Architects who have chosen Dynamics CRM should consider what supplementary solutions will make Dynamics more relevant and central for their organisations. Dynamics can solve many architectural problems in the area of Customer Management, but not all of them alone. For example, if you are using Dynamics to manage a customer service desk, you may lack the functionality to assign service activities from a general queue to the specific queues of individual agents in your organisation.
In this case, consider implementing a BPM solution such as PNMsoft's Sequence Kinetics, in order to add that functionality without writing thousands of lines of code. See more information.
Sequence Kinetics includes out-of-the-box Dynamics CRM integration activities, so adding workflow behavior to CRM is not difficult.
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Another area where your CRM architecture solution can benefit from a supplement is in sales funnel management. A BPM suite which is integrated tightly with your CRM can escalate sales activities throughout your entire organisation, especially for cases which diverge from the standard CRM functionality, such as when a customised demo or sales session is required. A BPM process can be designed to handle such out of the ordinary situations and ensure that team members complete tasks even when they are non-standard or need to be modified ad hoc. A CRM-BPM solution can mean that you avoid adding yet another bespoke system (which is not CRM-integrated) to your architecture.
A primary architectural consideration when adding functionality to Dynamics is where users will manage the new functionality. In general two options exist: a) within the CRM itself b) in a secondary interface, such as SharePoint.
A good BPM solution should provide for both options. Depending on the case, either option can be the optimal choice. Typically, for employees who are using the CRM on a daily basis, option a) would be better, since they do not have to enter a second interface. Option b) might be better for administrators to manage aspects of the solution which go beyond CRM, solutions which involve document management (a SharePoint strength), or that are connected to other systems (such as ERP).
To sum up, Dynamics CRM is a great start toward better management of customer relations, but it’s only a start. A complete architecture will generally involve the addition of supplementary solutions such as BPM.
Eli Stutz
Head of Knowledge and Collaboration, PNMsoft
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