The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) is a high trust community that bring Microsoft partners together. The IAMCP is dedicated to help Microsoft partners grow and broader their business opportunities through partnering with other IAMCP members.

To effectively serve customers in today’s demanding business environment, partners must build strong complementary partnerships.

At The CRM Team we are passionate about how digital transformation is shaping the world and our aim is to help businesses innovate and continue to expand.

We are proud to be part of the IAMCP South Africa board and strongly believe that by partnering with other like-minded IAMCP members we will continue to be innovative and collaborative within our sectors.

Why join IAMCP?

• Develop business partnerships and opportunities.

IAMCP encourages its members to work together. A network of Microsoft partners, each specializing in a certain expertise, allows to create value that would otherwise be impossible to generate.

• IAMCP serves as a voice for Microsoft partners, providing valuable feedback on how they collaborate.

Benefits for South African partners joining IAMCP?

• Leveraging each other skills sets and strengths
• Partner 2 Partner opportunities
• Discover how to best navigate the Microsoft eco-system
• And more…

Become an IAMCP Member

With an IAMCP chapter membership, you can be a part of that change all while fostering the important personal and business relationships that lead to mutual growth.

IAMCP offers three types of membership. For the details of these membership types and the pricing information, read the IAMCP FAQ or reach out to your local chapter.

Bianca Kruger – Marketing Manager

Bianca Kruger is the Marketing Manager at The CRM Team, with responsibility for marketing programs, brand management, strategic marketing campaigns that drive business objectives. Bianca has over 10 years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing and holds a qualification in Business Management.

Innovative, Dynamic, and Passionate is what best describes Bianca.

What exactly is a hybrid workplace?

People perceive and apply hybrid working models in many ways. However, there is one unifying principle that underpins hybrid work: flexibility. Hybrid systems are inherently more adaptable than more uniform, inflexible models that require employees to work wholly or primarily in the same central place.

Workers in a hybrid work style have more flexibility to complete tasks when they are most efficient. Effective hybrid working involves the updating of formal flexible working rules, as well as the recognition that a one-size-fits-all strategy rarely actually suits anyone.

COVID-19 has led in significant changes in the way people work and wish to interact in the workplace during the last two years, and these changes are still ongoing.

The current difficulty for companies and employees is determining the optimum combination of in-person and remote work to fulfil the demands of a diverse collection of stakeholders.

Advantages of hybrid work

Hybrid employment has given some people new career options, greater family time, and the ability to choose whether to commute. However, they are not the only advantages.

1. Improvements in individual performance

Employees have diverse work habits and perform better in different environments; hybrid work allows employees to take advantage of this.

2. Hybrid work is a technique for retaining talent

Build-in flexibility may be a retention driver in the same way that the hybrid work choice enhances the talent pool.

3. It boosts productivity

A hybrid approach can provide flexibility and allow individuals to work to their strengths, increasing productivity. Teams may achieve a healthy mix of creativity and cooperation by promoting a culture that considers remote work as a beneficial option to completing deep-focus activities in the office. Employees who want solitude and quiet to concentrate or who flourish in an office environment might be offered the option of working where and when they are most productive.

4. It boosts mental health

According to Microsoft statistics, one in every five global survey respondents believes their company is unconcerned about their work-life balance. While work and life are rarely perfectly balanced, work-life fit is an essential component of any healthy working environment.

Challenges of Hybrid work

1. Despite all the talk about the great return to the office, the truth is that most organizations will continue to function remotely, at least in some degree, for the near future. This new reality of a completely scattered workforce jeopardizes one of the most crucial Agile principles: collaboration.

2. Keeping organizational agility

Understanding how and where the existing workforce is deployed, as well as ensuring that those employees are informed on objectives and goals, will be required.

Hybrid work has mostly influenced how Agile ceremonies operate. Many teams’ communication and collaboration might be hampered when not all the people in the room are present. Estimating and Retrospective Sessions are two of the most effective ceremonies for keeping your team on track during a project.

As a leader, you want to foster a hybrid work environment that is collaborative, efficient, and encourages team members to perform to their full potential. There are several approaches to achieve this aim in today’s ever-changing economic landscape.

When thoughtfully and strategically organized, the hybrid work model can propel your organization to new heights of productivity. Previously, the hybrid model was seen as an alternate work style. However, as more employees want flexibility, it will become increasingly widespread. Companies must address the requirements of their employees or risk losing talent to competitors.

