Dynamic filters in Route Planning in Dynamics 365 for Sales

Route Planning is an Add-On in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, developed by Intech. It helps you plan your appointments on map by analyzing the Dynamics CRM data and plotting it across the routes.
Route Planning has been enhanced with dynamic filters. Dynamic filters help you select a specific account which we want to see in route planning. This filter will help you in saving much of your time by giving you optimized routes of selected accounts.
For example, it’s not possible to visit all the companies situated in Ahmedabad in a day. So, you can select a specific area for visits. Here’s when dynamics filter of Route Planning in Dynamics 365 for Sales comes to your rescue.

route planning_home 1

Steps to be followed:

Let us start with account/customer. For route planning, it is mandatory for an account to have latitude and longitude of the located address.
We have added territory field in account form as we have configured territory filter in route planning map. Here, Ahmedabad is the territory.

route planning territory field 2

Click on route planning and you’ll see the territories available in Dynamics 365 for Sales.

3-route planning option

Click on the territory (here, Ahmedabad) and now map is blank because user have to select Ahmedabad territory area from account sub grid.

route planning territory field 4

Here, you’ll see a sub grid of accounts. You can select an account which you want to add in Route Planning. Now, you will see only the filtered accounts of specific territory. Click on the associated sub grid button located on the right side of account sub grid.

5-associated sub grid

Click ‘Add existing account’ button. You will then see the accounts with Ahmedabad territory. It is a custom account filtered view. So, you can select any territory and you will get the accounts based in that territory only.

route planning-select account 6

You will see a filtered account view. Here, we have selected Ahmedabad as a territory so only the accounts in Ahmedabad territory will show up.

8-select account for route planning
7-select territory for route planning

Then allow Dynamics CRM to access you location.

9-allow location access

Once you allow access to your location, you will get optimized routes and distances to all the areas of the selected territory from your location. It will automatically optimize the route for the appropriate customer of the selected territory’s latitude and longitude recorded on Customer Card.
Optimized route means nearest location from your current location.

10-optimized route

You can see the address of customer in white box by clicking on Google Marker Pin.

11-google marker pin

You will also see a table, which shows Route location information. It is directly mapped with CRM customer. In this table,

  • A: Current location of sales person (Current User of CRM).
  • B: Nearest location from Current User’s Location i.e. A.
  • C: Nearest location from location B.
  • F: The destination of route planning which is marked as red color in map.

 

12-route table

 

Want to know more about Route Planning and its dynamic filters? Let’s get in touch.

Empower customers with Self service portal

You must have seen self-checkout options at supermarkets. Self service portals are growing at a fast pace. Customers don’t want to waste their time standing in a queue and waiting for their turn. With increase in the availability and use of social media and applications, customers have become independent.
According to one survey, 50% of customers think it’s important to solve product or service issues themselves and 70% expect a company’s website to include a self service application. According to Gartner,by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human.

Why is self service on rise?

Customers are constantly on run. They don’t want to stay on hold over a phone or stand in a queue. They want instant solution to their problem. Today, they have become accustomed to follow few steps on an application or a portal and get their issues resolved. They are habituated to lesser human interaction.
Young generation is more inclined to such technology. They want to solve issues instantly. As a result the demand of self service portal is growing majorly from their part.

Make it user-friendly

You cannot just sit back and relax once you have provided self-service portal or such applications. You have to constantly evolve the portal. Make sure that your customers find your self service portal easy to use and user friendly. It won’t make sense if they mostly see the app not working or the clumsy interface. You need to research, plan, and design the portal in such a way that the burden on your employees lessen and your customers’ issues get resolved easily than before.

Show them how to use it

Just providing them an app or a portal on website won’t make their work any easier. Rather show them how it’s done. Manuals and videos will make them acquainted to your self service portal. Also, let them ask questions if they still have any issues. Try to give them enough information that they don’t get stuck and have to take your help. You can then analyse the user engagement, their feedback and improve the portal as per their needs.
In conclusion, Self service portal doesn’t mean leaving customers on their own but to help them wherever they get stuck. Just in a different way. Empower your customers to help themselves and lessen burden on your employees. Do more with Dynamics 365 for Customer Service.
In case of any query, contact our experts.

Address Locator for Dynamics 365 for Sales

It is important for you to keep a track of what your sales team is up to. Tracking their performance and progress is one of the ways to ensure that they are working on their assigned projects. Sometimes, you might also want to know the exact location of your salesperson.
In Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, you won’t have to enter the addresses of the companies you visit. Intech has developed an add-on named ‘Address Locator’. Address locator lets you capture current location of visited company/customer through the mobile app.

