Since the Dynamics 365 Marketing Module was introduced with its fully enhanced capabilities in October 2019, HCL-PowerObjects has done more than 60 demos of the product. The increased functionality of segment building, email tracking, customer journeys, event management, and internet marketing put Dynamics Marketing on par with any solution on the market today. The one question we always get asked though is ‘How is the integration from Dynamics Marketing going to be with my Microsoft CRM system?’ This is a good and valid question, and the challenge of HCL-PowerObjects is showing our customers that Dynamics Marketing IS your CRM.
No longer are the days of overnight syncing, costly integration, mapping of contacts from one system to another, disjointed software, and disparate data. Dynamics 365 Marketing now has all the capabilities of its market competitors, but it also has one thing they do not have: A direct connection to your CRM data through the Common Data Model.
The common data model is a shared data language for business and analytical applications to use, put simply, it means your data is all the same and shared across your Dynamics platform and modules. When viewing your Accounts as a Marketing Manager, you will see the same information that a Sales Manager will see. If you update an email address, your customer service representative will see the updated email address on their next call. The rules and security for updating data remain the same and the exposure to data is available in any module, including Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Field Service, Finance, etc. Never again will there be lag time while you wait for data to sync, or have employees wondering if the data is accurate or which data source contains the ‘master’ or ‘source of truth data.’
Not only will this save you organization time, but huge cost savings are involved with the common data model. Costs of initial setup of mapping and integration to another marketing system are eliminated, as are the ongoing costs of maintenance and subscription to the integration software. Then there are the time costs; as consultants, we once ran into a support case where a customer could not log into MailChimp to sync a marketing list to Dynamics. It turned out that the Admin password had expired, and the only person who knew the original password had left the company. This led to multiple (paid) support calls, consulting hours billed, and employee hours lost. This was a minor scenario to some of the marketing integration mishaps we’ve encountered that led to email campaigns not going out on time and major loss of revenue.
ONE Sales and Marketing Team
The absolute biggest benefit of Dynamics Marketing is hard to see on paper. This is the ability for Sales and Marketing to work as one team. In most of the companies we have consulted for, the Sales team did not know how to use, or had not even seen the marketing software used by their colleagues, and vice versa. Sales waited on Marketing to get their content out, and occasionally there was even conflict between the teams as both waited on expectations of the other.
With Dynamics 365 Marketing, both Sales and Marketing have access to the same Leads, Accounts, and Contacts. Marketing and Sales both have input on business processes and effectively working opportunities using the Lead Scoring Model. Because of the licensing structure in Dynamics Marketing, Sales Managers can also help create Marketing Emails and Customer Journeys to target the right audience at the right time. Depicted is a representation of working the same lead list, one seen from the sales dashboard, and one through a view in the marketing module. Here you can visualize how in sync both teams can be by seeing the same data, working with the same system and processes, and sharing a common goal without the learning curve of adapting each other’s work structure because of the software they use.
If you think the Marketing Module would be a good fit for your organization, contact us to get started!
