................................................................................5 Technical Challenges ......................................................................................................................................................................6

Solution Overview .............................................................................................................6 Design Considerations ...................................................................................................................................................................6 Customer Service..............................................................................................................................................................................6 Sales Force Automation.................................................................................................................................................................6

Solution Architecture ........................................................................................................6

Utilizing Microsoft CRM System Entities ........................................................................7 Microsoft CRM: Accounts..............................................................................................................................................................7 Microsoft CRM: Contacts...............................................................................................................................................................8 Microsoft CRM: Opportunities ....................................................................................................................................................9 Microsoft CRM: Cases.................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Utilizing Microsoft CRM Custom Entities .....................................................................11 The Logical: How Custom Entities Meet Somagen’s Business Needs ....................................................................... 11

How Instruments Impact Customer Service ....................................................................................................................11 How Profiles Assist Somagen’s Account Penetration Strategy ................................................................................12

The Practical: Designing and Implementing Somagen’s Custom Entities............................................................... 12 The Instrument Entity ..............................................................................................................................................................12 The Profile Entity .......................................................................................................................................................................13

Solution Benefits..............................................................................................................14 Customer Service Benefits ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Sales Benefits .................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Technical Benefits ......................................................................................................................................................................... 15


Introduction Somagen Diagnostics is a leader in Canada’s medical diagnostics technology industry. A rapidly growing company, Somagen resells medical diagnostic equipment to hospitals, clinics, and laboratories nationwide. Somagen’s revenue is generated primarily from capital sales of medical diagnostic equipment, customer service contract renewals, and the replenishment of the consumables required by the equipment. As Somagen’s business grew in size, it became apparent that an easy-to-use, centralized, collaborative CRM application would be necessary to advance sales and to support excellence in customer service. Shortly thereafter, a partnership was formed with Ideaca Knowledge Services with the specific goal of deploying a complete and successful Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 solution for Somagen’s sales and customer service divisions. This white paper will describe Somagen’s Microsoft CRM solution, the business challenges prior to the solution, the critical elements of the solution architecture, and the benefits for Somagen after implementation.

Business and Technical Challenges Even the most talented individuals and successful organizations can be hampered by ineffective tools and processes. Prior to deploying Microsoft CRM 3.0, Somagen Diagnostics managed proactive and reactive support incidents as well as critical sales data using Microsoft® Office programs in unstructured formats and methods. Before implementing Microsoft CRM, Somagen faced the following challenges.

Customer Service Challenges

Somagen’s central philosophy is to provide superior customer service. Prior to the Microsoft CRM solution, the overall feeling within the organization was that in this respect it was falling behind its competitors. This was attributed to the fact that the existing tools and methods were ineffective and not trusted. Somagen employs highly skilled individuals, and prior to the Microsoft CRM solution, the firm was able to provide excellent customer service. However, employees had to deal with the following major customer service challenges:

• Decentralized field service model

• Minimal service call tracking capabilities

• Increasing dependency on “mindware” (knowledge and experience)

Sales Force Automation Challenges

The greater portion of Somagen business involves working with a relatively static base of customers over a long period of time. Somagen works closely with its customer base to find ways to increase business volume. The tools used prior to the Microsoft CRM solution were not providing sufficient meaningful information or functionality to assist with the goal of increasing business. Specific challenges included:

• Collaboration between lines of business, known as sales product groups (SPG)

• Limited sales opportunity management

6


• Lack of visibility into customer accounts

Technical Challenges

The previous solution at Somagen was unstable, decentralized, and difficult to use. There was little faith throughout the organization in the reliability or feasibility of the solution for its business. No one trusted the solution, so Somagen end-users relied primarily on their own methods of work. Technical challenges included:

• Frequent application crashes

• Critical data localized on end-user machines

• Sluggish performance

• Limited accessibility offline

Solution Overview Prior to customizing and configuring a Microsoft CRM solution for Somagen, Ideaca planned the solution design based on the requirements of Somagen’s business. This approach resulted in a tight fit between application functionality and the needs of the business.

Ideaca implemented the full suite of Microsoft CRM 3.0 for Somagen with a focus on a fully featured customer support and sales opportunity management solution.

Design Considerations

Ideaca scrutinized Somagen’s customer service and sales operations to uncover the specific business challenges detailed above, with an overall goal of addressing these challenges and improving upon existing processes. Because customer service and sales are the most important aspects of Somagen’s business, this was critical to the planning and design phases of the Microsoft CRM implementation.

