What is RapidStart CRM for Dynamics CRM Online Hiding?

It’s true… we are hiding things from you, or rather your CRM customer. We confess, we have been caught red-handed. But nothing nefarious is going on here… I swear! So what do we have to hide, and why?

Monster go Bye Bye

When one of my daughters was just a small girl, she was convinced that there were monsters under her bed. This is a fairly prevalent concern for kids that age. So I bought a bed skirt that covered the space from her bed to the floor. She was satisfied, even though you and I know darn well that monster was obviously still there, she just couldn’t see it. It is interesting that now, decades later, I am still hiding monsters, only now I am hiding them from CRM Users.

EEK, CRM Monsters

Okay, to be fair, “Monsters” is a little strong. What we are really trying to hide is scary CRM stuff in general, at least for a while. What is scary CRM stuff? Well, when it comes to the out-of-the-box experience with Dynamics CRM Online, I find that there are two types of new users. Those that are intimidated by all the advanced functionality, and those who are not, but should be. The length of time it takes for a new user of CRM to become intimidated varies, but I would say the average is about 45 seconds.

We Giveth, and we Taketh Away

One major benefit of our RapidStart CRM deployment model for Dynamics CRM Online is the “Elimination of Intimidation”. We accomplish this in several ways. First, we have modified the navigation, narrowing over 70 options across five top level areas, to 10, all consolidated in a single area “CRM”. This is one of the simplest, yet most significant, things our model does. We have completely eliminated the primal fear most new CRM users experience within that first 45 seconds.

We have also created new default forms for Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities and Cases. The out of the box forms are, well… frankly, a little bit of a mess. We tidied them up and provided a consistent look and feel. With our actual goal being user adoption, we have also installed our sophisticated, integrated user training system. Also, while we are under the hood, we go ahead and activate the Bing maps and install the Insights by Insideview feature in markets where it is available.

Problems Solved? Nope, not yet.

What we do above is critical to CRM success, but while it lays the groundwork, it is not enough to reach our goal of User Adoption. And as you have read me say many times: without adoption, all is for naught. Every single business is different. When CRM is deployed in a cookie-cutter fashion, it will fail. Customers do not want to customize CRM… they have to. CRM partners know this, they have built a business around this need. Unfortunately, the traditional  “Consulting” approach simply adds too much to the cost of initial deployment; often being a non-starter for many companies who would otherwise benefit significantly from CRM.

RapidStart CRM eliminates this barrier to entry with our Wizard portal. Yes, we have actually employed real Wizards with Magic Wands to… okay, not really, but we did the next best thing. Our Wizard portal is essentially middleware that we have built to allow customers to easily customize their CRM deployment, quickly and easily without the need for the often significant upfront consulting costs.

I’ll bet the CRM partners are annoyed.

Actually, CRM partners are among the most active resellers of RapidStart CRM. Remember when I said these upfront costs were a non-starter for way too many of their customers. CRM partners were losing too many opportunities as a result. The real money in professional services does not come from getting new customers, “off the ground”; it is in the advanced development needs that come afterwards. You can’t get to those advanced needs, if the customer balks at getting started. Conversely, RapidStart CRM gets that customer onboarded and achieving adoption with a very high success rate. It is much easier to talk to a customer about those lucrative advanced needs, when they are successfully using CRM at a basic level.

Cloud Partners get in the Game

The “Consulting” that I mentioned above is also exactly what keeps many non-CRM partners on the bench when it comes to Dynamics CRM Online. By abstracting the consulting out of the equation, any partner can now engage with the CRM opportunity. The opportunity with Dynamics CRM online is real, Microsoft has put huge partner incentives behind it. By leveraging RapidStart CRM, you can absolutely generate significant cloud revenue.. right now. So stop reading this post and go sign up as a reseller and learn more about it.

The post What is RapidStart CRM for Dynamics CRM Online Hiding? first appeared on Steve Mordue MVP.

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