Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 – the latest enhancements for intelligent customer engagement

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According to the Journal of Experimental Psychology,1 every time a user switches programs or applications, there is a 40 percent reduction in productivity. 

New capabilities were unveiled today for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 which will be available before the end of the calendar year.  These new developments are designed to increase productivity for customer-facing employees by providing a simple and seamless experience across their Dynamics CRM application and their productivity applications like email, Excel, OneDrive for Business for easier task management, an enhanced mobile experience for the worker on the go, and enriched data and analytics. 

These new capabilities include:

  • An enhanced Excel experience within CRM, including new Excel templates to automate many core tasks.  This helps our customers across the board but particularly in sales as it allows them to do things like calculate commissions or manage a sales forecast.  They get analysis and insights directly in their sales processes, without the need to export or switch – just easy toggling to reduce countless steps and eliminate the complexity. 
  • The next generation of our CRM app for outlook enables people to track emails, add contacts from within an email or even create new records to track emails through the browser on PC, Mac or mobile browser on a phone. 
  • Delve functionality to surface trending content that is most relevant to what a person is working on and what is trending around them.  For example, Delve might show popular presentations or proposals to help our customers with their opportunity or account. Contextual documents across SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365 Groups for any CRM record. Seamlessly open various Office apps within CRM or the CRM mobile app.  We’re making it easy for people to open a document in the
    CRM app using different application on various devices like Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad or Microsoft Word for iPhone. After reviewing the document, they can return back to the CRM app simply by just tapping on the “back” button .
  • Personalised sales documents based on CRM data are now easier to build with Document Generation .  People no longer need to manually extract CRM data for documents such as account summaries, quotes/orders/invoices, product sheets in Word. Automation of this core sales task is another way we’re saving people time. 
  • Next generation Cortana integration.   We’re taking our Cortana integration to the next level by embedding sales activities, accounts and opportunities into Cortana to surface what’s most relevant to salespeople at any time – across both personal and professional sources.

This short video provides an overview of these new capabilities.  Or read the full announcement and blog post from Bob Stutz, Corporate VP Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Stay tuned for more updates, meanwhile you can find out more about the exciting new capabilities of Dynamics CRM 2016 in the Release Preview Guide.

Get your teams ready

Whether you’re a seasoned CRM Partner or new to the Dynamics portfolio, we have a wealth of training spanning sales and technical courses available online and in person.  View the full schedule for Australia and sign up. 

Get your business ready

If you already have Microsoft Dynamics CRM skills and looking at how you can increase your profitability by building out industry specific packaged solutions then “Cloud SureStep for Dynamics Partners” is for you.  The one day Foundation workshop in Sydney on 28th September will help you work through what building repeatable solutions can mean for your business and the skills you likely already have to start doing this.  The following Integrated Sales & Marketing workshop will take place in Sydney on the 29th & 30th September and will focus on your go to market once you have developed your repeatable solution. Spots are very limited so sign up today.

 Get connected

If you have a strong business in other areas such as Office 365 you may want to consider partnering with an existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner.  Find a Partner on Pinpoint.

Any questions regarding Microsoft Partner training in Australia, including the courses above, please email msaupr@microsoft.com.

 

1 Rubinstein, Joshua S.; Meyer, David E.; Evans, Jeffrey E. (2001). “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,” 27(4), 763–797