Your CRM does what? Part 2 of 4

In Part 2 of a 4 part series on extending your CRM application, we will take a look at how we managed Event Planning and Speaker Recruitment processes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for one of our clients.

Event Planning

In this case, the client was using a custom legacy solution to manage thousands of events annually. The solution was not flexible and required programming when additional fields and functionality need to be added to the system. In addition it was not very easy for the users to search for and report on data within the system. The three main goals for our solution were to: (1) manage event details including meeting venue and contact info, (2) manage budgetary and actual estimates for events, and (3) provide the ability to search for and recruit speakers for the events. What we created in Dynamics CRM was a solution whereby:

• Upon event creation, a unique alpha-numeric Event ID is assigned based on customer provided logic
  
• Upon event creation, workflows automatically create and assign planning tasks for each type of event
  
• Detailed information is stored regarding the event such as: start/end date and time, location of meeting, contact info, meeting coordinator and type of event. This information can be searched on within CRM and can be reported on using SQL Reporting Service reports.
  
• Budget information can be added and associated with and event including all related vendor actual and estimated costs
  
• Lecture information can be added including related lecture title, lecture date, lecture time and speaker
  
• Upon closing an event, related speaker costs are integrated to Great Plains Accounting system Payables module
  

  
  

Speaker Bureau Management

Speaker Bureau Management is a component of the event planning. In this case, the client maintains a list of speakers for which they recruit for various events. One of the pain points of their legacy system was that it was difficult to determine which speakers were available and when. The three main goals for our solution were to: (1) provide a solution where speaker contact info, ongoing interactions and related documents/attachments can be stored, (2) provide a solution where certifications and training for speakers can be managed, (3) provide a solution whereby speakers could easily be searched based on certifications, travel requirements and availability. What we created in Dynamics CRM was a solution whereby:

• Speaker contact information is stored as well as all interactions (email, phone call, tasks, notes) related to that Speaker
  
• Speaker training and certification information can be appended to the speaker record in a searchable format
  
• Speaker travel restrictions are stored and searchable
  
• Speakers can be associated with events in one of three status levels ("recruiting", "accepted" or "declined")
  
• CRM Users can select a specific event and view all speakers associated with the event and see the speaker's current status as it relates to that event
  
• CRM Users can select a specific speaker and see all events they are associated with including ones they are being recruited for as well as ones where they have accepted or declined to speak
  
• CRM Users can select speaker engagements and see all speakers that have been recruited, accepted or declined for all events. This is a global view and can be sorted on event dates, speaker name or any column included in this filtered list
  
• Multiple CRM Mail Merges have been created for managing the collection of information updates and generation of informational letters to speakers
  

When thinking of your CRM solution don't be afraid to think out of the box and add functionality to support your many business practices. If you can use Dynamics CRM to support more of your business processes you can increase efficiencies and increase accuracy of your data by eliminating the need for dual entry of the same customer data. Your company will also benefit by adding more processes in a central repository like Dynamics CRM by reducing the time it takes to locate and report on disparate pieces of data.