Tips for Putting the 'Use' in Microsoft Dynamics CRM User Adoption

As both veteran consultants and customers will tell you, one key to a successful Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation is user adoption. Like most other companies, financial services organizations face challenges getting users to adopt new CRM systems.

At a recent online meeting of the CRM User Group's Financial Services Special Interest Group, members shared some tips and tricks to getting users to more easily adopt Dynamics CRM.

"What we've done to ensure user adoption is institute a policy that if it isn't in the solution it doesn't exist," said one member of the group. "When they're looking at sales activities or promoting a specific process, then the system of record is Dynamics - the solution itself - so they really have to go back and make sure that all of that activity is recorded in the solution. That's one of the primary ways - making sure either through the use of workflows or the use of recording activities, follow-up events, pipelines-that they consistently use that solution as the system of record to record those actvities, those events."

Additionally, senior management has to reinforce the "system of record' policy as well, he said.

User adoption starts in the planning phase, according to the event presenter, Brad Koontz, product manager at Customer Effective.

"We found that it's [important] to have a good champion in the project, who's not only going to be the executive sponsor but also the head cheerleader," he said. "And as part of their cheerleading duties, they need to hammer on the ideas of increasing productivity, saving time, ...