Microsoft CRM in Latin America: Implementation, Customization, Support ? Overview for Consultant

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the US software market plus it makes advances in Europe. We expect substantial number growth of Microsoft CRM implementations across South and Central America and the need for Microsoft CRM implementation, support, tuning, reporting, training services, especially in such countries as Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Chili, Costa Rica. In this small article we try to project US market lessons on Latin American business climate.

? Sales. Microsoft CRM in opposite to former CRM leaders, such as Siebel, Onyx, Saleslogix doesn't need hard pushing sales efforts. It also should probably not be sold to the company top management, but rather to IT department enthusiasts, who are in charge for specific legacy business system support and data fixing. Microsoft CRM is very simple from business logic and intuitively understood by IT group. It is rather very simplified version of full-featured CRM, such as again Siebel.

? Installation. Microsoft CRM should be either hosted or installed by in-house IT group. And this is due to the fact, that MS CRM utilizes all the resent Microsoft technologies: MS Exchange Server 2003/2000, Active Directory, MS SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, MS Outlook client, Microsoft IIS, .Net components, etc. This makes installation sensitive to existing setup of the above components

? Implementation. The crucial in the implementation is Workflow design, which should be probably done by consultant with IT in-house specialist. This process doesn't require a lot of business consulting knowledge and in our experience company middle management actually makes suggestions in the time of initial presentation. In the case of MS CRM Sales module ? the workflow should organize leads processing up to the point of closing the deal and following invoicing. When workflow is realized sales team works as excellent orchestra.

? Customization. Usually MS CRM ties together existing legacy business systems and replaces large portion of them. Typical case ? if you are freight forwarding client and have cargo tracking system ? you should more likely have lookup from the MS CRM account screen to the customer current shipments statuses. This is usually made as small web application, created in Visual Studio.Net with MS CRM SDK and SQL queries to legacy database.

? Support. Because MS CRM is web application ? it can be used by remote users and automate operations across the whole South America and even Worldwide. The same should be said about MS CRM support ? your Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Partner can support your installation remotely from say office in San Pablo as if it is located across the street.

Good luck implementing, customizing and reports designing and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call in San Pablo: 55-11-3826-3449, 55-113825-2586! [email protected]

Andrew is MS CRM Specialist in Microsoft Business Solutions Partner Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) ? Navision, Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving client in Mexico-city, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Bogota, Caracas, Panama, San Jose, Lima, Quito, Madrid, Barcelona and having locations in multiple states and internationally