Just as a building is stronger with a properly built foundation, your customer relationship management (CRM) solution delivers better results when it can draw on the features and familiar user interfaces of Microsoft's core productivity and desktop applications. In Summary:If your company is still considering whether to upgrade to Windows Vista and the 2007 releases of the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server, you might want to figure the prospect of improved customer service into your decision. From the start, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 integrated with Microsoft Office to deliver CRM business application functionality through the familiar Office user interface. "The functionality isn't hidden or hard to [find], and it doesn't require [employees] to open yet another application," says Microsoft account technical specialist Joel Roetzer. However, the 2007 Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange releases offer even more CRM-friendly features—and Windows Vista works with Microsoft Dynamics CRM in ways that Windows XP does not. Together, they form a powerful foundation that adds value to your CRM business application solution. Windows Vista: Live updates at a glanceWindows Vista allows you to view CRM documents and files without opening them. As well, you can flip through multiple open windows on the desktop to find relevant information quickly, without hopping between applications, Roetzer points out. More important, Windows Vista can help you track the performance of your company's latest marketing campaign or monitor call center trends in real time. This is possible through Windows Vista Gadgets, mini programs built into the operating system that give you information at a glance, says Michael Rich, senior product marketing manager for the Microsoft CRM global business group. You can create gadgets that feed a steady stream of sales, marketing, and customer service data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the desktop in the form of graphical key performance indicators (KPIs). Gadgets provide busy executives with an instant overview of the latest information and trends, with no need to launch any applications at all. Office: Enhanced tools provide easier access to BI dataIt's always been easy to export data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Excel, but business decision makers don't always have the technological or statistical background to interpret the data so that they can act on it. With the automatic data formatting capabilities of Excel 2007, your employees don't need to be mathematicians or programmers to turn data into business intelligence, Rich says. Instead, they can make quick sense of trends and patterns through graphs, icons, and other handy visualization tools.
The new Office Fluent user interface includes the Ribbon, Microsoft Office button, Galleries, and other tools to make information easy to find, format, and share. Your employees can access CRM data through this improved user interface in Excel or from any other application in the 2007 Office system. They can also view customer information from within Outlook 2007, with no need to cut and paste or switch among multiple windows. This level of integration reduces the chance that someone will send the wrong information, contact the wrong person, or forget to schedule a customer meeting. Exchange: Deeper customer communications analysisMicrosoft Exchange Server 2007 brings the flexibility and speed of unified messaging to CRM, with the ability to access voice messages from your Outlook 2007 inbox. Your employees can then capture customer information conveyed in phone calls as well as in e-mail messages. This additional information can help you develop a better understanding of your customers' needs. For example, your company may discover that your customers give more detailed feedback by phone than by e-mail, or that searching the content of voice messages helps call center employees verify orders before shipping. "All the ways that Exchange manages communication are integral to CRM," says Christian Pedersen, senior director for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Pedersen says that Microsoft will soon add tools to log instant messages and voice-over-IP calls, which will make Exchange a completely integrated way to capture and evaluate all types of customer conversations. "You don't want to have to change your business processes to fit the technology," Roetzer says. "You want a well-integrated environment that fits the technology into your existing processes so your employees can connect to advanced functionality, like CRM, through a familiar front end. With Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and Microsoft Exchange, you have a foundation that supports your CRM efforts and helps employees work more efficiently.
 | Fawn Fitter is a freelance writer in San Francisco who specializes in business and technology. She contributes regularly to the Microsoft Midsize Business Center. |
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