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Tricia Desso-Cox's Articles

Is Your Leadership Team Steering or Stifling Progress?

Steering committees aren't just responsible for high-level strategic planning. Learn how to utilize your team to execute the long-term vision for a platform.


 


Hey Administrator, Don't Be An Order Taker

You have the power to be the driving force behind a partnership, not just an order taker. Learn how to prevent fragments in business trust and problem solve.


Go Team! Just in Time Service Delivery

Want to work with a partner who always has a team member available with the right skills and schedule to meet your needs? Introducing Just in Time Service Delivery.


Why You Need a Corporate Knowledge Base

Does your organization lack a corporate knowledge base containing internal education materials for users to consume via self-service? Learn the real cost of corporate knowledge loss and how you can start a company knowledge base today.

How to Say "Know" to Demos for Business Solutions

Demos are helpful to make a decision on what business solution, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, will solve your problem best. Learn a few key things you need to know before asking for your next sales demo.


COVID-19: A New Era of Employee and Customer Engagement

For some businesses and their customers, the transition to digital is quite a hardship. Maybe even downright impossible due to the nature of the work they provide. Learn how businesses are handling the digital transition and some examples of how it could work for yours!



4 Core Principles of Technology Project Management

I once had a project manager on the client team ask me why I was capturing such detailed notes in a requirements meeting. That question took me by complete surprise. After all, my role wasn't to capture requirements, conduct any business analysis, or architect any solutions…or was it?


What You Need to Know About the New Microsoft Dynamics Upgrade Cycle

If your organization is using Dynamics 365 Online or is considering moving to online, there are a few things you need to know and consider about the upgrade cycle. This blog pertains to Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Field Service, and Project Service Automation.

CRM Sales User Persona: Skilled Carpenters, or All Thumbs?

Home improvement work in my house means dial 1-800-ask-Dad.  I'm all thumbs, but my Dad is a skilled professional.  Watching Dad do his thing a few weekends ago got me thinking about how this relates to our CRM Sales Reps.  Are they all thumbs like me, or skilled professionals like my Dad - and how do we help them improve?

Sales Rep CRM Persona

CRM Accountability: Did someone say fitness challenge?

Just like getting fit takes more than buying a fitbit and some exercise equipment, adopting CRM takes more than good technology and training.  It takes teams, commitments, accountability, setting goals, and celebrations. Walk with me through a CRM burpee challenge to improve your adoption...


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OneNote for Sales Rep Note Taking: An Interview

This week I got to witness first hand how a successful Sales Rep is using OneNote and Dynamics 365 to effectively capture notes during the sales process.  Below are the insights that came from a follow-up interview with the Rep.

Sales Rep Note Taking

Top 6 Dynamics 365 Policy/Compliance Items During an Implementation or Upgrade

Getting ready to implement Dynamics 365 or getting ready to upgrade your existing implementation? Don't forget to make some time to evaluate policies and compliance items as a part of your plan. The following six policy and compliance items are often overlooked, or worse yet, noted as a future to-do that never actually gets done.


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Tired of rework? Learn how to maximize personas in your CRM and Intranet initiatives!

Does this series of images look familiar? Do you frequently hear, "that's not what we asked for" or "it doesn't work the way we expected it to"? You're not alone! Research over the last decade demonstrates that between 30% and 60% of customer relationship management and enterprise collaboration initiatives fail. But why? Some would blame the technology, others might focus on the business process or lack thereof. But, let's stop for a moment and take a look at people. 

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Poor Master Data Management can be like the Rush Hour Commute

Data is the fuel that powers decisions in almost every type of business.  When it doesn't flow smoothly, the entire business suffers.  In this article we look at what master data management (MDM) is, how poor MDM can create traffic jams, and the basics of keeping your data flowing smoothly.


Master Data Management

What Acupuncture Taught Me About Organizational Culture

Corporate culture. We know that great ones produce great products, great places to work, and great customer experiences. But what causes cultural problems, and what are some practical steps to take to turn the corner? In this article, we look at what business culture can learn from... acupuncture!



