How do you gain intelligence from your Dynamics investment? Where to really begin

Maybe you're live with Microsoft Dynamics right now and wondering, "Where are my fancy dashboards?" Or maybe you're going live in the next few months, struggling with the load of the conference room pilot and hoping there will be a shiny BI story at the end of "the valley of despair" in which you find yourself.

When it comes to business intelligence and reporting technologies for Dynamics ERP and CRM, there are so many options, you can get lost in the wilderness.  What most people don't know is that successful BI stories actually start before selecting the technology. They start with answering the question, "What am I trying to do or see?" And they start by throwing out the conventional wisdom, debunking the myths, and focusing on what's possible here and now.

The most successful business intelligence projects start with answering 3 simple questions

First thing, take a deep breath. Now write this down: "We are not trying to achieve everything at once."

Now you can get a grip on the areas of your business that demand the most attention first. Typically,   this is sales enablement for most companies, depending on their maturity cycle relating to data and intelligence. Work with your team to answer the following questions:

1. What user roles, like VP of Sales or Customer Service rep, are being targeted?
2. For these roles, what questions do they need to answer on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis?
3. For these roles, how do they need to access their data - on their PCs, smartphones, or both?

The answers to these questions should be very straightforward, only requiring about ...