Office 365 Integration Feature, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 To Benchmark Customer Relationship

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In this article we will take a look at Office 365’s key integration features with Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1, as to how Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Benchmarks Customer Relationship.

Office365 Integration Features

OneNote Integration

OneNote embedded inside Dynamics CRM empowers sales people to share information more conveniently. Isn’t it wonderful? One can create and view notes that have text, photos, voice, spreadsheets and even handwritten notes from scribble pads; and, all this within the context of an account, opportunity or any other record. By embedding OneNote in MS Dynamics CRM, Microsoft empowers you to automatically link account information with CRM Online 2015 record.

OneNote Integration

Ask a simple question as to who all are the fans of OneNote since years, and trust me the count would be huge. It has been used every day by a lot of people to store all their meeting notes. As in this is more convenient an arrangement against those numerous scribble pads lying around on your desk and them spending a lot of time looking for old notes about customers or opportunities.

Users conveniently store high level information about opportunities in their internal CRM i.e. overview of requirements, communications and commercials, and not overall details of each and every meeting. Instead they use OneNote to store such primary information and now with OneNote integration they can embed this information into CRM.

Users were really looking seriously out for a 3rd party integration tool for CRM and OneNote since some time now, and hopefully they would be thankful that it comes along so handy.

Mobile/Web Mail Client

This happens to be one of those interesting features that can come in really handy for a lot of users who do not have full Outlook client on their devices. I feel that one of the reasons for the huge popularity of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, is the feature where it seamlessly integrates to Outlook to track emails, appointments and tasks, and may be also the reason why people choose it over competitors.

However; as we all know and realize it, the way we work has evolved enormously in past few years. We see lesser and lesser number of people seated at their desktop PC and sales/customer service users are a lot more mobile. It has now become mandatory to be mobile.

Users used to suffer a lot due to the non-availability of the “Track in CRM” functionality unless and until you have the levy of using the full Outlook client. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Upgrade 1, Microsoft has increased the integration with Office 365 and Outlook/Exchange Online.

Users now can enjoy the luxury of accessing their Outlook via the Office 365 Portal to get “Track” and “Set Regarding” functionality via a web browser:

Web Mail Client

The best part about this feature is also the convenience to pull other CRM details in the email preview. As depicted in the image above, the “Dynamics CRM” tab has brought in additional CRM information such as contact details, past and future activities and a quick view of any cases of opportunities. Now this is what I call the best way to keep the “big picture in perspective” while emailing customers via the web browser.

Folder Level Tracking

In continuation to above discussion, users also want to Track emails even when they are not equipped with Outlook or the above Web version. A lot of users are used to have their normal mobile email clients, and this is where Folder Level Tracking makes all the difference.

This facility enables users to Track an email by just moving it from their Inbox to a “Track in CRM” folder. This folder then further is mapped to the CRM records with which the emails need to be tracked to.

Say for example John is coordinating with a priority client Jason, he will store all emails from and to John in a folder named JOHN on his mobile client- then he will map it to the CRM record and any emails put in this folder automatically will get mapped to the customer:

Folder Level Tracking

Here we can see how an email is tracked in a web browser using Folder Tracking and how it appears in CRM:

Folder Tracking

Auto Track emails in entire Exchange folder

What is Folder-Level Tracking and why is it required:

  • Available in ALL mail apps on ALL devices
  • Full flexibility, deterministic results
  • Great Use with Exchange Rules
  • No additional client’s installation required

This is one of the best ways to track emails on the go, introduced till date. There are chances that some of you might feel that it’s performance is at the peak only while working on a handful of customers or large opportunities, but I would still say that it is a fantastic feature.

Thank you all for reading, first the details about Navigation and this one about Office 365 integration with Dynamics CRM Online in the 2015 Update. Please share your comment in the box below to help me include your opinions in the next article about Theming Feature Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 To Benchmark Customer Relationship

2 COMMENTS

  1. Can his tracking via a mobile device allow the same functionality to appointments to save duplication of appointments in diaries and allow appointments sent from customers to be completed in a mobile device?

  2. Yes, Users can track this via a mobile device through mobile apps. It allows the same functionality to appointments to save duplication of appointments in diaries and allow appointments sent from customers to be completed in a mobile device.

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