Could you use CRM as a Business Contact Manager?

[Mike]

Hi,

We are a small non-profit agency, and as such, could purchase Dynamics for a
reasonable price. We are in need of a good business contact manager, not
necessarily for sales. We do small business development, and would like to
enter new clients with demographic information, and keep records of all
correspondence, phone calls, etc with these clients. Be able to create
calendar entries for appointments and such and export them to Outlook, and
generate montly reports of activity and such. I "assume" Dynamics can do all
of this and much more, but wanted to get some expert perspective.

Also, are their field that can be customized fairly easily for things that
might be be in the default product for us to add field specific to our
environment, or do you need to have programming ability to do this?

Thanks for any advice?

Mike

[Dave Ireland]

Hi Mike,

Yes, CRM can do all all of what you need it to do, and it's really quite
good at those 'core' contact management functions.

The out-of-the-box integration with Outlook is nice for keeping your calendar
in sync, and for pushing an email in your inbox up into the CRM with the
click of a button.

Creating new fields and changing the way the data entry forms look is easy,
and you don't need to be a developer to do it. I'd suggest you give it a
try if you have the means. Try the 90-day trial if you're unsure: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a9c110fd-aac8-4d2a-b401-7801b1866e82


Dave Ireland

Post by Mike
Hi,
We are a small non-profit agency, and as such, could purchase Dynamics
for a reasonable price. We are in need of a good business contact
manager, not necessarily for sales. We do small business development,
and would like to enter new clients with demographic information, and
keep records of all correspondence, phone calls, etc with these
clients. Be able to create calendar entries for appointments and such
and export them to Outlook, and generate montly reports of activity
and such. I "assume" Dynamics can do all of this and much more, but
wanted to get some expert perspective.
Also, are their field that can be customized fairly easily for things
that might be be in the default product for us to add field specific
to our environment, or do you need to have programming ability to do
this?
Thanks for any advice?
Mike

[Mike]

Dave,

Thanks so much, I will give it a try.

Mike

Post by Dave Ireland
Hi Mike,
Yes, CRM can do all all of what you need it to do, and it's really quite
good at those 'core' contact management functions.
The out-of-the-box integration with Outlook is nice for keeping your calendar
in sync, and for pushing an email in your inbox up into the CRM with the
click of a button.
Creating new fields and changing the way the data entry forms look is easy,
and you don't need to be a developer to do it. I'd suggest you give it a
try if you have the means. Try the 90-day trial if you're unsure: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a9c110fd-aac8-4d2a-b401-7801b1866e82
Dave Ireland

Post by Mike
Hi,
We are a small non-profit agency, and as such, could purchase Dynamics
for a reasonable price. We are in need of a good business contact
manager, not necessarily for sales. We do small business development,
and would like to enter new clients with demographic information, and
keep records of all correspondence, phone calls, etc with these
clients. Be able to create calendar entries for appointments and such
and export them to Outlook, and generate montly reports of activity
and such. I "assume" Dynamics can do all of this and much more, but
wanted to get some expert perspective.
Also, are their field that can be customized fairly easily for things
that might be be in the default product for us to add field specific
to our environment, or do you need to have programming ability to do
this?
Thanks for any advice?
Mike

.

[AdamV]

I agree with Dave, Dynamics CRM sounds ideally suited to your described
needs. The fact that you can do a lot of the customisation for
yourselevs is a huge bonus - if you manage to purchase the platform
cheaply in the first place you don't want to spend loads of money on
consultancy.

Speaking of which, as a not-for-profit you might be able to get a
friendly neighbourhood firm to help you get over some of the initial
hurdles on a pro-bono basis. Whereabouts in the world are you?

Adam Vero
MCT, MCSA, MS Business Management Solutions Specialist (CRM 4.0)

E: firstname dot surname at meteorit.co.uk

Post by Mike
Dave,
Thanks so much, I will give it a try.
Mike

Post by Dave Ireland
Hi Mike,
Yes, CRM can do all all of what you need it to do, and it's really quite
good at those 'core' contact management functions.
The out-of-the-box integration with Outlook is nice for keeping your calendar
in sync, and for pushing an email in your inbox up into the CRM with the
click of a button.
Creating new fields and changing the way the data entry forms look is easy,
and you don't need to be a developer to do it. I'd suggest you give it a
try if you have the means. Try the 90-day trial if you're unsure: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a9c110fd-aac8-4d2a-b401-7801b1866e82
Dave Ireland

Post by Mike
Hi,
We are a small non-profit agency, and as such, could purchase Dynamics
for a reasonable price. We are in need of a good business contact
manager, not necessarily for sales. We do small business development,
and would like to enter new clients with demographic information, and
keep records of all correspondence, phone calls, etc with these
clients. Be able to create calendar entries for appointments and such
and export them to Outlook, and generate montly reports of activity
and such. I "assume" Dynamics can do all of this and much more, but
wanted to get some expert perspective.
Also, are their field that can be customized fairly easily for things
that might be be in the default product for us to add field specific
to our environment, or do you need to have programming ability to do
this?
Thanks for any advice?
Mike

.