Chart Your Course to Success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
A key benefit of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is how easily and efficiently you can display data in charts and dashboards. A chart is a visual representation of filtered data, or a view. A dashboard is a collection of charts, giving users an at-a-glance snapshot of the key performance indicators they want to track. Much like a dashboard in a car, it provides information on what’s going on with various functions at that precise moment.
Properly configured, charts and dashboards in CRM can be your organization’s go-to place for business intelligence. Charts and dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are not limited to information in the CRM proper; rather, CRM can connect to numerous other databases (ERP, accounting system, etc.) to bring in data from these diverse sources, to create a truly complete view of all key metrics.
Below is an image of a typical Sales Activity Dashboard in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Dashboards are by no means limited to sales activities: users can track absolutely any data that is important to their organization. This particular dashboard is comprised of five charts. Notice the variety of ways data can be displayed, including funnel, pie graph, bar graph and stack bar graph. Each chart can be customized to display data in the way individual users prefer.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives users powerful “drill down” capabilities with charts and dashboards. In the example below, one click on the Sales Pipeline funnel chart opens a window which shows all the data that it’s comprised of. Users are free to keep drilling down to more and more granular levels:
Now, one more click, this time on the purple “Develop” section of the funnel, reveals all the Sales Opportunities currently in the Develop stage:
From here, if a user wishes to review the individual Opportunities which comprise the Develop stage, they can click on any of the blue links to open the Opportunity:
Now the actual Opportunity record opens:
With just a few clicks, users can easily navigate from very high-level dashboard views to a very detailed look into the data.
Would you like to learn more about charts and dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Register for our free webinar on March 17. CRM expert Angelina Jacobs will take you through an informative session teaching you the basics of this key functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
by CRMDnamics,