Small measures with a big impact - process optimization with Microsoft Flow and Dynamics 365

In every company, there are processes that are carried out in this way because it has always been this way. However, this often involves a great deal of effort each time. This was also the case with our process for opening new customers in our CRM system (Dynamics 365). As is so often the case, revisions and initiatives to improve the process were repeatedly postponed, delayed and canceled - until an internal update was essential. Today we ask ourselves why we waited so long, but as we all know, hindsight is always wiser.

What we had...

Only certain employees were authorized to open customers in CRM. This was to avoid duplicates or incorrect customer names in the system. Our team therefore collected all the information and packaged it in an email that was sent to the central CRM administration.

Most of the time, you asked yourself with every new customer: 'What are the mandatory fields again? To find them out, you first had to log into the CRM system, open an existing customer and copy the fields with the red stars into the email.

The information was then received by one of the responsible persons. This person checked the information before it was transferred (copied) from the email to the CRM. The person responsible for the customer was then informed that they could now continue working with the newly created account (e.g. open an opportunity or contact). In the event of uncertainties, queries were of course asked first, which sometimes led to an unnecessary flood of emails that made the administration of our CRM very unpopular.

Sounds cumbersome and time-consuming? It was obvious that this process was not very efficient and the team discussed more than once about possible simplifications... but it was always like this, we knew the procedures and everyone was extremely busy with more important things...!

The transformation

Once it was clear that something had to be changed, a small team took on the project. They questioned the entire process internally and quickly realized that it could be greatly simplified.

How? The keyword here is Flow, a cloud application from Microsoft that can automate a lot with the right commands. All we needed was a chain of actions that reflected the desired optimizations, as well as a rudimentary understanding of programming. With the help of our innobit experts, nothing stood in the way of the innovation and we were able to implement the crucial changes.

What we have changed...

First of all, the restrictions on authorizations were lifted so that all employees can open new customers directly in CRM. An additional field sets the new entry to the status "unchecked". In the background, a flow triggers all new customers and sends an approval message to the responsible team. This contains a direct link to the newly created customer, which only needs to be checked and confirmed with a click. The person responsible for the customer is then automatically informed and can continue their work.

Since its introduction, we have experienced the following benefits in particular:

• Faster registration and processing of new customers
• More motivated employees, solution is seen as "cool"
• Less effort in the departments

This is only a small process, but it can have a significant impact on many new CRM entries. For our sales and admin teams, it has made day-to-day operations much easier and we are once again taking the well-known moral from this: don't be afraid of changes in the system!

Have you had similar experiences? Tell me about it in the comments.