If you’re new to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you might think of the application as just a sales, marketing, and service tool. However, we encourage you to think of new and creative ways to use your programming skills and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform to tackle new business challenges. We believe that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an excellent development platform for many reasons, including:
Metadata architecture that allows for easy extensions to the database model
Web-based customization tools that allow nondevelopers to make application changes
Built-in workflow capability
Documented and easy-to-use software development kit
Service-orientated architecture
Native support for online and offline use
Native support for multiple currencies and multiple languages
Enterprise-class capabilities with SQL Server database
Out–of-the-box integration with the common end-user applications Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Word, and Microsoft Office Communication Server
Common user authentication with Microsoft Active Directory for single sign-on with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
Having worked with many different customers implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM, our company Sonoma Partners has helped many organizations use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a business application platform to tackle nontraditional CRM business issues. Examples include:
Helping a large national franchise to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to scout, rank, and identify potential restaurant locations.
Working with a national real-estate company to track condominium developments and condominium inventory in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The company also tracked each buyer’s preferences and upgrades such as appliances, paint color, furnishings, and so on.
Developing a system for a nonprofit organization to qualify applicants of oil and heat subsidies, including tracking applications, receipts, and vendor payment status.
Designing a database of hospitals and physicians for a long-term care management company to help them better understand the patient referral and new patient setup process.
Most people would not consider any of these examples as traditional CRM, yet all of them work excellently on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform! If your organization is considering building a custom software application from scratch, or if you have an existing home-grown custom application, we strongly urge you to consider using Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform to replace custom software applications. We hope that the chapters and examples in this book will give you the confidence that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is truly easy to program with, and offers an unbelievable amount of flexibility.
Tip
Sometimes people use the term xRM to describe using a CRM software application as the business application platform to solve nontraditional business challenges. We’ve seen different definitions for the acronym xRM, but we like to think of the letter X as a variable just like you might remember from your algebra class. You can plug in almost any value for X, but it always includes the relationship management.