6 Ways You Can Benefit from Maps and Dynamics 365 Integration

Organizations invest a lot in updating software in the best way possible to maximize output; you might be one of them. Sometimes, you do not find the right way of minimizing complications even after using multiple tools.

An organization's major challenge is handling the on-field sales reps’ team. Adding tools might not be the solution because handling multiple tools makes tasks even more complicated. It can cause more confusion rather than solving them.

There is not one but multiple challenges that they face. But a small plugin integration can resolve all of that. The plugin is a Dynamics 365 map. Let's find out how it can benefit your organization to overcome the challenges that you're facing. 

1. Better Understanding of CRM Data

Understanding data is a difficult task. You often neglect the minor differences, as just viewing CRM records misses visualization. Before executing any of your plans, analyzing the data can help you make better decisions.

But that minor difference can create a huge difference, especially while most of your decisions are based on the location data of your clients. For organizations having sales teams visiting clients personally to promote the product or sell products, client location is the first requirement.

Locations make more sense on a map rather than in a list form. And that is what map plugins provide. It helps improve data understanding by plotting all the CRM records on a map. You can see geotag pins all over the map. All those pins are your client locations.

With the integrated map plugin, the decisions you make for your organizations would improve. You can also use filters to have a more specific view of records or locations. It helps in getting better insights into data. And once you understand the data in a better way, you would have more solid plans to execute. 

For example, if you were planning to run your marketing campaign and the goal of that campaign is to make new customers. You must find regions that have the least number of clients. And if you wish to increase the sales of your existing product, you might want to target the area with more customers, as they would already know your brand. 

So, when you visually see the data on a map, whatever your strategy is, it brings in more clarity. If you are working hard to make a plan, why work blindly with a list when you can have it in picture format?

2. Search Nearby Clients on the GO

When you are visiting a client 50 miles away from your office, you want to make the most of that trip. You might remember some of your favorite clients' locations, but not all your employees would. You would want to utilize all your time, and the best way to do this is a quick catch-up with old clients in the nearby area. 

When you or your team is investing their time going that far to meet a client, there is a question that you must have. How would anyone traveling that far to meet one client make the best use of their time? And the answer to that is only if you can see the nearby clients and their details. 

This is exactly what map plugins do. It will fetch details from the calendar and show you nearby clients in the proximity of 5 miles/10 miles or whatever limit you decide. Thus, this proximity search results would show you clients in those areas so that you do not have to go far and wrap up meetings quickly. 

The one on the field or the one in the office, anyone can use the proximity search feature, give a lead to their teammates, and make the most out of their trips. For a company, it saves time for their employees. And also fuel, because what if they had to visit other clients in the same area as the previous ones!

3. Fastest and Shortest Route Optimization

We all use Apple Maps or Google Maps on a regular basis. It has made our lives so much easier that you can find routes at any new place. Even sales reps use these apps to reach their next destination. 

But they face a challenge while using it. Generally, they have to visit multiple clients in a day. Now they have to keep adding manually, the location details of clients one by one. The map does show them the route to their destination but what they are missing here is an entire route that covers all the locations they have to visit in a day. 

Because they do not have this feature, they often have to keep revisiting the same areas as they earlier had no idea which clients are near each other. Map plugins resolve this problem by designing routes that include all the client locations. 

The route avoids roads with extreme traffic. It will show you the time you reach your destination. If there are any traffic changes, it suggests the fastest routes available. It works similarly to the maps we use on our phones, but here, you do not have to add locations. All the location data is fetched from the CRM, and an optimized route is designed.

4. Better Resource Management

Managing a team is not an easy task, especially on-field teams. You do not have them around you to share your thoughts or suggestions. Collaborating with the team, maintaining communication, target completion, etc., becomes difficult. You do not have them around you to share your thoughts or suggestions. 

Managers have to wait longer to know whether their team is completing their task or not. They have to consider other factors as well, like; Are there any issues that need a quick fix? Are they meeting all the clients or adding fake details to complete their target? Is everyone doing their work faithfully? 

The manager alone is not going to verify all the details they fill up or ask them personally! You have to have an ideal way to deal with all these problems altogether. And that is when the map plugin strikes in. It has a feature to track the meetings of your sales reps. 

So, when they reach the client's location, they can check in, and when they are done with the meeting, they can check out. The geofencing feature is used here to ensure that all the check-in and check-outs are done at the client location and not anywhere else. It will not allow them to check in if they are not at the desired location or elsewhere. 

There are a lot of benefits of this feature: 

• No false entry of client meetings. They have to reach the client's location to check-in.
• Digital data of total time spent behind a meeting.
• Keeps managers updated about their team members' status.
• Meeting reports are added under the meeting itself so that it is easy to refer to.

When you start getting correct data, you can make better decisions for future actions. You can save your employees from overworking or improve their productivity with realistic data. For a company’s image and reputation, both of these situations matter.

5. Keep Data Secured With Security Templates

Showing all the data on maps sounds good, but it also increases the risk of a data breach. Bigger organizations have a lot of employees and you cannot keep track of what data goes where. A useful feature to simplify an organization's process might cost them a lot. 

Showing all the employees all the CRM data also makes no sense. Employees should have access to data that they might need and not everything. Map plugins are equipped with features that allow you to make security templates. 

You can create different types of templates for different job roles. Hence, employees will have access to the relevant data only. This would reduce the chances of security breaches. 

6.  Liberty to Have User Level Configuration

How do you like to view your maps? Zoomed in or out. Well, I personally like zooming in as it gives me more clarity when there are multiple exits. You might have some other opinion. It is not ideal for sales reps who have to drive a lot. They must keep adjusting the map as they like whenever they open it. 

But maps allow you to save your setting, so you do not have to keep adjusting the settings. When they open maps, it will show the map you saved earlier. It won’t reset all the settings. All sales reps can have their personalized configurations.

Conclusion

Organizations with on-field sales reps must consider this map plugin integration with the CRM. It can help streamline a lot of their process, as discussed above. It definitely improves sales performance and employees’ performance. 

You can plan better so that you receive results as desired. All you have to do is look for a Dynamics 365 map plugin on MS AppSource. Find a plugin that fulfills all your requirements. If they do not have a feature that you want, ask them to develop it for you. Most companies are open to customization.