Microsoft Dynamics CRM Spring 2016 Wave is upon us! It’s scheduled to be released in Quarter 2 for online customers. The latest release focusses on integrating features from FieldOne and AdxStudio, providing customers with market leading capabilities for field service and portal solutions for community engagement. It also introduces guided user navigation and the hotly anticipated project service.
Here’s a quick look at the highlighted key features.
Portal Integration
Microsoft acquired Adxstudio in 2015. Renowned for their portal products, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 features a version of the Adxstudio product.
Portals bridge the gap between your website and CRM. Essentially, a portal is a medium that facilitates the transfer of data for scrutiny and interrogation directly into Dynamics CRM. It’s possible to capture a wide variety of data with standard contact forms, complex forums and much more. All this information is committed directly into Dynamics CRM, instead of having to manually enter the data.
The Spring 2016 Wave introduces an array of ‘out of the box’ templates that you can tweak for use, meaning you won’t need a costly development solution to integrate portals in your site hierarchy.
Field Service Module
With the acquisition of FieldOne in 2015, Microsoft has moved quickly to integrate FieldOne into Dynamics CRM. The new Field service module is essentially a tool that facilitates and tracks the delivery of products or services to a customer’s location. Field Service includes inventory tracking, asset management (managing your workforce, including field-based teams) and advanced scheduling.
It drives all of this through a mobile orientated solution. The premise is that your field assets should have the most up-to-date information they require to conduct their job. For example, a courier should have detailed despatch notes or an IT technician should be able to access detailed information on their client’s requirements.
Project Service Module
Project service is a tool that’s designed to help your organisation to deliver tasks in a costly and timely manner. You’ll be able to plan your projects, allocate resources and manage your time and expenses. It does all of this in visual interface that’s fully integrated into Dynamics CRM 2016.
Project Service, is designed to work very closely with Field Service and extends Dynamics CRM into a single solution for sales, delivery and billing.
Guided User Navigation
On-boarding with new software is a painstaking process. Often, when a new member of the team arrives, you have to carefully chaperone them through how to use the new software. This new release of Dynamics CRM 2016, features guided user navigation – a series of guided tutorials, geared towards training staff efficiently. It uses a series of prompts to simulate what each task in CRM.
The tutorials can even be role based, so contextual information is given to the user in the tutorial, making your on-boarding process more efficient and boosting organisational productivity.
For more information about the features coming up in Dynamics Spring 2016 Wave, check out the video below or call our experts on 020 3004 4600 or fill in our online contact form.
