It's surprising that now, even after several years in the marketplace, there are so few add-on products for Microsoft CRM. There's a crying need for more. We're still looking for a good expense reporting system that works with CRM, for example. Now that the Enterprise version supports multi-currency, how about a real-time, automated system to update exchange rates? How about an automated way to check and update zip codes and postal codes? Maybe we've missed these. Certainly, there are good add-ons under development and still under our radar.
There is no one, good consolidated place to find all the CRM add-ons, so in conjunction with the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 For Dummies, we've created a site to review the contenders and the pretenders. Check out www.consultcoreadd-ons.html. To cull the list in this chapter to approximately ten (depending on how you count), we established several criteria for making selections, including the following:
General applicability: CRM is about managing prospect and client data. And it's about making it easier for a team of users to work together. If an add-on module didn't address one or both of these issues, it didn't make the cut.
Integration with Microsoft CRM: Many vendors advertise their products as Microsoft CRM add-ons even when little, if any, integration exists. If there's little integration or no apparent reason for the integration, the product didn't make the cut.
History of and support from a vendor: The CRM dealer industry is still a bit of a cottage industry, with dealers coming and going. Often, a vendor writes a custom application for one client and then decides to offer it as a general product to an unsuspecting public. We've tried to check out the vendors and their motivations as well. Evaluating motivation, of course, is much more subjective than the first two criteria.
Updated for Version 4: Some of the less popular add-ons for versions 1 or 3 haven't been overhauled for version 4. Any add-on we mention here works with version 4.
Just because a product doesn't appear in this chapter doesn't mean that you shouldn't be interested in it. The product may not have been available for review at the time of this writing, or it may be of special interest to your company but not of more general interest. And, conversely, just because a product appears in this chapter doesn't mean that you should buy it without further evaluation.
Warning
Many developers put out advertising materials on products that they're thinking about developing. That is known as vaporware. Before plunking down your hard-earned money, make sure that the product exists and has documentation and support — maybe even a reference site or two. The consultcore site referenced previously attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff for you.
Microsoft CRM doesn't include any spell-checking or grammar-checking features, and these are among the most asked-for applications. Google comes to the rescue, and the price is right — free. Because almost everyone likes "free," Google's spell-checker tops our list.
The Google Toolbar's spell-checker feature can correct most spelling mistakes you make when you type into a Web form, including Web-based e-mail, discussion forums, and even intranet Web applications. Of course, if you type "to" instead of "too," there's still no help for you. And, if your notion of grammar has always prevented you from writing something as complex and sophisticated as a For Dummies book, this tool won't help you either.
To run Google spell-checker, go to www.google.com, install the Google Toolbar, and click the Check button on your toolbar. Spell-checker sends text for review to Google's servers, so it catches and highlights any incorrect spellings.
Google's spell-checker feature automatically corrects your spelling if you click the arrow to the right of the Check button and select click AutoFix. Don't worry; if Google spell-checker isn't sure, it highlights the words it's unsure of and allows you to correct them yourself.
Workflow and escalation (also known as automated processes) functionality is built into Microsoft CRM. And it has even been enhanced for version 4. With workflow, you can automate a variety of business rules, processes, and alerts. However, Microsoft's workflow integrates only with the files (entities) that are part of Microsoft CRM. Workflow can't trigger activity based on data that might be in an accounting system or in an HR system.
Sometimes it's important to base your automated decisions on data outside CRM. If you want your salespeople to be notified when one of their accounts is overdue with its payments, for example, you'll want one of the add-on products cited in this section. If you want to focus on client retention, one of these add-ons may also be on your short list of add-ons.
There are two add-on packages that provide this additional functionality and, in fact, go well beyond the features and functions that come out of the box with Microsoft CRM. KnowledgeSync, from Vineyardsoft (which you can find online at www.vineyardsoft.com), has been around for many years integrating with many earlier CRM systems. TaskCentre (can you tell from the spelling?) is a more recent entrant from the U.K. (Go to www.orbis-software.com for more information on TaskCentre.) Both require some self-paced or Web-based training before you can expect to become proficient.
KnowledgeSync v7 is a business-activity monitoring application that detects and responds to critical, time-sensitive data in Microsoft CRM, in incoming e-mail, and in many other applications. KnowledgeSync v7 updates Microsoft CRM, other databases, and users (through e-mail, faxes, pagers, and the Web) with critical information. KnowledgeSync comes with many canned alerts (called EventPaks). To develop a customized alert, you may want to find a specialist — probably a Vineyardsoft partner.
KnowledgeSync can easily alert you to a variety of conditions within your database. Here are a few examples:
A forecasted sale is suddenly overdue.
A lead distributed to an outside salesperson hasn't been pursued.
Money has come in (or has not come in) from a client.
