2. Introduction
The Microsoft CRM 4.0 User Handbook is for people using and evaluating Microsoft CRM. A lot of ground is covered with an emphasis on providing a full and concise summary of all the features of CRM rather than a step-by-step guide.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can be configured to influence and monitor many of the communication processes that your business has with its customers. This handbook helps you explore all the functionality that Microsoft CRM offers you as a user.
You will understand the sales cycle, how to run a marketing campaign, and how to schedule appointments and service activities. The user interface is explored in full, both from a web browser and from the Outlook client for CRM, and you will learn how to run a mail merge to Word and export to Excel.
Customisation and workflow features are covered from a user point of view and we do not discuss installation or programming issues (although the author is a programmer). We recommend that you purchase Working with Dynamics CRM 4.0 by Mike Snyder and Jim Steger if you need to begin extending CRM beyond what is possible with the user interface.
This document provides you with a comprehensive look at Microsoft CRM 4.0 and can be supplemented with books covering CRM 3.0 which are still relevant. One recommendation would be the Your working day with Microsoft CRM document distributed by Microsoft (see resources).
There are many facets of CRM, and we cover most of them here. The book does not need to be read sequentially and you can dip into each chapter as required. You could skip the first two chapters if you are keen just to get started with Microsoft CRM but we encourage you to read the chapters on Using CRM, Customers, and Activities (and Outlook if you are using it) before exploring other areas.
The document you are reading is available online at http://www.redware.com/handbooks/mscrmhandbook.html and you will find corrections and additions there. Please register for us to send you details of updates to this book and future publications.
We welcome comments and suggestions by email to stamati.crook@redware.com. Please notify us of any errors or suggestions so that they can be corrected promptly.