Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM vs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Posted on: October 22, 2015 | By: Jarrod Kraemer | Microsoft Dynamics AX/365
We all love customers! They are vital to our respective businesses. However, sometimes they can be difficult to track and maintain in and across systems. It can be argued that the most important aspect of a healthy business is how well you manage your relationships with your customers as they are the basis for your revenues. Microsoft offers two software platforms in order for you to improve and grow your relationships with your customers. You can utilize the CRM functionality in the Sales & Marketing and Call centers modules of Microsoft Dynamics AX or go all in with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Both of these solutions have their differences, as well as their similarities, which we will highlight below so you can determine the best fit for your company.
Let’s start with the CRM functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Many AX users are familiar with the concepts of role centers, which offer quick analytics and KPIs to see how your business is running. This feature can be very useful for tracking the metrics generated by your sales team. In the Sales and marketing module, you can manage your leads, opportunities, and sales quotes right from your AX ERP. This makes it relatively easy to convert a sales quote to a sales order to receiving cash as all of these items are innate to AX. Essentially, the quote to cash process can be streamlined to improve efficiencies across your company by leveraging the module integration and workflow functionalities. It would eliminate jumping around different systems, manual processes like emails and calls, and general human error. In addition, by utilizing your global address book and the call center module, you have the ability to deliver high-end customer support. Track orders, execute refunds, and manage customer information, you name it and the call center module in AX can deliver. Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word can be integrated with AX as well. Email sales orders to customers, analyze data with Excel or create sales quotation templates in Word. All these functionalities are possible with the integration to AX.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers many of these same functionalities and more. CRM offers similar role-based reporting to give you analytics and reports generated by your sales team. You also can develop your own ad-hoc reporting functionalities to personalize information that you need. Also, just as in the sales and marketing module of AX, you can manage contacts/ accounts, activity within those accounts, and any kind of opportunities, quotes and/or orders. All information related to a sale is consolidated to one view and offers visibility across the departments of your organization. Additionally, CRM offers robust marketing and service management capabilities. From a marketing perspective, you can manage your campaigns and call/ email lists to better target a customer segmentation to drive your sales. The service management offers a ‘knowledge base’, which serves as a digitized version of the tribal knowledge within your company. Service management also stores your contracts and any cases you may have with your customers as well. The customer service module in CRM will all but guarantee a great customer service experience. Respond to your customers quickly and efficiently by utilizing business rules, queues, and workflows. CRM can also be directly integrated with Outlook to offer real time information flow and synchronicities with your Outlook client. For example, an email can be created right into a lead or opportunity with a single click. Not to fret if you are worried about how this relates to your ERP, CRM can be integrated to Microsoft Dynamics AX through Microsoft Connector. Sales quotes can flow from CRM to AX so orders can be generated. Finally, CRM can be accessed offline and also on the go with your mobile device so you can address customer needs no matter where you are.
Overall, the two systems offer many of the same functionalities. Although many of the differences mentioned may seem minute, they actually might carry more weight to your company depending on what you value in CRM functionalities. We hope that this blog has provided at least some clarity between the CRM components in Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. However, if you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to us at info@loganconsulting.com or (312) 345-8817.
All the best!
Logan Consulting
www.loganconsulting.com