Professional Service Company Implements Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM

The Client

Our client assists companies and private owners of jet aircraft in maintaining their planes and stabilizing maintenance budgets while reducing cost of ownership. They had come to a crossroads for its business. As our client’s customer base continued to grow, they designed numerous custom applications to support the sales, support, finance, and technical teams. In addition, they were also utilizing Salesforce.com and FlightDocs.com. As time passed, it became increasingly difficult to keep critical data synchronized across all applications and the cost of maintaining and supporting so many different applications was growing.

The Opportunity

Our client knew that in order to be successful in the future and to provide the best service possible, they needed to migrate to a new and improved software solution. Their management decided to perform an implementation which would reduce the amount of data entry necessary while also streamlining existing processes. One major goal of their implementation would be to reduce the number of applications necessary to run the business and thus avoid having to keep data synchronized over old applications which did not communicate. Another critical goal was to streamline processes and provide 100% visibility of processes within the business across all departments. If these goals could be attained, the overall sales cycle time could be reduced while also providing optimal support to customers and provide better tools for the sales staff as well.

The Solution

The project lasted approximately eight months and included not only the design of the new solution, but also the migration of data from old legacy applications so they could be retired. Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM provided the backbone for the solution.

All non-financial and non-technical staff now works within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with critical data passed seamlessly to Microsoft Dynamics GP as necessary. As the sales team engages to secure new business, customer data and aircraft detail are fed to GP where the technical team starts work on the customer’s aircraft and engines as defined by the contract with the customer. Conversely, data being generated within Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains), such as Customer Invoices and Maintenance work performed is fed from GP back to CRM. This reduces the need for extra licenses and allows people to be able to work within a single application while also increasing visibility of all processes within the business. The vast repository of documentation for each customer is managed through the use of SharePoint and is therefore organized and easily searchable.

The Result

Upon going live, Logan Consulting hosted live training for all Microsoft CRM Users to acclimate them with features and functionality of the newly delivered solution. Through the use of the integration applications deployed, visibility of all processes within the business is near 100% now and the sales cycle has been reduced from several weeks to a matter of days. Data Entry has been greatly reduced and data entered only once is visible throughout the entire organization within Microsoft CRM.

The sales team capitalizes on the fact that nearly all necessary data can be found or accessed directly from one place, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Users can truly work from within Outlook and gain access to critical data necessary for both prospects and existing customers. Seamless integration with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel directly out of CRM allows for simple proposal and list/report generation. Standardized Opportunity management not only provides for real-time and relevant pipeline reports (or reporting), but workflow and customizations automate record creation for many of the records which were previously key-stroked across numerous applications.

The overall ability to better serve customers has been greatly enhanced. All current as well as historical contracts are visible within CRM, along with the entire maintenance/service history of the airframes and engines which the client covers. All maintenance work performed is entered in Microsoft Dynamics and this history, along with the corresponding invoices generated, are passed seamlessly and virtually real-time to CRM for visibility across all of their client. Auto-generated alerts are triggered by record creation and business process scenarios to keep all staff better informed when their expertise is needed within the sales cycle or for tracking any questions or issues where the customer seeks help.