How does Microsoft CRM Online compare to SalesForce.com? Below is a summary of the features. functions and pricing of each solution. To learn more about Microsoft CRM, please call Beringer Associates at 800.796.4854 or email us at sales@beringer.net . 

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Language Pack, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-mail Router. For more information about this release, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 970141. To maintain parity between the the application components of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, this update rollup includes packages for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Language Packs, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-mail Router.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5101d801-976b-4c11-bdfc-000b970ef4a3

Beringer Associates, Inc.

www.beringer.net | sales@beringer.net | 800.796.4854

AAA South Jersey, an affiliate of AAA offers automotive, travel, financial and insurance services to drivers throughout southern New Jersey. They needed a CRM platform that could be cost effectively tailored to their unique needs.

“We manage a significant amount of data across several lines of business, the challenge is that this data is fragmented across different databases making it difficult to get a complete picture of our members. We need a solution that allows us to centralize our data in one place to be able to operate more efficiently and provide better service to our members. We also need a solution that will improve our ability to cross promote our different products and services better demonstrating the overall value in AAA membership.” Joan Sickler, Managing Director – Projects.

The Choice was Clear

“We evaluated several solutions but selected Microsoft CRM because it offered the most value for our investment. Microsoft CRM is highly configurable to meet our needs and is built on an open platform reducing our total cost of ownership long term. It also plugs into the systems we already use today such as Microsoft office and Outlook reducing the learning curve for our users and decreasing the time to value.”

Why Beringer Associates

Beringer took the time upfront to fully understand our business and our needs. They began with a tailored demonstration that let us see how CRM would fit into our environment and solve the challenges we were experiencing. They also performed a very thorough needs analysis and project planning engagement enabling us to collectively develop a detailed scope of work that will assure the solution is delivered on time, within budget and that it meets our needs. Beringer has the experience and resources to help us assure a successful implementation.”

Expected business benefits

“The MRM (Member Relationship Management) solution will allow us to bring together information that was previously stored in separate databases making our staff more productive and enabling our team to provide better service to our members. It will also allow us to capitalize on cross promoting our products and services to both members and prospective members. The Microsoft CRM solution will give us much better analysis capabilities using powerful reporting and graphical dash boarding tools. We also see significant value in deploying workflow that will allow us to ensure best practices are followed in every member interaction.”

“We are very excited to partner with AAA South Jersey to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft CRM gives us a solid platform to build a solution that addresses AAA’s member relationship management goals.” David J. Buggy, Vice President/Partner, Beringer Associates, Inc.

For more information on AAA South Jersey visit their web site or call 1-888-577-9222

For more information on Beringer Associates visit www.beringer.net or call 800-796-4854

Technical Specifications:

• Ac Power Adapter
• Wall mount bracket kit

For more information contact Beringer Associates at 800-796-4854 or visit on-line at  (www.beringer.net).

You must ask yourself what changes you have made to your business to adapt to the current economic climate. If you cannot answer this question you may be behind the eight ball. The current climate is not that of previous years and not where we will be in the future, we are in a period of transition and must change our businesses to adapt. 

CRM is one strategic initiative that can help your business adopt change quicker and with less disruption. It will not only help you make necessary changes now but will position you to capitalize when things turn around.  

We work with many businesses each year to help them plan and execute their CRM initiative. We interact with business leaders across many different industries facing different challenges. Most have some commonality today; weathering the current economic storm and preparing their business for when things turn. In this article we have put together a few CRM related strategies that can help businesses survive and even thrive in these times.      

Most experts agree that in a downturn it is very important to put an emphasis on existing customers, selling more to existing customers can create cheap growth. It is also a good time to examine customer profitability account-by-account and rank your customers. A CRM system can help by segmenting your customers and creating processes for cross/up selling into these accounts. 

Make the most of every opportunity! In these challenging times where the buying universe has shrunk it is more important than ever to make sure your sales team is proactively managing every sales lead that is generated. In challenging economic times buyers shop more to try and get the best pricing on just about everything they purchase. As a result we face more competition. If you are not proactive in managing sales leads your competitors will be.  

It is also more important now to know the outlook of the business on a monthly basis. This allows us to make well informed decisions. Without a central place to manage sales opportunities this can be a difficult task. Most CRM systems will offer a robust opportunity management system with pipeline reporting, some also offer sales process coaching as well. Our CRM system automatically emails us a monthly report showing bookings vs. costs for the current month and shows us a weighted pipeline for the next 3 months. This report is a valuable tool for knowing where we are at today and where we are headed over the next few months. It also allows us to adjust to the pipeline, if 90% of the pipeline is in early stages we focus more energy and resources on moving deals ahead and less on prospecting.  

Improve your close rates – Another way to increase revenue is to improve your sales teams close rates. For example let’s assume you have 25 opportunities in your pipeline. If your average gross profit on a sale is $5000 and your average close rate is 50% you could generate an additional $12,500 if you improved your close rate by 10%. The best part about this is you have not added any costs to obtain this additional revenue. Do you know your sales teams average close rate? CRM systems can shed light on this important metric and help you measure improvements.  

Market more cost effectively – Bootstrapping is important in the current climate but cutting marketing too much can hurt sales. Look for ways to more cost effectively market your products and services. A CRM system can help you dig into your customer data and create very targeted marketing campaigns. For example identify customers that have not made a purchase in X months and offer an incentive. Another example would be to identify all accounts that have purchased a specific product or service and market a synergistic product or service.   

Know what is working – I can look in our CRM system and easily determine exactly how many leads each marketing campaign has generated and the amount of sales each campaign generated. This allows us to continually manage where we spend our marketing budget based on campaign performance. 

If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it – We have seen an increase in the amount of requests for custom reports. If you already have a CRM system in place but are underutilizing it now may be a great time to enhance your system.  Many businesses implement changes without a way of measuring the results. In times like these a panic mentality can set in causing business leaders to make rash changes. If you are planning on making changes make sure you have a way to measure the changes you implement. 

These are just a few examples on how a properly implemented CRM system can help you through this tough period. 

If you are interested in exploring how CRM could benefit your business contact us for more information. You can also learn more about the CRM services we offer.

Beringer Associates, Inc.

www.beringer.net | sales@beringer.net | 800.796.4854

1. Envision – Take a step back and define what CRM means to your business. Define objectives and project goals along with expected return on investment.

2. Plan – Focus on process! It is easy to get wrapped up in the features of CRM products. Features are typically not important until your needs are defined. The planning portion of the project defines your business processes and outlines how CRM will enhance your overall operation.

3. Design – When designing your CRM strategy there are many considerations. Phasing is very important in a CRM project. Evaluate all business applications in your organization and all customer touch points.

4. Deployment – During this phase keep business interruption to a minimum. Create a deployment plan that minimizes the impact to both employees and customers.

5. Training – The proper amount of training is critical. Set minimum system use requirements up front and communicate these to the users.

6. Support – Build the proper internal and external support channels prior to go-live. Make it easy for users to get answers to questions and problems quickly.

Beringer Associates, Inc.

www.beringer.net | sales@beringer.net | 800.796.4854