Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM…Without the Marketing and Sales Functionality

It may seem at first glance like a contradiction in terms-using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for non-sales and non-marketing functionality-but more companies than you might think are doing it.

Take NEPC, LLC, a Cambridge, MA, investment advisory firm. It implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 this past December to help it monitor the mutual funds and investment firms it works with. It keeps tabs on their investment performance, personnel, and other changes, and uses the system to continually monitor changes.

"We knocked all the sales functionality out of" Dynamics CRM, says Rob Norcross, a business systems analyst at the firm, who attended a New England CRM User Group session Wednesday.

He notes that the firm doesn't do "sales" in the conventional sense, instead relying heavily for new clients on referrals from existing clients.

A number of different organizations use Dynamics CRM for non-sales tasks. Matt Panzano, a consultant with Tribridge, a Microsoft Dynamics partner firm who presented at the CRM User Group, said he worked with an oil driller that used Dynamics CRM to follow the maintenance requirements of gears in drilling equipment. A police department uses it for keeping tabs of arrest warrants, and for following drug dealers and other area criminals.

"They need to do stuff and track of stuff," says Panzano. "The combination is really powerful."