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D365 saves nonprofit thousands of hours by streamlining sales process
Using Microsoft Dynamics 365, Root16 Reply transformed a Nonprofit's complex, manual quoting process into an efficient, scalable workflow, resulting in greater data visibility and data-driven decision-making.
About the company
The client is a Nonprofit association and world-leading expert in training, educating, and certifying the next generation of technology experts. They have been awarded more than 2.5 million certifications internationally.
"We have used several Microsoft partners over the years, some better than others. We recently were using a very large partner and hadn’t been getting the level of attention we wanted and needed. We decided to try a local boutique partner in Root16 who has a tremendous amount of experience in this space and a very deep technical team to support us."
SCENARIO
Helping tech experts advance their tech
While the client is recognized as a technology leader, they knew they needed help with their own infrastructure. Over time, their service offerings had become more robust, and their CRM no longer met their needs. They had worked with different Microsoft Partners in the past, but it only led to band-aid solutions.
Manually creating a quote for a prospective client is easy when your business is small. However, when you have over 10,000 SKUs, 61 different price sheets, and varying international currencies, it becomes a tedious minefield.
THE CHALLENGE
If your CRM creates more work, it's not set up properly
To create a quote, the sales team would have to manually look up prices in Product Central, an Azure SQL database with a Power App front end. This was their central hub for housing all product pricing for all currencies and pricing tiers. While this tool was robust, it was not integrated into their D365 instance. After spending 30+ minutes creating each quote, the sales team then had to manually add the information to D365 and send the quote to the client. This process was time-consuming and invited mistakes. “The users were frustrated with D365, viewing it as nothing more than homework and busy work. As a result, most chose not to use it,” said the client. Knowing this, leadership made the decision to update their processes with the help of Root16.
“Before WBConnect, we used an antiquated system with a poor user experience. The system just stored data – rather than driving business. It felt like a chore rather than a smart tool to make our jobs easier.”
Paul Schleppy
Principal and Managing Director of IT at WB Engineers + Consultants
the solution
Saying goodbye to manual processes
Our team knew that if they set up their D365 correctly, the client could finally say goodbye to a time-consuming process for good. Here’s how Root16 overhauled its manual process for quote generation:
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Reduced opportunity form from 50 fields to 5
User adoption starts by reducing friction. By reducing the form to only the most essential information, the sales team had an easier entry point for generating an invoice and eliminating duplicate data.
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Connected over 10,000 SKUs, 61 price sheets, and international currencies
By integrating Product Central with Dynamic Sales, D365 automatically pulled the correct price list for each contact based on location, eliminating any manual selection for users. Root16 implemented custom Power Automate jobs along with client-side scripting to ensure data was accurate and up to date, giving the sales team the necessary information to make informed decisions.
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Created easy access to tools for complex quotes
Because quotes were complex and varied by customer type, Root16 created custom ribbon buttons and actions to ensure the sales team had the right resources readily available, providing a guided process.
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Generated a quote in seconds using Power Automate
Root16 used Power Automate to automatically generate the quote and send it to the customer for signature right from D365. If needed, they could also customize the details of the quote right from their CRM.
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Instantly generated reports to make data-driven decisions
Root16 implemented a number of automation features to streamline the process of entering data and creating reports. Because these workflows and quotes live in D365, the marketing team can create dashboards using Power BI.
the impact
D365 user adoption positively impacts customer experience
The impact was positively felt across the board, even by their customers. By focusing on increasing user adoption with the sales team, the client experienced a positive domino effect. “For a company that is rapidly growing, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact ROI, but we believe our reps are at least 5% more efficient overall, and we believe our growth is supporting that,” said the client. Through integrating their pricing tool and establishing workflows, the sales team fully adopted the process. All teams could see which opportunities converted into contracts and which didn’t, and which marketing efforts generated the most leads. The automation of D365 also provided employees with more time to perform revenue-generating tasks. Most importantly, leadership gained greater visibility into sales and marketing metrics, allowing them to make data-driven decisions for the company.
THE RESULTS
Using D365 for business growth
Because the client sought an experienced CRM expert, they were able to fundamentally transform their organization. By investing in the right technology, they set up their future for success. Previously, the sales team disliked D365 as a CRM, but now they view it as an essential tool that makes their lives easier.
Leadership also gained significantly greater visibility into their forecasted revenue, campaign ROI, and overall team performance. What was once a tool that created problems and caused frustration has become a tool at the core of the company’s strategy.