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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Review

Download the PDFSales person looking at a sales dashboard

A CRM that promotes sales is something that every business should be interested in. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is one of the top-rated sales CRMs. Some argue though that it is possibly just because it has Microsoft as a parent so people are more inclined to drift towards a known brand. Is that true?

Well, if you consider the capabilities it provides, you realize it is a product that can stand on its own especially for small and medium businesses. To justify that, ask yourself what you expect of your CRM for Sales? First of all, it should promote sales, and then you need to know the techniques used to advance sales. Let's take a look at Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and see if it can do that.

What Can a Business Do with Dynamics 365 Sales?

  • Identify sales leads based on interactions on different channels as well as previous purchases or expressions of interest.
  • Use guided sales strategies to close sales faster based on what you know about your leads.
  • Interact on a personal level with prospects and existing customers so that sales become more of relationship building.
  • Automate sales offers so that certain triggers will result in presenting the right offer at a time when the buyer is more likely to purchase.
  • Improve productivity of sales teams with tools that provide insight, prompt actions, and handle the background work like sending quotes, invoices, payment reminders, and so on.
  • Customize the module to suit the business needs for example choosing to collect data on particular insights or editing templates to brand the business.

There is a lot more that managers, sales teams as well as other departments can do with 365 Sales and these are not just assertions by the manufacturer. They are supported by the features and tools it possesses. Let’s take a look at them.

Features of Dynamics 365 Sales

Contact Management

This feature allows a user to create an account and store all the details related to that contact within the account. This can be phone numbers, email, business name, and other information that is relevant to dealing with a contact. With this information, you can even decide what ideas to pitch to that contact. Contacts can even be grouped into segments.

Quote and Order Management

This offers a quick way to provide accurate quotes to clients and prospects. The process can be automated so that even requests for a quote online are attended to immediately. You can also use it to create invoices and send them out on time for prompt payment.

Pipeline Management

Use this to handle the process of identifying opportunities, contacting leads, and then channeling them through the sales pipeline and transform them into customers.

Marketing Automation

Since marketing plays a big role in the selling process, it is helpful to have marketing features like email marketing and campaign management as part of the sales features.

Microsoft Dynamics sales manager dashboard

Reporting and Analytics

Data-driven sales are more successful since it is easier to see where more effort has to be put and what is doing well so that you replicate it.

These are just a few of the key features of this module. Others include Customer contract management, quota management, app integration, etc.

Pricing

Pricing for Dynamics 365 Sales is convenient in comparison to other Dynamics modules. For a comprehensive fee of $210 per month, you can gain access to all the applications within the module. If you however wish to pay less, then you would have to make do with the Customer Engagement Plan for $115 per month which is geared at helping businesses build customer relationships. There is also a Unified Operations Plan for $190 per month which gives access to applications that manage business operations.

Verdict

Dynamics 365 Sales is much more than just hype. Its features and tools can be customized to a business’s needs. With its cloud integrations, you can integrate with advanced document automation software and experience even more efficient generation of contracts, proposals, and so much more.

If you’ve just discovered us, we’re excited. Try Windward Hub (integrates with Microsoft Dynamics) for free and take it for a spin. Start automating contracts, agreements, quotes, proposals and more in just a few clicks starting today.

Tags Start & End

Tags Can Start & End Anywhere

Appendix B

.NET code for multi-page image output

Appendix A

Java code for multi-page image output

Data Bin Search

The Data Bin can now be searched to find a table, column, node or other piece of data without scrolling through it all.

Shrink to Fit

This will shrink the contents of a cell until it fits the defined cell size.

Time Zone Conversion

A new Windward macro has been added to help with converting dates and times from UTC time to the local time zone.

Image Output Format

New image output formats added.

PostScript Output Format

PostScript, commonly used with printers and printing companies, has been added as an additional output format.

New and Improved Datasets (Designer, Java Engine, .NET Engine)

Datasets have been re-written from scratch to be more powerful and easier to use.

Stored Procedure Wizard (Designer)

This works for all tag types that are connected to a SQL-based data source (Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, or DB2).

Boolean Conditional Wizard (Designer)

Before, conditional statements could only be written manually. Now they can also be built using our intuitive Wizard interface.

Reorganized Ribbon

The ribbon menus have been re-organized and consolidated to improve the report design workflow.

XPath 2.0 as Data Source

Adds various capabilities such as inequalities,descending sort, joins, and other functions.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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SQL Select Debugger

SQL Select  Debugger

  • The look and feel was improved
  • Stored Procedure Wizard
  • Improved Exceptions pane

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Tag Editor/Tag Selector

Added a Query tab as a field for typing or pasting in a select statement

  • Color Coding of Keywords
  • TypeAhead
  • Evaluate is now "Preview"

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Rename a Datasource

All tags using that Data source will be automatically updated with that name.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Connecting to a Data Source

New single interface to replace 2 separate dialog boxes

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Tag Tree

Displays of all the tags in the template, structured as they are placed in the template. This provides a simple & intuitive way to see the structure of your template. Also provides the capability to go to any tag and/or see the properties of any tag.