Address Locator can:

  • Support in Account & Lead entity
  • Be used through mobile app and tablet app
  • Reduce time to in entering address details in lead and account.
  • Help you in tracking sales persons’ actual visits

How it works:

Sales person can create new leads/accounts directly from prospect’s location through their mobile device. On checking “Get Address”, the system will collect information of current location and update address in lead or account. Hence, on-field sales executives don’t have to feed address when they are in market. It will save their time and increase their productivity. It will also reduce manual errors as the location will be fetched automatically.
Not only location, Address Locator will also record the date and time of the data entered. This helps you to keep a check on the daily work of sales persons too.

How to use Address Locator?

To leverage the benefits of this app, follow these steps:

  • Download ‘Address Locator’ from app source.
  • Import it in your Dynamics 365 instance and publish all customization.
  • Make sure that lead and account entities are enabled for mobile and table app use.

To start getting location, configure the following settings in Dynamics 365 for Sales mobile app.

  • On Dynamics 365 mobile and tablet app, navigate to Home –> Settings as show in below screen.

 

address locator_settings

 

  • Select “Device Integration Setting” and enable User content and location

 

address locator_device integrationaddress locator_user control

On completion of above setting, you may use this feature by navigating account/lead module in app

  • Navigate to Lead/Account

 

address locator_navigate

  • Click on + button to create new Lead

 

address locator_new lead

  • Fill require information in Lead quick create form.
  • Select “Yes” option in field: “Get Address”

 

address locator_get address

By this method, phone or tablet app will collect current location in form of longitude and latitude and fetch the address from the same.
Want to know more about Address Locator and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales? Contact our experts.

Top 6 advantages of Dynamics 365

In this time of digital transformation, businesses are looking for opportunities to integrate all the aspects of business. Such a solution, which not only connects the processes of businesses but also add value to them, is now not difficult to find. With Dynamics 365, a combination of ERP and CRM on cloud, you can be sure to receive innumerable benefits. Not only the core business apps but also the power of Cortana Intelligence and Power BI, analytics from Azure Machine Learning, and the productivity power of Office 365 makes Dynamics 365 a total game changer.
Here are the top 6 advantages of Dynamics 365:

Convenienceconvenience icon

You can access Dynamics 365 anywhere, at any time, on any device as it is cloud-based. Your employees don’t have to wait to return to workplace for entering the data. And your on-site team can see the updates right away. Always be aware of who is working on which document and get the updates within seconds.

Productivityproductivity icon

No doubt your people must be wasting a lot of time doing repetitive tasks, reducing their productivity. Stay assured that all these monotonous tasks are combined into a workflow to save time for other important tasks. Dynamics 365 makes employees more productive, because they have access to both the insights they need to make the best decisions and the tools they need to do their work.

Built-in Business Intelligencebi icon

Power BI, Cortana Intelligence and Azure Machine Learning are all natively embedded in Dynamics 365. These technologies offer predictive capabilities that help employees identify new opportunities. Get a 360-degree view of your customers, forecast trends, make reports, get insights and turn tons of data into useful information. Take smarter decisions and create more effective marketing campaigns for the right target audience.

Data integrationdata integration icon

Dynamics 365 gives you choice to connect data from various sources or systems to give you a comprehensive look of your business. It also integrates well with Office 365. It means you don’t have to switch between screens to get your work done. Compose data using Azure Machine Learning and then apply them as per your needs. Get insights from Power BI and make smarter decisions. Get all the information in one place.

Scalabilityscalability icon

Dynamics 365 gives you affordable calability and helps you expand. You have an option to start with what you need and expand as your business needs change. Dynamics 365 offers a modular system to ensure that end user gets only what he needs. With a monthly subscription system, Dynamics 365 gives you the ability to scale up and down when your needs change. Only pay for what you need, when you need it.

Cost-effectivecost-Management icon

Dynamics 365 brings together all your unconnected systems – ERP, CRM, BI, Office 365 and Azure. Thus, it helps you in saving costs of varied systems and still be more productive. No additional cost of training different people for different systems. Plus, the monthly subscriptions make it easier to change the cost based on usage. Also, Dynamics 365 eliminates the need to manage your own data centre and servers, which can lead to significant savings.

Why Dynamics 365?

Still wondering? Dynamics 365 provides a great potential to streamline your business activities and that too with an optimum cost. This is the main objective of any business. Dynamics 365 gives you all your business needs – reduced costs, increased productivity, built-in insights, insightful reports and much more.
Would you like to know more? Contact us and we would be happy to give you a demonstration to how Microsoft Dynamics 365 can take your business to a next level.

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