Roehan Manders – Head of Delivery

Roehan completed a B.Com Entrepreneurship & Business Management at North-West University (awarded with Cum Laude) he is also a certified Scrum Master. After developing and running his own marketing website business, he successfully sold the business and became a business adviser, analyst, and high-income private banker. Roehan then used these skills to transition into project management where he trained in SCRUM and Agile methodology.

Imagine running the business of your dreams, but you can’t seem to get any sales or retain customers. Before you deem your business a failure, consider using CRM software.

Then, you can manage multiple things in one place to help promote your business and increase sales. And you don’t have to juggle different tools to get the job done or risk losing out on sales because of a lack of organization.

Read on to learn what you’ll have to deal with if you don’t use a CRM.

Managing Multiple Tools

When you don’t use CRM software, you have to manage multiple tools that do the same thing as a CRM. Good CRM solutions can help with everything from marketing and sales to customer service.

If you don’t have a CRM system you would need something to market your business, a sales tool, and a customer service system. All of those can take time and money to set up, and they may not even be as efficient as a CRM.

You may waste a lot of time trying to manage and connect the various tools to run your business. When that happens, you may lose out on sales and customers, so your overall business could suffer.

Less Data Access

Data is essential to making decisions for how to move your business forward. If you don’t use CRM software, you may not have as much access to customer data or management data.

When that happens, you may need to spend more time collecting data on the members of your customer base. However, using a CRM can make collecting and accessing data much easier.

Whether you want to make decisions about finances or product releases, having access to data can make a huge difference. You can track data without a CRM, but it will be much more difficult, especially as your business grows.

Manual Data Entry

Even if you can get some data, you may need to enter it manually into something like a spreadsheet. This will require you to spend more time on admin tasks and less time on actually helping customers.

You’ll need to decide how often you want to work on data entry and what data points you want to track. Then, you or someone on your team will have to input that data on schedule so that you can track it.

When you have a small business, you may be able to get away with manual business processes. But eventually, you won’t have time to track all of your data and will need CRM software.

Bad Data

Another risk of manual data entry is bad data, which refers to inaccurate or misleading data. You could do everything possible to make sure the data is correct, but you may still have some inaccurate entries.

If you don’t recognise the bad data, you may use it to make decisions. Depending on how inaccurate it is, you might make decisions that won’t help you reach your business goals.

You might implement business processes that will hurt your sales and growth. Fortunately, an accessible CRM can help you reduce the risk of bad data and its effects.

Missed Sales Opportunities

Not having a CRM can also affect your sales and revenue. You can easily miss out on chances to cross-sell and upsell customers to get them to purchase other offers.

A CRM can help you track what customers have purchased. Then, you can promote similar products or services that each customer can buy to help them even more.

While you may be able to offer upsells manually, it can be hard to track what to offer to each person. Meanwhile, a CRM can help you keep track of sales so that you can get people to buy more.

Weak Customer Relationships

Along with other business relationships, customer relationships are vital to the success of your business. However, building and maintaining those relationships can be difficult without a CRM.

You won’t have information on how the particular customer found you or what preferences they have. Not knowing that information may keep you from being able to sell to your customers.

For example, if someone found you through a referral, you would be able to use that when selling to them. But you’d have to know that’s how someone learned about you and your business.

Decreased Productivity

Not having a CRM may also keep you and your team from being the most productive you could be. The tasks you assign to your marketing, sales, and customer service teams may require the use of different tools.

Of course, employees will have to use different programs to do their jobs. However, it can take time to log into everything, and people can waste small bits of time switching between the programs you use.

By switching to CRM software, you can make sure everyone knows how to complete their tasks. Then, you can minimise confusion and maximise productivity.

Hard to Control

Even if you do have a good system to track data and work on customer relationship management, it can be hard to control. You may want certain employees to access only a few pieces of that system.

A CRM lets you control access so that people can get to only what they need. But if you use a spreadsheet or another program, you can only grant access to the entire thing or none of it.

That can make it easy for employees to access more data than they need for their jobs. Then, you may not have as much control over the use or accuracy of your data.

Will You Use CRM Software?

CRM software can make a huge difference in your productivity, sales, and other aspects of your business. Whether you have a massive corporation or a small team, you should start using CRM software.

Then, you’ll be able to manage your time better and focus on building good customer relationships to help your company grow. Soon enough, the CRM will be easy to use, so you don’t need to stress about the tech.

Are you ready to start using a CRM? Check out our Power CRM and get started today.

