Dynamics AX 2009 CRM Implementation : The fit gap analysis

Dynamics AX 2009 CRM Implementation

The fit gap analysis and solutions

Julien-Robert Lecadou

[email protected]

For Ella Nooren (2012) “Customer Relationship Marketing can be described as the practice of using marketing activities to establish, develop, and maintain successful long-term customer relationships. CRM has numerous implications for market planning, employee training, advertising, promotion, public relations, direct marketing, package design, and more.” In this paper, we focused our attentions into the fit gap analysis and solutions related to the CRM implementation. This fit gap analysis is part of a broad range of activities that are needed to be processed in order to design, develop and deploy a CRM application. We attended several meetings with the stakeholders in order to implement the solutions. And during those meetings, we understood that every CRM solution is unique and it should be tailored to the company overall business process and culture.

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Dynamics AX 2009 CRM implementation: the Fit gap analysis and solutions

CRM Implementation on Dynamics AX 2009

Background

The company has decided to develop a CRM application following several problems. Among such

include:

- Improve communication channel and tools both internally and externally.

Internally among departments and externally with business relations.

- The lack of marketing automation tools (lead qualifying tool and process)

- Insufficient knowledge base management application that will assist the sales agent with

questions such as: who is the customer? What are their demographics? Who is the decision

maker in the company? Is the contact person loyal to the company?

Objective

- Being able to create and send quotations to customers quickly

- Being able to synchronize emails between Dynamics AX 2009 and Outlook 2010

- Allow dynamics AX to synchronize documents with designed customer’s account

- Create strong customer qualification process.

- Implement an Alert and Reminder system that will keep the users alert and pro-active.

Methodology and Scope of this paper

A Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation generally uses the Microsoft Dynamics SureStep

implementation methodology.


According to the SureStep methodology, the Analysis, Design, Development, Deployment and

Operation phases represent the five phases of solution delivery, with the Operation phase also

encompassing post-delivery activities, covering the transition of the production solution to support.

Solution Delivery Project Types: The Sure Step Methodology offers the following project types for

Implementation and Upgrade.

The Standard project type is a lean approach for implementing Microsoft Dynamics

solutions at a single site.

The Rapid project type depicts an accelerated approach for implementing Microsoft

Dynamics solutions with minimal or no customizations.

The Enterprise project type represents a standardized approach for implementing Microsoft

Dynamics solutions in complex single-site deployments, or in global/multi-site organization

wherein country/site specific unique business needs have to be factored on top of a core

solution.

The Agile project type represents an iterative approach to implementing Microsoft Dynamics

Solutions at a single site requiring specific features and moderate-to-complex customizations.

While the Standard, Rapid, Enterprise and Upgrade project types are waterfall-based, the Agile

project type uses the Sprint cycle approach to solution deployment.

The Upgrade project type describes the approach to progress an existing Microsoft Dynamics

solution to a subsequent release of that solution. This approach starts with a Technical Upgrade

to address moving existing functionality to the subsequent release. Any new functionality

desired can then be deployed using the above project types, Rapid, Standard, Agile or

Enterprise.

To successfully implement this project, we will use the agile project type.


Below is the process of the solution delivery.

Architecture, Design Review and Offering Overview

For the purpose of this paper, the scope of this implementation will be focused on the Fit gap analysis

and solutions.


Fit Gap analysis and Solutions

Kickoff Meeting

A kickoff meeting revealed the following expectations from the stakeholders (Vice President, Sales

Department, Marketing Department, IT team, controller):

a) Email synchronization between Dynamics AX and Outlook 2010

b) Quick quotations and notes

c) Documentation synchronization

d) Prospect qualification process

e) Alert and reminders

f) Call Center

g) Campaign management

h) Lead management

PROBLEM 1: using outlook 2010 for email, task and appointments notification

The heavy reliance on MS Outlook as a communication tools has some benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of Using MS Outlook 2010

The main benefit of using Outlook is that the users are able to access their emails online and offline.

MS Outlook’s calendar application can be used as an appointment reminder and can be set to schedule

recurring events such as weekly meeting on Friday and weekly accounts review by the sales

representative. Outlook is also shipped with Task and a Contact Management application.

Most people who use MS Outlook find it flexible and versatile.


Challenge when using Microsoft Outlook 2010

Even though MS Outlook offers lots of benefits to its users, it is not CRM software thus could not

deliver the following value:

- Assist the Customer Service staff in their daily activities

- There is no integration between Outlook and the company’s inventory and sales database

- Data and documents within Outlook database are not organized by customers.

- A marketing campaign cannot effectively be run on MS Outlook 2010 because even if the

users can send email to customers, it is not possible to measure the efficiency of the campaign.