Added Javelin into the RESTful Engine

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Support for Google Application Engine Integration

The ability to integrate the Windward Engine into Google’s cloud computing platform for developing and hosting web applications dubbed Google Applications Engine (GAE).

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Additional Refinement for HTML Output

  • Improved indentation for ordered and unordered lists
  • Better handling of template header and footer images
  • Better handling for background images and colors

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Redesigned PDF Output Support

This new  integration will allow for processing of complex scripts and bi-directional  text such as Arabic.  Your PDF output  will be much tighter and more closely match your template, and we’ll be able  to respond rapidly to PDF requests and fixes.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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PowerPoint Support

Includes support for new ForEach and slide break handling, table header row repeat across slide breaks, and native Microsoft support for charts and images.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Tags are Color Coded

Tags are color coded in the template by type, making it easy to visually identify them.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Increased Performance

Version 13’s core code has been reworked and optimized to offer a reduced memory footprint, faster PDF generation and full documentation of supported features and limitations in the specifications for DOCX, XLSX and PPTX.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Advanced Image Properties

Documents can include advanced Word image properties such as shadows, borders, and styles.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Improved HTML Output

Windward has updated HTML output to reflect changing HTML standards.

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

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Version 13 New Data Sources

Windward now works with a slew of new datasources: MongoDB, JSON, Cassandra, OData, Salesforce.com

If you've just discovered us, we're excited. Learn more about Windward document automation software now.

Try Windward with our 30-day free trial and start creating documents in quick time with our low/no code solutions.

Generate Code

The Generate Code tool in the designer allows you to open an existing template and, with a click of a button, automatically create a window with the code needed to run your current template with all data sources and variables. Simply copy this code and paste into your application's code in the appropriate place. You now have Windward integrated into your application.

You only need to do this once. You do not do this for each template. Instead, where it has explicit files for the template and output, change that to parameters you pass to this code. Same for the parameters passed to Windward. This example uses explicit values to show you what to substitute in where.

Pivot Tables Adjusted in Output

Any pivot tables in an XLSX template are carried over to the XLSX output. The ranges in the pivot ranges are adjusted to match the generated output. So your final XLSX will have pivot tables set as expected in the generated file.

This makes creating an XLSX workbook with pivot tables trivial.

Imported Template Can be Set to Match the Parent Styles

In an imported sub-template, if its properties for a style (ex. Normal) differ from the parent template's properties for the style, the use in the sub-template can be set to either use the properties in the sub-template, or the properties in the parent.

You set to retain when you don't want the child template's styling to change when imported. You set to use the parent when you want the styling of the imported template to match the styling in the parent.

Any explicit styling is always retained. This only impacts styling set by styles.

Tags can be Placed in Text Boxes

Tags can be placed in text boxes. Including linked text boxes. This gives you the ability to set the text in a textbox from your data.

Tags can be Placed in Shapes & Smart Art

Tags can be placed in shapes & smart art. This gives you the ability to set the text in a shape from your data.

HTML Output Supports Embedded Images

When generating HTML output, the engine can either write bitmaps as distinct files the generate HTML references, or it can embed the images in the HTML providing a single file for the output.

Footnotes & Endnotes can Have Tags

You can place tags in pretty much any part of a template, including in footnotes & endnotes.

Document Locking Supported in DOCX & XLSX

Any parts of a DOCX or XLSX (PowerPoint does not support this) file that are locked in the template, will be locked the same in the output.

Specify Font Substitution

If a font used in the template does not exist on the server generating a report, the font to substitute can be specified.
In addition, if a glyph to be rendered does not exist in the font specified, you can specify the replacement font. This can be set distinctly for European, Bi-Directional, and Far East fonts.

Process Multiple Datasources Simultaneously

If you need this - it's essential. And if you don't need it, it's irrelevant.

Windward enables you to build a document by applying multiple datasources to the template simultaneously. When Windward is merging the data into a template, it processes the template by handling each tag in order, and each tag pulls from different datasources. (As opposed to processing all of one datasource, then processing the next.)

This allows the select tag to use data from another datasource in its select. For example, if you are pulling customer information from one data source, you can then pull data from the sales datasource using the customer ID of the customer presently processing to pull the sales information for that customer. If you're interested in patching together your data from multiple datasources, read this post on our blog.

Written by:_
Genesis Abel

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