– A quick Google search defines inertia as “the tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged,” while Wikipedia defines it as “the resistance of any physical object to a change in velocity.” This includes changes in the speed or direction of motion.  One element of this quality is the tendency of things to continue travelling in a straight path at a constant speed in the absence of external influences.” It should come as no surprise, therefore, that individuals, by definition, oppose change. It’s perfectly normal and natural. Expect some resistance when implementing a new system in an organization; it’s natural, but for goodness sake do something about it. Apply the force that causes them to shift direction.

You must have a User Adoption Strategy in place.

Whether you believe in creation theory, are a big-bang fan, or anything else, there is one unavoidable truth:

Even the most ideal system is vulnerable to failure due to an internal element that far too many businesses overlook and disregard in their planning.

Who is the perpetrator? If you are not proactive, the same people for whom you made this paradise may corrupt it and turn it into a wasteland.

Your most cherished users are your greatest potential danger.

Simply put, we must reduce this risk…

History has shown that implementation efforts will fail in the absence of a strong user adoption strategy.

7 Reasons Why Technology Projects Fail…

I just bought a Haval Jolion Super Luxury.

To replace my 2015 Volvo XC60 T6 AWD R-Design Polestar, I would have loved a Volvo XC40 or perhaps the considerably smaller Volvo S40. Any vehicle would have sufficed as long as it was a Volvo, but my budget protested loudly.  I didn’t know anything about the Haval brand. So I conducted my research and found some extremely intriguing things about these vehicles, to the point where I was so pleased that I tracked down a car 500km away and had it delivered to me within 5 days, despite the 3-month waiting list for brand new vehicles. Because I was loyal to the brand I have owned before, I almost missed out on what I now consider to be the finest vehicle I have ever owned.

The point is that no matter how elegant and technologically advanced a car is, if no one embraces and utilizes it as soon as it leaves the factory, it may as well be a bicycle. This is a pretty typical end-user problem. Why should I use Excel when I already have this handy calculator? I don’t require SQL because I keep all of my client information in Excel. I don’t need the Power Platform because my SQL database has all of the information I want. People are naturally resistant to change from what they have gotten accustomed to and feel at ease with.

Alan Lee-Bourke is a Principal Consultant in Microsoft’s Adoption and Change Management Global Practice, a Prosci Certified Advanced Instructor, a Prosci Experienced Practitioner, and the Director of the Scotland Association of Change Management Professionals.

In a recent article titled “7 REAL REASONS WHY TECH PROJECTS FAIL,” he provides the following frightening statistics:

• 25% of IT projects fail outright
• 20% to 50% demonstrate no ROI
• and up to 50% require extensive revision when completed

The 7 reasons are…

 1. Poorly defined projects – this definition should cover more than just WHAT we are doing, but also:
– Why are we doing this?
– Why are we doing it right now?
– What will happen if we don’t?

2. Lack of leadership – An implementation project should never be confined to the IT department. Implementation is a business project which needs a strong key sponsor, who is active and visible – and one who will build a sponsor coalition and communicate effectively.

3. Lack of Accountability – Businesses simply must take responsibility for managing the change process. In our world that means getting users through the ADKAR process for them to make the project successful.

4. Ineffective or poor communication — Effective communication is crucial in change management.

5. User Testing & Feedback – We must focus on the end-user’s DESIRE to step out of their comfort zone and use the system.

6. When we evaluate ROI – When we go live, we will begin to see genuine business benefits from a people-dependent project.

7. Solving the incorrect problem — What are the issues, based on what your end-users are telling you? To put it another way, why would they want to switch to the new system?

At The CRM Team, we believe that to gain and maintain credibility, User Adoption Strategies must be actively led from the top down. The higher up, the better. The key sponsor should preferably be a member of the executive team – the CEO, MD, CIO, or CTO – and their message should be: “I am completely in support of this initiative.” The primary sponsor should then be supported by a Sponsor Coalition comprised of managers and supervisors who are in charge of influencing user behaviour in the departments affected by this project.

It is vital that the Key Sponsor and the Sponsor Coalition drive this change and emphasize the importance and urgency of the change. Their personal engagement is critical to the project’s success.

Reward and Recognition

A strong Recognition and Reward system would motivate and inspire users and fuel the User Adoption Drive.

The Recognition and Reward strategy can be built around key metrics such as

In terms of sales:

• Which Business Unit is working the hardest to increase sales?

In terms of Customer Service:

• The number of cases that have been resolved.

Just to name a few….

