Thoughts on the Dynamics CRM Partner-Customer Relationship At CRMUG Summit 2010

MSDynamicsWorld.com caught up with Scott Sewell, CRM Consultant and project manager for Dynamics partner Customer Effective at CRMUG Summit 2010.  In an interview, he shared his views on the significance of CRM, customization of Microsoft Dynamic CRM, and the relationship between customers and solution providers.

MSDynamicsWorld.com: What does CRM mean, simply put?

Scott: Customer Relationship Management - CRM - at its core is really the traditional customer relationship management, tracking your accounts, your customers, and the interaction and communications with them. The way people at Microsoft see it, is that's so easy to expand and extend that then it allows you to pouring in other things that are related to customers, so you're finding not just who are customers, but what types of businesses are they in.

M: Is there more you can learn about customers/businesses? For example?

S: Not just what are the opportunities, but additional information about what makes up these opportunities. It is an out of the box tool, but it has so much capability to expand. I'm working now with a transportation company (CSX - rail transportation)...The things that CRM developers need from both companies are their different perspectives, and what they are going to see is most important.

M: Who produces the application's core?

S: The core of the application is done by Microsoft.  The specific implementation is up to the consultants the customers use to identify what's exactly driving their specific part of the business. That's important, because what's important to one [customer] may irrelevant to another.  And I think when you get into that cycle, it becomes a ...