ERP, CRM and eCommerce Blog

The Technology Evaluation Center (TEC) released its annual CRM buyers guide: Innovations in CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is featured prominently in the guide in three case studies. One of the case studies is an Ignify Customer – Associated Foreign Exchange (AFEX). The guide highlights Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s differentiators such as offline access, integration to Outlook, free mobile access through Mobile Express, and ease of use with a familiar user interface.

We are very pleased to see the recognition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Ignify in the CRM Buyers guide. You can download the guide here.

Bhavesh Ashani is Vice President at Ignify. Ignify is a technology provider of CRM, eCommerce and ERP, software solutions to businesses and public sector organizations. Ignify is winner of Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2011. Ignify has been included as the fastest growing business in North America for 5 years in a row by Deloitte, Inc Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine and ranked as one of 100 most innovative companies in the world in the Red Herring Global 100 in 2011.

Retail enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is now being utilized by more and more businesses as managers are searching for ways to streamline operations while also improving productivity. Retail enterprise resource planning software is focused on the activities necessary for a retail business. This typically includes any information relating to transactions and operations such as accounting, billing, inventory, and supply chain management. The right application would allow for a better coordinated workforce and enhanced customer service.

Microsoft Dynamics^® AX for Retail is a comprehensive solution designed specifically for midsized and enterprise specialty retailers. Connecting point of sale, store management, and merchandizing with enterprise resource planning (ERP), Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail helps retailers reduce complexity across their organization. The real time data allows you to instantly monitor the cash flow and sales patterns. The following tools are perhaps the most important:

• Customer service management: It is the customers who should be seen as the biggest asset of any business. It is vital to constantly be trying to attract new interest as well as retaining past clients. The larger your customer base the harder it is for their needs to be addressed on time. Microsoft Dynamics AX would help to ensure that there is a fast flow of information between the sales department and other teams to keep the customers happy.
   
• Human resource management: No business will be efficient without a well-motivated and organized workforce. By choosing Microsoft Dynamics AX, you would be able to more effectively manage the payroll, recruit new employees, assess performance, and monitor attendance.
   
• Financial management: One of the most difficult aspects of running a business is keeping on top of the financial reports and tax requirements. Microsoft Dynamics AX would allow you a more accurate understanding of the financial situation and also when any payments are due.
   
• Supply chain management: To maintain a healthy balance sheet it is vital for a business to understand correctly the prevailing market conditions. Microsoft Dynamics AX would give for a better understanding of the current relationship between supply, demand, logistics, and distribution.

Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail streamlines all important areas of your retail business. If you're interested in learning more, contact us for a free demo of Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail. Ignify is a technology provider of ERP (including Microsoft Dynamics AX), CRM, and eCommerce software solutions to businesses and public sector organizations.

Bhavesh Ashani is Vice President at Ignify. Ignify is a technology provider of ERP, POS, CRM, and eCommerce software solutions to mid-market and enterprise businesses and public sector organizations. Ignify is a Top-tier Microsoft Gold Certified partner ranked in the Microsoft Partner of the Year for Retail in 2010 and both the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and the Microsoft Dynamics Presidents Club in 2009 . Ignify offers Microsoft Dynamics AX, Dynamics AX for Retail POS and the Dynamics CRM, Loyalty Management solution for retailers and to several other businesses. Ignify has been included as the fastest growing business in North America for 4 years in a row by Deloitte, Inc Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine. Ignify has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Manila, Pune and Bangalore.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a core application, but many of you may not know that it also has a powerful and flexible application development capability that allows for customized tools built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, better known as xRM. A broad range of companies around the world are using xRM to accelerate the development and deployment of high-impact business applications — whether on the premises or in the cloud via Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Customers like you are benefiting from using Microsoft Dynamics CRM in new ways and realizing their full potential through the use of flexible business applications, like xRM. Here are some examples from the Microsoft News Center:

• The Arbor Day Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit organization, has designed 15 relationship management applications to organize charitable events, grant management and outreach for fundraising efforts. The foundation estimates that it reduced application development time by 300 percent, enabling more efficient and responsive interaction with partners and sponsors.
• The Product Release and Security Services (PRSS) team at Microsoft designed product release relationship management solutions that increased product release compliance to 98 percent and accelerated product time to market across the company by up to 94 percent.
• Comag Marketing Group, a U.S.-based marketing firm, has consolidated more than 40 disparate relationship management applications and is planning to consolidate another 80 applications. By standardizing on Microsoft technology, it has drastically reduced the cost of administering all these applications.

To find out more about the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and xRM, contact us by calling 888-446-4395 or emailing dynamics@ignify.com. Ignify is a privately-held Deloitte FAST 100, ISO 9001 certified company focused on the mid-market and enterprise business space for ERP, CRM, and eCommerce implementations.

