Less is More: Easing New Users into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with a Simpler Experience

When prospects begin using a trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, they get all the features and entities that Microsoft has to offer, including navigation through the more than 30 different record types that they can take ultimately put to use.  But no organization can implement all these different features and data types at once.  Worse yet for Dynamics CRM Online partners, if the prospect or new client can't get a grip on the most critical capabilities, they may dismiss the product as too complex.

Many customers need a simpler experience out of the box with Dynamics CRM. To that end, Zero2Ten has recently introduced SmartStart with the goal of making it easier for customers to begin their CRM journeys. SmartStart reduces the more than 30 record types users see when they launch a CRM trial down to just five. And they have simplified the user experience in the forms, views, dashboards and charts.

But it's also very easy for users to add the additional functionality back in when they need it, according to David Kohar, Chief Customer Officer, Zero2Ten Inc.

"The last couple of years we've been thinking about how we can make Dynamics CRM simpler, kinder, gentler for every organization that we work with because the out-of-the-box solution is great in terms of the functionality that's there and being able to evaluate [exactly what it does]," Kohar said. "But when we move into an implementation people can only do [and remember] so much. Things need to be very simple in order to get adopted. So as part of our implementation strategy, we wanted to [figure out] how to make it simpler for customers to get started and to have ...