One of the many benefits of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the customization possibilities it offers. Indeed, it can easily be adapted to your specific needs to facilitate your daily tasks and operations. This improves productivity and helps you meet your goals thanks to a platform fully adapted to your needs. The management of clients, contacts and sales and marketing activities is streamlined and facilitated as a result.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers several tools allowing you to adapt the solution to your needs. The Microsoft Power Platform, for example, integrates to the CRM to add automations and custom applications. Custom dashboards and reports let you display data according to your role and needs. Your team can then ensure better follow-ups and service to your clients, increasing their satisfaction.
Here are a few of the questions our clients ask most often when they consider customizing their Dynamics 365 solution:
Why customize your CRM solution?
By customizing your Dynamics 365 solution, you ensure it works the way your organization does. This improves your organization’s processes and efficiency. Client data, contacts and activities can be accessed easily, while the forms and fields of the solution can be adapted to your jargon and realities. Users are also more comfortable in their use of the system and have an easier time getting to know its features. This ensures a high user adoption rate of the solution and less training time needed.
What can be customized?
Dynamics 365 was designed to provide organizations with a flexible platform that can be easily adapted to their specific needs. This means you can modify forms and fields, not to mention processes and workflows that can be automated. Views, dashboards and reports can easily display data and the level of detail required. The result is increased visibility on your data and activities. By accelerating and facilitating your processes, you can offer an improved service to clients and increase your sales numbers.
How can you customize your CRM?
Microsoft has developed numerous applications that can be integrated to your CRM and adapted to your needs. Microsoft Power Automate (previously known as Microsoft Flow) lets you create workflows triggered by events of your choice. Microsoft Power Apps are apps that can be created with little or no code and that integrate to your CRM. Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence solution that integrates to Dynamics solutions to offer advanced data analyses. And as mentioned above, users can adapt their views and dashboards based on their daily roles and activities.
Another approach consists in using the standard features of the CRM before customizing the solution. Users can get used to the native functionality of the system, and you will a better idea of what to adapt. The various licensing types available for Dynamics 365 also let you choose modules based on your needs and budget. Smaller organizations can take advantage of a basic CRM to manage their contacts, while larger businesses can opt for a complete solution. Afterwards, the solution can be adapted to your needs once they have been defined more precisely.
Before launching into your customization project, you should have a clear idea of what you wish to achieve. Your implementation partner will then be able to guide you regarding the best way to meet your goals. This is an excellent way to increase the user adoption rate and accelerate your organization’s processes. For more information, read our articles: How to Customize Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM) Solution and How Power Apps and Power Automate Can Optimize Dynamics 365 Sales for Professional Services Firms. Are you thinking about implementing a new CRM or ERP business management solution? Our free eBook gives you all the details to ensure the success of your project.
Note from the author
This blog is based on two articles published a few years ago: What are the Advantages of Customizing Your Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool? and Standard or Customized CRM Solution: Which One Should You Consider? As this information is still relevant, we have decided to update some of our older articles.
