MBR_ISSUE 38_LowRes

Malta Business Review
CRM
Your transformation
starts here
“To accelerate your digital transformation, you need a new type of business application.
One that breaks down the silos between CRM and ERP, that’s powered by data and
intelligence, and helps capture new business opportunities. That’s Microsoft Dynamics
365,” tells us Peter Sammut Briffa, Senior Consultant at KPMG Crimsonwing Malta. In
this interview Peter explains how Microsoft Dynamics 365 empower sellers with insights
to personalize relationships, predict customer needs, and increase sales.
MBR: Microsoft’s focus on digital
transformation significantly affected their
product line-up. How can an application
like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales create
business value?
PSB: By having all information concerning
potential and actual sales stored in one place,
salespeople will find it easier to identify the
opportunities they should follow up. It allows
for the enforcement of business processes
which help streamline the sales process,
ensuring that all the critical steps are followed,
and that all relevant data is collected and
analysed. This will eventually shorten sales
cycles, enable the sales team to spend more
time selling, and consequently improve close
rates.
MBR: What kind of insights can an
organisation achieve?
PSB: Through this CRM application,
management can track all the leads and
opportunities that their salespeople are
following, as well as the sales actually made.
This can help plan future productivity. It is
also possible to introduce a number of key
performance indicators. Increased sales is
the obvious one, but other important ones
include: are we contacting more potential
customers? Do we get repeat orders from
existing customers? What percentage of
opportunities are we converting into sales?
"Dynamics 365 is designed to
be as intuitive as possible."
MBR: Microsoft is now hosting the solution
on Microsoft Azure. What are the benefits
deriving from the cloud?
PSB: There are two main advantages:
maintenance and availability. There are no setup
costs and maintenance of the environment
is all in Microsoft’s hands, including security,
backups, data restores, and the availability of the
application round the clock. Furthermore, it is
possible to connect to Azure from anywhere via
internet, so CRM is available outside the office,
outside the country, even using mobile devices.
MBR: Given that this is a Microsoft product,
how easy is it for new users to adapt to
Microsoft Dynamics 365?
PSB: Dynamics 365 is designed to be as
intuitive as possible. All the terms can be
changed to suit the company’s culture; a case
may be called a “support ticket” or a “customer
issue” – changing the label is a matter of simple
configuration. Dynamics 365 also interacts
seamlessly with and uses similar interfaces
as the popular Office 365 suite of programs
such as Word, Excel and Outlook. Sending an
email from CRM is similar to sending one from
Outlook.
MBR: How are client relationships impacted?
PSB: The plethora of data that can be stored
within Microsoft Dynamics 365 means the
user has the perfect tool to improve their
interactions with customers and maintain
the health of these relationships. It is possible
to keep a record of all past interactions with
customers, as well as those planned for the
future. Members within the organisation across
various departments can view these interactions
and be fully updated whenever they need to
contact the customer themselves. MBR
All rights reserved - Copyright 2018
EDITOR’S
Note
Peter has over 30 years of experience in the IT
industry covering banking, e-commerce, retail,
wholesale, logistics, laundry services, internal
systems and audit. He occupied a number
of roles from developer to systems analyst,
business analyst, project manager, programme
manager and support manager. Currently he is a
Senior Consultant on Microsoft Dynamics 365
Customer Engagement.
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