Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to offer new features

Nov. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- If you have not checked out the new beta for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you may want to consider some of the new features. Microsoft has made a number of improvements to make upgrading from 4.0 an attractive proposition.

"This is a new era for sales and Marketing professionals," says Eli Ritz, marketing specialist for Etelligent Solutions, and a host of the blog Totally CRM. "Alot of people will be wondering if it's worth it to upgrade, and I can tell you my first-hand experience with it has been extremely positive."

For one thing, Dynamics CRM 2011 uses out-of-the-box integration with Sharepoint. More and more offices use Sharepoint, a tool for web-based collaboration, to make the workplace more efficent. One challenge for sales and marketing professionals is that the information put in CRM does not integrate to Sharepoint (where other departments could view select information for financial forecasting). Now, this information can be shared, without any custom development, right inside the Sharepoint environment.

Second, Dynamics CRM  will feature a new marketplace--a solutions catalog, integrated with Dynamics CRM, that allows for faster application downloads. In addtion, and sharing a similarity to MS Pinpoint, CRM 2011 will also help organizations discover new Microsoft partners and find solutions that cater specifically to their business needs. For example, an insurance company could identify which MS partners offer insurance specific functionality through the catalog.

Another great new feature is the dashboards. They can monitor the overall health and performance of business, and report the information in a graphical format. MS built the dashboards to be intuitive and easy to navigate. The new add-on allows users to use BI (business intelligence) to follow cutomer, prospect and market trends. These features allow one to see a financial forecast, in a graphical format, based on the dates potential deals might close.

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Totally CRM, a video blog, discusses CRM as both as software and as a business practice. It is hosted by marketing professionals Eli Ritz and Scott McHale. The website is http://www.totallycrm.com

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CRM software blog, for customer relationship management software. For the blog Totally CRM--with video updates posted to YouTube