A request was made from your Web site by a prospect and the system has responded by sending literature and scheduling you to follow up.
A deal was closed.
TaskCentre, from Orbis Software, is functionally similar to KnowledgeSync, but it's a bit more graphical.
According to Microsoft, c360's productivity packs are included in about half of Microsoft CRM implementations. c360 packages groups of utilities into three productivity packs: a Core Productivity Pack, a Sales Productivity Pack, and a Service Productivity Pack.
The Core Productivity Pack includes the following:
A utility for combining multiple screen views into one screen to reduce the number of clicks to get from one screen to another.
Duplicate record detection across multiple record types. For example, if you enter a new lead record for ABC Corp., it can check to make sure that ABC Corp. doesn't already exist as an account record.
Alerts that trigger pop-up windows based on any type of record.
Roll-up summaries for all record types. A roll-up summary, by the way, compiles results from separate but related records.
Relationship charting to see how various records in the database relate to each other.
E-mail linking that simplifies connecting an e-mail to a CRM record.
The Sales Productivity Pack includes:
An enhancement to CRM's forecasting.
A connection to your Web site to automate creating and updating records. This is particularly useful if you combine this automation with workflow to automatically respond to inquiries.
The Service Productivity Pack includes:
The ability to link e-mails to cases.
A workplace configuration that enhances the use of queues.
In particular, if you want to integrate your Web site with your CRM system, c360 has a Web connector for you. This is traditionally one of the most compelling integrations for any CRM package. You want your clients and prospects to go to your Web site and make inquiries and request downloads. And, just as important, you want to know about it. c360's Web site (www.c360.com, (678) 781-3189) provides a nice tour of all features of their Web Connector and all their other products.
Several Microsoft competitors have positioned themselves against Microsoft CRM by claiming that Microsoft's product isn't vertically oriented, meaning that it has no solutions for particular industries. And in most cases, they're right — as long as you don't look at all the rapidly developing third-party products.
Powertrak, from Axonom {www.axonom.com, (952) 653-0351}, for example, provides industry-specific templates extending the range of Microsoft CRM. They have modules for advanced marketing, technical case management, call centers, multichannel portals, e-commerce, and time and billing. The real news here may be the templates for retail and financial organizations, nonprofit associations, and high-tech manufacturing. In particular, the wealth management system (which features house-holding, a method of rolling related peoples' accounts into one view) is of interest.
Scribe's main claim to fame is its ability to gather data from other applications and get it into CRM. In versions 1 and 3 of CRM, Microsoft's built-in utility was almost too weak to be useful. Scribe answered that call.
If the truth is to be told, Microsoft has strengthened its own import utility, but many migrations still need more.
And Scribe (you can find their Web site at www.scribesoftware.com) is still there providing that additional strength that seems to be needed in the majority of implementations. Although Microsoft has addressed the duplicate-record issue, we still almost alway need the ability to reformat data or apply some kind of math to incoming data fields.
Scribe is available as a short-term (60-day) license, if all you need is some initial assistance with data migration. If your requirements are of an ongoing nature, Scribe offers a permanent license as well.
Every once in a while, it's nice to have a coach sitting on your shoulder whispering advice in your ear just when you want it. That's what CanDoGo (at www.candogo.com) does. They've assembled a world-renowned team of sales, marketing, and business experts who've written and recorded snippets of advice. So, when you get stuck or frustrated, you can press a button and search for just the snippet you may need.
This really comes under the heading of training, but it's so task-specific that we hesitate to call it training — although it could be.
Microsoft CRM allows you to relate contacts to accounts and, in fact, records in nearly every entity to records in other entities: one-to-one and many-to-one and even many-to-many. The problem is that sometimes you want to see graphically how various records relate to one another. A good example is an organizational chart: If you want a traditional org chart, SalesCentric (at www.salescentric.com) provides that functionality.
On the other hand, if you'd like a full set of dashboard displays, FusionCharts (at www.fusioncharts.com) fits that bill. With FusionCharts, you (or your dealer) can develop a series of realtime pie and line charts that show critical CRM or other data. A useful example might be the display of your sales pipeline showing upcoming sales in various categories.
We haven't used the Neocase add-on ourselves, but according to Neocase (at www.neocase.com), their customer service module is an on-demand or an on-premise customer service solution that maximizes the productivity and quality of customer service through collaboration, self service, knowledge management, partner centers, and advanced workflow management with strict adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).
What we particularly like is the self-service component of the system. In self-service systems, clients can use the Web to look up the status of their orders or their customer service issues. Each client doesn't have to have a CRM license in order to do so. If you have a large number of clients often making inquiries about their order status, or if you just need a more sophisticated approach to Microsoft's Customer Service module, Neocase might be your ticket.