8 Reasons to Prioritize Dynamics 365 Map Integration

Businesses are trying to make the best use of location data with the use of Dynamics 365 Map to improve sales performance. Location intelligence plays a huge role in designing and executing marketing strategies.

They often use multiple tools to manage different things like a CRM for all the data, a navigation tool to reach the desired location, a project management system for project management, a calendar for reminders, etc. But the major challenge they face is in visualizing the data.

Managing different tools becomes difficult, and as a result, they do not use them or update it later on for the sake of it. It consumes time and hampers employees’ productivity. Businesses should find a tool that has all this integrated so that it becomes easier for the employees to use it and for the management to get the real figures.

Dynamics 365 map users are lucky in that case, as there are plugins in the market resolve all the issues. These Dynamics 365 map plugins integrate with your CRM and fetch all the CRM data on the map.

It is a beneficial integration that can help sales and marketing teams increase sales and simplify the workflow. Let’s have a look at the reasons that show why you should prioritize this integration.

• Master Data Analysis Skill

Dynamics 365 map helps you manage tons of records. But while planning marketing strategy or analyzing sales numbers, it becomes difficult for the teams to visualize where these numbers come from. For example, if a specific region is performing well or not, it is unclear with sheets and graphs.

Location Intelligence, when used right, can improve your business performance. It has filters that help in analyzing profit, revenue, sales, etc. With the help of heat maps, you can use different densities as a scale to measure sales performance. With a simple login, users have a view of geographical representation of all the data.

• Data Plotting on Map

It is a technique to represent the data on a map to make it more understandable and improve visibility. It becomes easy to understand the relation between different entities and records.

Any CRM records can be plotted on a map and filtered based on locations, regions, or territories. The sales and marketing team can visualize the data and plan their next move based on it.

You can choose what entities you wish to show on the map. And when the pins are on the map, you hover over the pins and see other details. The details are customizable, and so are the records you want to see on a map. So, while analyzing the data, you must filter the data you want and how much you want to see.

• Proximity Search

Marketing teams are always in a dilemma on where their next marketing campaign should be so that they can convince more people and increase sales. It depends on products and strategies whether they want to target a region with more customers or one with fewer customers.

With proximity search, you can view the customers nearby any specific location. You can choose any origin point, and you would have concentric circles showing the customers around the origin. But how would they figure out the regions with more or fewer customers?

These results are shareable; you can also save them for future reference. You can share this information with your sales reps to find more customers nearby. This feature makes the execution part more effective and result driven.

• Go Via Shortest Path

Sales reps travel the whole day from place to place to meet clients. They often get stuck in traffic, are unaware of the shorter routes, or cannot find the right location even after using other web mapping platforms.

They have to add addresses manually to Google Maps, Bing Maps, or Apple Maps. Once they have traveled to that place, they would have to add the next address again. All this consumes a lot of their time. 

Acknowledging this issue, Dynamics 365 map plugins have a feature called route optimization. Using this feature, you can select all the locations you have to visit, and it would optimize a route with the shortest distance.

The plugin suggests routes that have no road closures or extensive traffic. You can also find routes with no toll booths or avoid highways. The major benefit of this feature is that it helps in minimizing the traveling time. For an organization, it helps in saving cost on fuel.

For instance, if, on average, your employees are saving an hour of traveling time, add up, and you will have a total number of hours and fuel saved. Thus, this plugin simplifies the sales rep’s daily journeys and helps organizations increase their profit margins.

• Track Appointment Schedule and Sales Reps Live Location

When you do not have any technology to track the meeting timings, it becomes hard for the managers to know how much time a sales rep spends in one meeting. This data is required to finalize the number of clients they can visit in a day. 

For example, managers would try to reach maximum clients in fewer days to approach them for a new product. They wish to have client feedback as soon as they can. But, managers do not have exact data on the total time a sales rep spends in a meeting.

They assign targets to sales reps, which are often not achieved by them, or sales reps have to work overtime to achieve their targets. Either case is not fruitful for an organization in the long run.

But with map integration, you can have exact data on time spent behind each meeting, start and ending time, and assurance that your sales reps visited the client. It has a feature called check-in/check-out. When the sales reps reach the client’s location, they can check in for the appointment. Once their meeting is completed, they can check out. They can also add the meeting details and any report related to it.

To assure that your sales reps have checked in from the client location and not from anywhere else, there is a feature called geofencing. It only allows checking in when the sales rep reaches the said location. You can track sales reps’ live location and guide them about a new lead they can cover on their way.

• Easily Find Nearby Places

The sales reps and managers are always looking for restaurants, cafes, and banquets for their appointments because not all appointments are in offices! Sales reps must find gas stations to refill fuel, pharma stores and hospitals in case of emergency, etc.

They must manage multiple tools to find different things like route details, nearby places, client details, etc. It is not convenient to manage different things in different places.

But if you have maps integrated with your CRM, you can just use one tool for all your work. The Dynamics 365 map allows you to find nearby places. You can search those places and add them to your routes. This feature shows the time required to reach the location, so you can plan the rest of the things accordingly, whether meeting at a cafe or low fuels!

• Language of Your Choice

There is no point in using a tool you do not understand fully. Language can be a barrier if you have offices all over the globe or have employees of different origins. If a tool is loaded with features, but your employee cannot use it efficiently, they will not be able to benefit from it.

But these plugins allow you to choose the language of your choice. It becomes easier for the employees to understand and use it.

• Save and Share Details

In the first scenario, the managers can select the clients they want their sales reps to visit and save it. They have to share it with the team and thus can easily manage all their teams’ schedules.

In the second scenario, the sales reps can save the zoom details or highlight the details with different colors for better understanding. They do not have to zoom in and out every time they see that map. They can save the view that works for them, and the map would open with the same settings.

Final Words

Businesses are digitizing every aspect of their workflow because having digital data gives clarity during analysis. Sometimes numbers can be overwhelming. It becomes too difficult to make a decision based on those numbers. But if you have all the data plotted on a map, it is easier to take location-based designs like running a marketing campaign in a particular area. Integrating the map plugin with your CRM allows you to sort out many other challenges you face. All you need to do is find a company that offers plugin services. Ask them for a demo, go through all the features they provide, and buy their yearly plans once you find them compatible.