Click Dimensions and CRM 2011 Online

I recently implemented Click Dimensions for a CRM Online project, and, well, I was impressed.  I take that back, I was “Wowed”!

No, this is not paid advertising and this post was not solicited.  I am writing this article because I want people to know that there is a Marketing solution, that in my humble opinion, outperforms the other Marketing solution add-on products available today. 

One of the best features from my perspective is the application integration with the Dynamics CRM application.  Most CRM marketing solutions require the user to leave the CRM application to do things like generate rich html e-mail templates, send e-mails and do other Marketing related activity.  Those solutions will then push certain results back into CRM and relate the results in a way that helps with tracking certain events and reports.

Here is where Click Dimensions really separates itself from the pack.  The first thing you’ll notice after deploying the Click Dimensions solution and selecting the CRM Marketing module, is that Click Dimension entities are available directly below the default CRM Marketing entities.   

Aside from the impressive level of integration, the big win from an end user perspective is that users don’t have to leave CRM to do Marketing related tasks.  That’s right, everything is done within the CRM application.  I know of no other CRM Marketing solution that provides this level and depth of integration.  For me, this is a huge productivity gain as users don’t have to learn two application interfaces and can quickly move from Marketing related activity to other CRM activity.  There is no toggling between applications.

As I walked through the first part of the implementation process, one of the first things I did after deploying the application was to create an e-mail template. Per the instructions, I went to the Marketing module and selected E-mail template from the left navigation menu. 

That’s right, users don’t have to go to Settings, Templates but rather they stay within the Marketing section of CRM, where they spend the majority of their time anyway.  Awesome, I love it!  Now if that is not enough, take a look at the e-mail that I created in the time it took me to copy and paste. 

….and for those of you who like design options, did you notice the html editor toolbar, the ability to view the e-mail in Design, HTML and to preview your changes.  If that is not enough, you also have a text version option available from the same window.

Now that I’ve created my e-mail, saved and closed it, I can select the E-mail Sends link directly above E-mail template and send my e-mail. 

So with this feature alone, think about how much time you’ve just saved the end user and company vs. other solutions where you either have to click around in Settings to create e-mail templates, leave CRM to go to another application’s HTML e-mail editor or something different. 

Oh by the way, you can also create and send e-mail directly from Outlook using Click Dimension’s, “Outlook Cast” feature.  Did you catch that, Marketing can generate CRM Marketing e-mails from within Outlook.  From my perspective, the e-mail integration, management and generation features alone are incomparable. 

The above is only one feature of the Click Dimension’s solution.  I haven’t touched on Web site integration, rich and deep tracking, reporting and the many other features available.  If you are considering a Marketing Solution for Dynamics CRM then I encourage you to use Click Dimension as the standard to measure the rest.

Cheers,