The Seven Deadly Sins of CRM Adoption

When it comes to CRM and user adoption, there seems to be a false sense of "if we build it, they will come." Not. True. Sure, customer facing employees want and almost always need tools to make the job of serving the customer easier. However, there are so many reasons why CRM doesn't end up either meeting those needs or just causing more work on these already overtaxed resources. So where are we going wrong and how do we begin to turn it around?


Customer Journey Maps: More Than Buying

When most organizations talk about "customer experience," they limit their thinking to the buying experience.  In this article, we take a look at the broader customer journey, and the steps for transitioning your thinking from "sales process" to "customer experience" before, during, and after the buying decision is made.

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Employee Engagement - It's NOT an Initiative, it's a Culture

Employee engagement – it’s just one of the latest buzz words floating around. But what does it really mean? I can tell you that it’s not just performance plans, timely feedback and evaluations. We need to stop being so focused on the employee’s productivity and start focusing on their experience in the workplace. If an employee is having a good experience, it stands to reason that this will allow them to be more productive and engaged. So how do we do that? Let’s take a look at five principles to get us there…
Engaging Employees with SharePoint

Video: Microsoft CRM Project Service Automation

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 U1, Microsoft has included an optional new area called project service automation (or PSA). This 3 minute video provides a brief high-level overview.

Six Tips To Manage Active Listening In Your Next Meeting

How many times have you facilitated a meeting where you shared all of the information that needed to be covered, only to have people messaging, emailing or calling with questions about the content an hour, a day or a week later? Frustrating right? So how do you achieve the goals of your next meeting, in a meaningful way, that will stick with your audience? Let's examine 6 quick tips.


Productive Business Meetings, Engaged Participants. It's not a myth, it's LUCK!

Tired of the same old meetings? We have some good news for you. Meetings can actually be productive, dare we say, exciting and meaningful! Read on to learn how to use the tried and true LUCK Principle™ paired with dynamic LUCKSTORMING™ sessions.

 

Maximizing Your “Support” Investment

imageChances are, if a company has invested in a collaboration or relationship management solution without an experienced solution partner offering ongoing coaching, support and training, its internal IT support staff is feeling the sentiments of one or more of the following: “I have 7 other jobs”, “Management thinks it’s just another application, like Outlook”, “I’d rather do anything than try to learn this”, “I don’t spend enough time on this to ever be very good at it”. Have you said, or heard, any of these statements? Then read on.

The Components of a Successful Roadmap Engagement – Part Two

In part two of this successful roadmap engagement series, we'll look at Risk and Obstacle Evaluation, Business Case and ROI, Culture Change, Training, Adoption, and Future Planning.

The Components of a Successful Roadmap Engagement – Part One

The idea of engaging in a road mapping exercise has gained in popularity in recent years due to the ever changing technology landscape and the pace at which new business process evolves. Contrary to popular belief, a roadmap is not just a pretty Visio! It is not one size fits all, so don’t let the expectations or results of others dictate the expectations for your engagement. This blog series will explore some of the most critical aspects of a road mapping project.t.

It’s All About The User Story. Are You Successful In Getting From “Once Upon A Time” to “The End”?


User stories are the most important aspect of delivering a successful agile project that meets (or even exceeds) the expectations of the client. The story can serve as the vehicle for determining scope, sprint planning, requirements gathering, specification documentation, as well as test script creation and training documentation. So great care must be taken to elicit, document, and gain consensus on and approval of the client’s needs before executing.

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Blog Topics

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CPR for CRM Study

The complementary paper includes over 12 years of research, recent survey results, and CRM turnaround success stories.

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SharePoint Readiness Assessment

This 60-second assessment is designed to evaluate your organization's collaboration readiness.

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CRM Self Assessment

Learn how you rank compared to organizations typically in years 1 to 5 of implementation - and which areas to focus on to improve.

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SharePoint Feedback Solution

This is a sandbox solution which can be activated per site collection to allow you to easily collect feedback from users into a custom Feedback list.

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SharePoint Upgrade Checklist

Whether you are upgrading to SharePoint Online, 2010, 2013 or the latest 2016, this checklist contains everything you need to know for a successful transition.