These are small steps to ensuring optimal user adoption. Each step building on the momentum and energy generated by the previous one.

Conclusion

Friedrich Nietzsche stated many things, most of which I disagree with, but one of them remained with me: “He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”

On the perilous journey toward User Adoption we must be careful to take each of these little steps to ensure that our system implementation does not crash and burn, but that it will fly and take your organization to new heights.

When you succeed, we succeed!

Mark James – Head of Training & User Adoption

Mark has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer for many years and has been training Dynamics since CRM version 4.0.

He specialises in Dynamics 365 end-user training and has trained across the UK, Africa, and the Middle East. Mark is proficient in Microsoft Dynamics 365: Sales, Service, Deployment, and Customization & Configuration.

Have you been wondering lately how to improve customer engagement? 

It’s no surprise that most of us wish we could improve customer engagement within our companies. But how do we do it? Is there a secret ingredient to figuring out how to improve customer relationships with our business? 

There’s not! But there are ways to improve customer engagement based on changing a few things with our businesses. 

Want to know how? Keep reading to learn our top tips for the best ways to improve customer engagement.

Track Data Analytics 

The only way to understand how our company is doing is to track the analytics of our social media platforms and our website. 

By looking at data analytics, we can better understand the type of behaviors our customers exhibit, their preferences, recurring trends, and what types of advertisements work. 

From there, we can decide what type of ads to use more often and which to do away with. Customer assistance can also change based on how customer engagement is going and what we see based on the analytics.  

Almost 60% of businesses worldwide invest in data analytics tools to track how they are doing and how to improve customer engagement on a consistent basis. 

Data analytics can be used to track how past advertisements and promotions went and what can be repeated as a means of engaging customers. Analytics can also help track email opens, lead generations, website clicks, social media engagement, and so much more. 

Tracking all parts of customer engagement technology and analytics is crucial to understanding what is working. This is also a way to understand what is not working to save money long-term. 

Always Ask for Feedback 

If we are searching to be the best company we can be when it comes to improving customer engagement, what better way to do than ask for feedback from the customers themselves? 

When we ask for feedback, we’re hearing directly from the sources themselves about what needs to be improved, what changes they wish to see, and anything else they want us to know. 

So how can we get the feedback we want? There are a few ways: 

• Email out surveys to subscriber lists 
• Attach surveys to invoices or receipts 
• Publish surveys on the website for any digital browser to see when passing by the site 

After customer support calls, a survey could be sent out to the customer to learn about their experience with the company. 

There are other ways to ask for feedback as well, these are just a few. 

Based on all feedback we receive, we need to make the changes in order to satisfy our customers and improve the relationships we have with them. 

Learn From Competition 

More likely than not, every business has a competitor. Our is no different. 

However, customers choose to work with businesses based on the support they feel and what they feel they align with more. In reality, there may not be much else that is different from two competing companies, or three, or four. 

To make sure we stay on top of our customer experience, paying close attention to competition can drastically improve customer engagement. 

How? Seeing what others do can help us understand what we could be doing better. It could also inspire us or motivate us to do something differently that customers may like better or resonate with more. 

Use the Right Technology to Improve Customer Engagement 

In our digital world, it can be hard to keep up with the ever-changing technology that presents itself. And that’s okay. But what we do need to ensure we do is keep up with some of the technology that will help improve customer experiences with the company. 

As mentioned before, one of these pieces of technology would be data analytics tools. Another would be using software that can automate some of the processes the company uses. 

For instance, email can be set on automation so that other things can be done. By automating emails, the customer experience will improve because they are already ready to be sent and will automatically send when an action is completed by a customer. 

If someone comes across the company’s website, we don’t want them to feel lost or have any questions go unanswered. Using virtual agents is one way to ensure that we interact with customers as much as possible. When customers know they can head to a website and receive the answers they are looking for right away, the overall customer experience improves, and they are more likely to come back again. 

The software used by each company may depend on the type of solutions that are needed. A retail company is going to need a different experience than a finance company for their customers. By tailoring it to the “type” of customer that we have, it is more likely that our customers have a better customer experience. 

Use These Tips to Improve the Customer Experience

One of the most important areas of business is satisfying customers. Without them, a business cannot thrive and grow like we hope it will. 

So how do we ensure our customer experience is the best it can be? By using these tips for customer engagement, our businesses can improve customer relationships and the customer experience exponentially. 

Ready to try this out? Check out our different software solutions to see which one fits best! You can also contact us for any questions!