Article

Microsoft Dynamics AX Users: Look at the CRM you have before you start shopping

by Murray Fife
Innovation Architect, Fife Consulting Services, LLC

This article is adapted from Murray's eBook Dynamics AX 2012 Blueprints: Configuring Sales and Marketing for CRM.

There has always been a divide between the ERP and CRM systems. All of the business data is relegated to the "Back Office" system, and all of the "Front Office" tracks customer information. As a result, when most Microsoft Dynamics AX customers think about implementing CRM capabilities to extend their existing business systems, they start by looking at all of the standalone CRM products, with the expectation that they will then have to integrate them to share a little information.

But before you start down this well-traveled and potholed road, stop for a minute and look at what you already have within Dynamics AX. The Sales & Marketing module within Dynamics AX is CRM, just by another name. It may be just what you are looking for, and you already own it.  You may even be using some of it inadvertently through the contact management and cases functionality that is pervasive through the system.

Dynamics AX sales and marketing includes all of the common capabilities that you will see within a standalone CRM system, including:

  • Activity Management: You can track tasks, appointments, events, and cases against all of the different contacts and transactions within Sales and Marketing. These can then synchronize with Outlook so that you will always be reminded to tasks and appointments that are created through Dynamics AX for you.
  • Prospects and Relation Tracking: You can track all of your prospects separately through Sales and Marketing so that they don't clutter up your customer master. Additionally, you can segregate different types of prospect through ...

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Customer Engagement Customer Relationship Mgmt Dynamics 365 Dynamics CRM Marketing Sales Sales & Marketing Sales & Ops Planning Telemarketing
About Murray Fife

Murray Fife is a Technical Solution Professional, author of over 25 books on Microsoft Dynamics AX, and the curator of the Dynamics AX Companions (www.dynamicsaxcompanions.com) site which he built from the ground up as a resource for all of the Dynamics AX community where you can find walkthroughs and blueprints that he created since first being introduced to the Dynamics AX product.

Throughout his 25+ years of experience in the software industry he has worked in many different roles during his career, including as a developer, an implementation consultant, a trainer and a demo guy within the partner channel which gives him a great understanding of the requirements for both customers and partners perspective.

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