- It is not possible to manage leads or to render a prospect qualification process.

Solutions to the Gap

With the CRM implementation, MS Outlook 2010 will continue to be the main software to

communicate with the business relations (including current customers, prospects and vendors)

but a synchronization tool will have to be built.

Recommendation to implement the Solution

From MS Outlook 2010, the users can send email, schedules appointments (meetings etc...), set tasks

and make calls. The synchronization tool in MS Dynamics AX 2009 will update the business relations

records (customers, contacts, customers, vendors) with the relevant activities and information.


Synchronization Process

Microsoft Dynamics AX already contains the tools that allow the synchronization of Appointment,

Task and contacts with Microsoft Outlook.

Practical Scenario

Let’s assume that a sales agent made several email exchanges with a customer during a day using

Microsoft Outlook 2010. During these exchanges, they talked about a specific sales order.

The sales agent continued with its daily activities and handled several other communications during

that day.

Few days later, the customer calls back to follow up with his/her sales order. How will the sales agents

handle the customer’s request?

Situation 1: without synchronization between Outlook and Dynamics AX 2009

If there is no integration between Outlook and Dynamics 2009, here is how the sales agents will

handle the customers:

- Check Microsoft Outlook to see what the customer’s request was about and check Microsoft

Dynamics AX 2009 to know the status of the sales order.

MS Outlook 2010

Send email Schedule Meeting Set task Make call

Synchronization

sync with customer emailsync appointments,tasks and calls as activities

Dynamics AX 2010

Appointment TasksContact Management ( on demand only)


- Then, give the customer the appropriate response according to the status of the sales orders.

This scenario gives us the full perspective about the limitations of a non-synchronized system:

- The process of retrieving customer emails from outlook can be cumbersome and could take

more time than expected.

- The fact that MS Outlook is personal and email exchanges are not shared within users, if the

sales agents did not update the customer’s request in the sales order, none of its colleagues will

do so, because they are not aware of the customer’s request.

Situation 2: with synchronization between Outlook and Dynamics AX 2009

When there is synchronization between Microsoft Dynamics AX and Outlook 2010 the following

events happen:

- Every communication (emails, calls using PBX) are synchronized with Microsoft Dynamics

AX 2009. Moreover, if the user chooses the share option after the synchronization, the

customer’s request will be available for any users who have the permission to view it.

- Unlike the first scenario, all emails from this customer will be attached to the customer’s

“folder” in the database. This will allow a quick retrieval of the customer’s request and ensure

a better customer experience.

Problem 2: Using Outlook for Quick Quotation

Benefit: To send a quick quote, the sales agent sends an email to the customer or to the prospect. This

operation usually takes less than 1min so, it is very fast. The advantage of Outlook 2010 against

Dynamics AX 2009 is that sending email from Microsoft Dynamics AX requires several steps that the

sales and marketing teams want to avoid.


Gap: there is no organized way to follow up with the prospect or customer using Outlook 2010.

Solution to the Gap

The implementation team will build a quick quotation form in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 using the

most important feature of Outlook 2010 that is sending emails.

Using this form, it will take less than a minute for a sales representative to send a quotation to a

prospect or a customer.

Benefit of the solution: using MS Dynamics AX 2009 to make a quotation

By using Dynamics AX 2009, users will be able to keep the record of the quotation in the database for

further use:

- Using the follow up function the sales team ( or assigned users) will be able to follow up with

prospect about a quotation

- Using the alerts and reminders functionality the system can trigger several other activities in

order to make this opportunity a successful one.

- The CRM can allow a further lead nurturing and more.

Problem 3: Documentation synchronization

A document synchronization application is a technology that is used to organize the company

business relations documents into a database (repository). Currently, there is no document

synchronization application.


With this application, emails containing important documents such as invoices, ASN (Advance

Shipment Notice), and customer balance reports are sent directly from MS Dynamics AX 2009 to the

customers.

Benefit of the Document synchronization

The most important benefit of this synchronization is that every document sent to a business relation is

attached to that entity “folder” in the system (MS Dynamics AX 2009 database). This allows a quick

retrieval of the documents and makes the customer service department more proactive and more

efficient.

Problem4: Prospect Qualification Process

The company marketing division has an internal process to qualify a prospect as a customer. A

Prospect is a potential customer.

The company’s challenges are:

- It is difficult and complex to capture and retain customers in a highly competitive environment.

- The sales pipeline should contain well qualified leads.

As of today, we suggest the following solution to the marketing team as steps to follow to

qualify a prospect as a customer:

Solution

Level 1: Create a Business Record

At this phase the user will create a record for the customer. We all agree that by creating this

record, the prospect is fully qualified to be registered in the system.


