4 Questions to Ask Your Dynamics Consultant
If your organisation has made the decision to implement Microsoft Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) software in order to improve sales and increase customer retention, it’s critical that you engage the service of Dynamics consultants to help ensure the implementation is as smooth as possible. After all, CRM is never an out-of-the-box solution; it must be integrated closely with your business processes, and also requires a deal of technical expertise. In this article, we’ll run you through five questions that you should ask your Dynamics consultant.
1. Do they have the appropriate expertise?
As already mentioned in the opening, a successful Dynamics implementation requires both integration with business processes and also a sound technical understanding. Before engaging Dynamics consultants, then, you should ensure that they have both of these qualities in abundance. For example, the consultants may have a strong understanding of the technical side of things but may fail to help you integrate the solution into your business processes. Alternatively, they may be strong business minds without the ability to deliver your technical requirements. In many cases, you may need a consulting team to cover business process management and technical implementation.
2. Do they have the appropriate experience?
CRM in general is relatively new to the world of business and, as such, there are a lot of upstarts who may not have the appropriate experience to ensure your Dynamics implementation runs as smoothly as possible. When it comes to implementing CRM, experience is everything — you need consultants that know what will work and what won’t work; every business is different and CRM implementations must be deliver differently, so customisations will probably be necessary to help the CRM fit in with your business model. An experienced consultant may have come across similar customisations before and will be able to provide them at less cost.
3. What happens once the implementation is finished?
When it comes to Dynamics consultants, you might find that some companies finish the implementation and then hand you off to a call centre for any questions you may have. As anyone who has dealt with a call centre before would know, this is far from an ideal situation. Instead, you want Dynamics consultants who will continue the relationship even after the implementation is finished; these people will know your business processes and will be familiar with your customisations, so they are best placed to help you should the need arise.
4. Do they have experience performing data migrations?
While some CRM companies are capable of working with you in terms of both business process management and technical implementation, sometimes this is not enough. For example, if you’re migrating your data from an old CRM system — or any other type of information system — to Microsoft Dynamics, then you’ll need a Dynamics consultant who has performed such data migrations before and who knows how to map the data to your new system without causing any loss of data or interruption to your daily business processes.