How big a selling point is it?

The most important consideration when deciding whether to invest in CRM (and which CRM to invest in) is the return value of that investment.

Flashy features and slick user interfaces are all well and good, but ultimately the question needs to be, “Will my CRM investment generate enough return value to justify the cost of ownership?”

In today’s CRM Review, we’ll take a look at the value of out-of-the-box Microsoft Office integration in Dynamics 365 for Sales. What does it allow your team to do, and will it generate enough value to be a legitimate selling point when considering Dynamics 365 for your business?

Why CRM integration matters

A well-designed and well-implemented CRM system gives your team a central hub of information, scheduling, and communication. Your team can collaborate with one another and serve your customers better and more efficiently.

High-value CRM is all about maximizing on good business processes. Keeping as many day-to-day activities as possible under the CRM umbrella does this by reducing duplicate tasks, increasing visibility, and making it easier for your team to coordinate efforts and less likely to make mistakes or waste time.

That’s why CRM integrations can be so valuable: if you can take something your sales team is already doing (or needs to start doing!) and fold it into your CRM system, that system can do more to improve your team’s processes and, ultimately, their productivity and your profits.

Why Microsoft Office integration matters

Your team is already using Microsoft Office. They know it. They understand it. And they’re probably pretty good at it.

Whether it’s Outlook or Exchange for email, Excel to crunch numbers and build reports, SharePoint or Onenote for intra-office collaboration, or some other combination of applications, Microsoft Office applications already play critical roles in most businesses, and yours is almost certainly one of them.

Microsoft Office integration lets your team accomplish more with the Office applications they already know. With Office 365 integrated with CRM, they can:

• link Outlook to CRM to track and analyze selected email communication with one click, automatically create and schedule sales activities and opportunities for existing records, and even create new records without leaving Outlook.
• view, format, and analyze CRM data in Excel, or import data from existing Excel spreadsheets into CRM.
• link text, audio, or images to CRM records using OneNote.

Office 365 integration reduces your team’s need to switch back and forth from program to program and eliminates duplicate data entry tasks, all while also magnifying the benefits of using certain Office functions and applications. They can work smarter and sell better.

The Value of out-of-the-box Microsoft Office integration in Dynamics 365 for Sales

Because Microsoft makes both Dynamics 365 for Sales and the Office suite, Dynamics 365 boasts seamless integration with Office, including Outlook, Exchange, SharePoint, and an ever-expanding suite of Microsoft applications.

Most of these integrations are out-of-the-box or require a light plug-in with little-to-no setup, which means:

• your CRM and your Office applications are designed to work together.
• you don’t need to spend time or money on add-ons to increase the value of your CRM and Office applications.
• your team doesn’t need to spend extra time learning new programs or installing and troubleshooting potentially complicated integration add-ons.
• when plug-ins are necessary, they are developed, released, updated, and supported by Microsoft, the industry leader that is already heavily invested in your CRM, rather than by third-party developers who are less invested in Dynamics 365.
• new applications and versions include new CRM functionality, which means the value of your integration keeps increasing as Microsoft regularly builds new tools and refines existing ones.

Sell better, faster, and smarter with Dynamics 365 CRM

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales CRM offers your business the tools it needs to improve process and profitability.

Plus, our OnTrack CRM Success System and custom Dynamics solutions and add-ons ensure you get the most from your CRM, whether you have a team of fresh CRM novices or a seasoned core of CRM veterans!

What can your business do with more powerful marketing, sales, service, and support?