At the time of the creation of the new prospect record, the system should check for duplicates.

Level 2: Send information and make contact

This step is reached when a contact has been made with the prospect and/or information about

the company has been sent to the customer.

Level 3: Send Quote

A Prospect reaches this step if only a quotation has been sent to him /her.

Level 4: Send Sample

The sample level is optional because a Prospect can be converted into a customer without

requesting a sample.

Level 5: convert to customer

This is the last step where the prospect is converted into a customer and this also marks the end of the

qualification prospect.

A subsequent task can be done here: Check Prospect credit worthiness. If the prospect is credit worthy,

the sales department can decide to grant a credit line to the customer, if not, the new customer has to

pay in advance.


Business process diagram of the solution

Most modern marketing teams use Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) and workflow

management software to render their daily marketing activities. The leaders in that industry are IBM,

Microsoft, Oracle and OpenText according to Forrester (2013).

This category of software gives lots of control to an organization’s workflow management in general

and a better customer retention to the marketing team in particular. But they are expensive and for a

small marketing team, it can be overwhelming if there are too many validations.

During the discussion with the marketing team, it was clear that they were looking for a lightweight

application. For Margaret Rouse (2005) “In information technology, the term lightweight is

sometimes applied to a program, protocol, device, or anything that is relatively simpler or faster or that

has fewer parts than something else.”

Based on these new requirements, our implementation strategy is now focused on delivering a

lightweight application. This application should be fast, intuitive and would require less validation to


suit the user’s needs. But a lightweight does not mean that the application should be simplistic. We

will make sure that the application responds to the following constraints:

- Security using Windows Active directory

- Sandboxed into Microsoft Dynamics AX

- Using Dynamics AX permission

- Work under the user profile and the user preferences

- Windows authentication


Implementation of the Solution using model diagram

Level 1: Create a Business Relation record

The process starts when the sales agent receives a list of names also called Leads (companies or

contact persons). The sales agent evaluates the contact based on several criteria put in place by the

company and also based on his own experience. At this step, it is not forbidden to initiate a contact (a

phone call or an email) with the name.

Once, the sales agent finds that it’s worthy to qualify the Names as a business relation; he/she will go

ahead and create the business relation record. This marks the end of the level 1.

Level 2: Send information and make contact

The second step of the prospect qualification process starts as soon as the Name is qualified as a

prospect and a record is created.


At this step, the sales agent will initiate a formal contact with the new prospect and he/ she will take

that opportunity to present the company and its products. The sales will make sure to understand the

prospect business and which specific product can fit its needs.

A Prospect can also be dropped out from the company’s business relation records if the sales agents

think that after the initial contacts with the prospect, it is not worth following this lead.

Let’s assume everything goes well. The sales agent could schedule more meetings with the prospect

and during those meetings he /she could make some demos or drop some samples.

Sometimes, the Prospect wants a specific bag but this bag is not currently manufactured by the

company. The sales agent will take the chance of a sales call to gather the specifications of this

potential item or guide the prospect on how to use the online plastics bags customization tools.


But if after the demos, meetings and sales calls the prospect is still not inserted to be our customer, the

prospect is sent to the “lead to nurturing” process.

Level 3 and 4: Send quote, sample and convert prospect

At the level 3 the sales agent will send a quotation to the prospect. And if a sample is needed after the

prospect qualification process is sent to level 4. Then if the prospect wants to buy from the company,

the prospect is converted into a customer.


Risks associated with the implementation CRM

CRM Critical success factors

- Management involvement (executive commitment)

- Management Risk ( minimize risk exposure)

- Data integrity ( common across the enterprise)

- Security Management

- culture shift ( from product centric to Customer centric)

- Performance metrics (determine metrics / establish baseline)

- Business Process Management

CRM implementation risk exposure

Implementation risk diagram

CRM Risk exposure

Change Management

Success Criteria

Scope Management

Roles & Responsabilities

Stackholder management

Vision and Strategy


Conclusion

Customer relationship management (CRM) helps companies unlock the full value of their relationship

assets, accelerating revenue and profit growth. The core processes of a customer relationship

management system merge the so-called islands of relationship information into one comprehensive

database.

In this paper, we focused our attentions into the fit gap analysis and solutions related to the CRM

implementation. This fit gap analysis is part of a broad range of activities that are needed to be

processed in order to design, develop and deploy a CRM application.

We attended several meetings with the stakeholders in order to implement the solutions. And during

those meetings, we understood that every CRM solution is unique and it should be tailored to the

company overall business process and culture.

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Education

Dynamics AX 2009 CRM Implementation : The fit gap analysis