Customer Service

The Microsoft CRM customer service solution for Somagen includes key features such as field service dispatch coordination, telephone-based troubleshooting, resource scheduling capabilities, and knowledge management.

Sales Force Automation

From the sales perspective, the Microsoft CRM solution allows Somagen to better manage opportunities, profile customers, formulate effective business strategies, and accurately forecast revenue.

Solution Architecture Somagen’s Microsoft CRM solution was a result of first carefully analyzing business requirements and then configuring a Microsoft CRM solution to meet them. How did Ideaca design the solution architecture to provide such an immediate and positive impact for Somagen?


The easy-to-use customization tool kit in Microsoft CRM was utilized to configure a combination of system entities and newly created custom entities into a schema that supported all aspects of Somagen’s business. The Somagen entity relationship diagram (ERD) below illustrates the solution architecture from a high level.

Figure 1. High-level entity relationship diagram for Somagen

Utilizing Microsoft CRM System Entities Microsoft CRM provides a large number of system entities that are configurable at both the schema level (such as new fields and entity relationships) and at the form level (such as field placement and sizing). Somagen’s solution required configuration to several essential system entities, such as Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, and Cases.

Microsoft CRM: Accounts

The Account system entity acts as the anchor for organizations such as Somagen that have relationships with businesses. For the Microsoft CRM solution, Accounts was configured to provide the ability to:

• Further define a customer by facility type (such as Private Lab or Veterinarian).

• Define the nature of the relationship between Somagen and the Account (such as Supplier or Customer).

8


• Segment the customer base using a rating system (A, B, C, …or AA, BB, …).

• Associate medical diagnostic instruments to each customer (parental relationship to Instruments).

• Associate market profiling to each customer record (parental relationship to Profiles).

Figure 2. Microsoft CRM Account Form for Somagen

Microsoft CRM: Contacts

The Contact system entity is the location where individual business contacts are created and managed. To Somagen, these individuals are essential to either sales or customer service, or both. In the Microsoft CRM solution, the Contact entity was modified to provide the ability to:

• Manage key customer sales and service contacts, including their roles.

• Track important manufacturer and vendor contacts.

• Define a contact’s relationship to an Account, an Opportunity, a Case, or an Instrument.

• Create a referential relationship to the Instrument entity.


Figure 3. Microsoft CRM Contact Form for Somagen

Microsoft CRM: Opportunities

The Opportunity system entity is the basis for Somagen sales information. It is essential for managing sales processes and forecasting revenue. The Opportunity entity was configured to include:

• Locations to record both estimated Capital and Consumable revenue

• Four major lifecycle sales stages:

o Discovery

o Advocacy

o Closing

o Supporting

• Locations to record sales product group (SPG) and product line type

• Estimated close percentages

-

10


Figure 4. Microsoft CRM Opportunity Form for Somagen

Microsoft CRM: Cases

The Case system entity is the starting point for customer service incidents, whether they are proactive, such as preventive maintenance, or reactive, such as field repairs. As a critical component of the customer service solution, the Case entity was configured to include:

• Case Types:

o Fixes/Repairs

o Preventative Maintenance (PM)

o Demonstrations/Evaluations/Loaners (Placement)

o Software Upgrades, Internal Setup (can tie into PM)

o Training Scheduling

o Internal Activities

o Technical/Application

• The ability to link responsible Contacts

• Referential relationship to Instruments


Figure 5. Microsoft CRM Case Form for Somagen

Utilizing Microsoft CRM Custom Entities Custom entities are a powerful feature of Microsoft CRM. In essence, they allow the configuration of a solution to meet virtually any business need. With proper planning and design, custom entities can become integral to critical business processes. An important contributor to the success of Somagen’s Microsoft CRM solution was the design, creation, and implementation of custom entities.

The Logical: How Custom Entities Meet Somagen’s Business Needs

Microsoft CRM custom entities have played a major role in the success of the solution for Somagen Diagnostics. Using custom entities, Ideaca was able to tailor Microsoft CRM to fit the needs of the business, resulting in an immediate and tremendous positive impact for both the customer service and sales aspects of Somagen’s business.

How Instruments Impact Customer Service The referential relationship structure between the custom Instrument entity and standard system entities allows for the display of the Instrument Location (Account), the key customer contact (Contact), and any customer service events (Cases) associated with it. Somagen now has the ability to analyze support and service trends right down to unique instruments owned by each customer Account.