Bhavesh Ashani is Vice President at Ignify. Ignify provides design, consulting and implementation services for ERP, CRM initiatives for mid-market and enterprise businesses. Ignify is a Top-tier Microsoft Gold Certified partner ranked in both the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and the Microsoft Dynamics Presidents Club in 2009. Ignify offers a comprehensive set of Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) eCommerce solutions for increasing online sales while lowering overall operation costs. Ignify has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Manila, Pune and Bangalore.

When you’re in the market to buy a CRM solution, a quick rundown of benefits is ideal in order to start on the right path of your search. Microsoft came out with a CRM Online Service Update in November of 2009 that provides customers with concrete examples of why you get more value for less money with Microsoft Dynamics CRM compared to Salesforce.com. We would like to highlight the main differences between the two products to help you compare and to make your buying decision an easier one:

1. Storage Capacity – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online has 5 GB of storage and Salesforce.com only has 2 GB. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offers additional storage at $119.88/year for 1GB of data/file storage compared to Salesforce.com – $250.00/year for 1GB of data storage and $60.00/year for 1GB of file storage.
2. Mobile Access – CRM Online offers Mobile Express for free, where as Salesforce.com Mobile Edition is an additional cost per user per month.
3. Offline Access – Offline access allows users to be able to view relevant data from the CRM system when they are not connected to the Internet or corporate network. This can be invaluable to sales persons and executives that are often on the road. CRM Online offers many “offline” options that Salesforce.com does not. Offline access is free whereas there is an additional cost per user/month for Salesforce.com Professional Edition. Salesforce.com doesn’t provide an Offline CRM client; it provides a “briefcase”. You can’t view all standard objects (such as quotas, forecasts and cases) and all custom objects offline. 

In terms of functionality there is a significant difference between what CRM offers in terms of functionality and what Salesforce.com offer as shown in the figure below.

Figure 1. Functionality Coverage between Dynamics CRM and SalesForce.com
 

If you are interested in a detailed evaluation guide on selecting a CRM system see this white paper written by our CEO Sandeep Walia.

To find out more about the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, contact us by calling 888-446-4395 or emailing dynamics@ignify.com. Ignify is a privately-held ISO 9001 certified company focused on the mid-market and enterprise business space for ERP, CRM, and eCommerce implementations. The company provides design, consulting and implementation services for ERP, CRM initiatives for mid-market and enterprise businesses. Ignify is a Top-tier Microsoft Gold Certified partner ranked in both the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and the Microsoft Dynamics Presidents Club in 2009. Ignify offers a comprehensive set of Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) eCommerce solutions for increasing online sales while lowering overall operation costs. Ignify has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Manila, Pune and Bangalore. For more information, visit http://www.ignify.com.

by Bhavesh Ashani, Vice President – Ignify,  a California Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

According to many or most sociologists, people do not adapt well to change. We are “creatures of habit” and we naturally react to our environment instead of changing it. According to this Benchmark Preview for 2010, our avoidance to change proves to be true within the software world as well. “Over 53% of implementing organizations self-assess their ability to deal with change as fairly poor or very poor” in addition, “Nearly 50% of companies in the process of implementing ERP software have not yet started their organizational change, training, or communication plans. 42% have not developed a business case and ROI analysis, which suggests companies are not ready to measure and manage the business benefits they expect to achieve.”

Although change is not something we accept by nature, we need to acknowledge the necessity of it within the software and technology world in order to improve our chances of success. I’ve pointed out to you that change isn’t easy for us to handle, so why not make your software upgrade easier on you and your colleagues? Sandeep Walia, President and CEO of Ignify points out how usability can be the cornerstone of success and failure for a CRM implementation. Microsoft Dynamics acknowledges the difficulty of taking that rather intimidating leap and creates ERP software solutions similar to the programs you use on a daily basis such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook, but still have the power to manage the overall spectrum of your business.

For example the screen below shows the Dynamics ERP home page for a financial controller. An intuitive home page like this not only makes the software less intimidating it also provides a daily starting point for users of the system and allows them to manage their work better.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP provides approximately 35 such role centers and dashboards out of the box to make your implementation successful and improve adaptability. Another example shown below is the home page of an Accounts Payable Manager

To make your ERP implementation pack a punch and deliver ROI you need several factors that you need to put into motion, such as organizational change, training, and communication plans . This is where Ignify comes in, to make this transition complete so you can see the results you paid for and deserve.

Bhavesh Ashani is the Vice President of Ignify. Ignify is a technology provider of ERP, CRM, and eCommerce software solutions to businesses and public sector organizations. Ignify is a global Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle Partner and ranked in the top 1% of Microsoft Dynamics partners. Ignify has been included as the fastest growing business in North America for 3 years in a row by Deloitte, Inc Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine.

So in conclusion, even though it’s our “natural” response to avoid change, don’t be scared! If you’re experiencing difficulty with your current systems, you need to make an essential change and NOW before it’s too late.