12


How Profiles Assist Somagen’s Account Penetration Strategy Somagen now has the tools to profile its customers on an annual basis. These profiles include an assessment of the sales product groups (SPG) that are currently being sold to each account. With this information, Somagen sales personnel have complete visibility into their accounts. Furthermore, as time goes by and the number of profiles per account accumulates, Somagen will be able to analyze account penetration trends and identify new areas in which to expand its business.

The Practical: Designing and Implementing Somagen’s Custom Entities

Ideaca used the Microsoft CRM customization tool kit to create custom entities designed to support the solution. Each custom entity is an essential component of the overall solution schema and critical to Somagen’s business processes. For Somagen’s Microsoft CRM solution, Ideaca created two custom entities: Instrument and Profile.

The Instrument Entity Instruments are custom Microsoft CRM entities created to represent the medical diagnostic equipment sold to Somagen’s customers. They are an essential part of Somagen’s business process because they form a liaison between Somagen sales and customer service.

After a sale is complete, an Instrument is created and linked to the Account that purchased it. Next an individual (Contact) working at the Account is identified and associated to the Instrument. Service issues for each Instrument are recorded by creating Cases against them. The result for Somagen is that they now run detailed reports indicating service Cases and trends against each Instrument for each customer.

As outlined earlier in the Somagen high-level entity relationship diagram, the Instrument entity forms a logical bridge between Accounts, Contacts, and Cases. Important elements of these relationships include:

• Accounts can own one or more Instruments.

• A Contact can be specified as the point of contact for each Instrument.

• One or more Cases can be referenced to an Instrument.

In the entity form design, the Instrument attributes included:

• Area to record unique serial number

• Manufacturer

• Installation date for preventive maintenance cycling

• Hardware and software versioning

• Preventive maintenance detail


Figure 6. Microsoft CRM Instrument Form for Somagen

The Profile Entity Profile is a custom Microsoft CRM entity created to provide a logical location for market profile information about each account from Somagen’s customer base. A key business driver was the requirement to create unique profiles on an annual basis per account. Because more than one custom entity instance can be created per customer, the Profile entity became essential to market profiling.

Design elements of the Profile entity included:

• Segregated Sales Product Group information by tabs

• Sales Product Group in-depth detail

• Many-to-one relationship with Accounts

14


Figure 7. Microsoft CRM Profile Form for Somagen

Solution Benefits When a CRM solution subtly touches a great many aspects of a business, it becomes difficult to directly measure return on investment (ROI). Rather, it is more informative to examine the impact of investment. In this regard, Somagen has seen a dramatic impact on its customer service and sales divisions. The positive impact of investment was noticed almost as soon as the solution was implemented. The benefits are measurable across three major categories: customer service, sales, and technical.

Customer Service Benefits

With the implementation of the Microsoft CRM 3.0 solution, Somagen went from using scattered information management tools and informal customer support processes to utilizing a full-featured customer service telephone support and field service dispatch solution. Highlights of this aspect of the solution include:

Improved support call tracking

Introduction of knowledge management

Improved field service scheduling and collaboration

Introduction of support trend analysis


Sales Benefits

Prior to using the Microsoft CRM solution, the Somagen management and sales divisions had a general idea of where they stood in the market and what was to come in regards to its short-term revenue. The Ideaca solution improved upon these basic requirements by providing an advanced opportunity management and market profiling tool. Somagen sales and management now have the tools at hand to provide a deep understanding of the firm’s current position and strategic direction. Specifically, the major sales benefits introduced by the Microsoft CRM solution were:

Market profiling

Improved opportunity management

Enhanced revenue forecasting

Technical Benefits

The Microsoft CRM solution that Ideaca created for Somagen is stable, accessible, and collaborative. It performs well, is available in an offline environment, is integrated with the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client, and is easily customizable. In addition, it was deployed and configured in less than a week after the appropriate requirements and design elements were finalized. In summary, technical benefits to Somagen include:

Reliability

Works the way Somagen employees do

Accessibility (VPN, offline)

Integration with Outlook

Rapid deployment

Ease of customization

16


The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, this document should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.

This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and

Documents

Customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Complex …hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/cw10.26.06.pdfCUSTOMIZING MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM FOR COMPLEX FIELD SERVICE AND SALES ORGANIZATIONS The easy-to-use