What is CRM? And what types of CRM are there? An overview of what Customer Relationship Management actually is about and what it offers you. The post What is CRM and what types of CRM are there? appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a relatively new B2B marketing and sales technique that supports the buyer journey in a targeted way. The post Account Based Marketing: a new interpretation of the AIDA appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

Collecting customer data and Account Based Marketing go hand in hand. In 4 steps it becomes clear how the process works. The post Collecting customer data in 4 steps appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

CRM is not only suitable for large companies but also for small businesses, CRM for SME, as it is about relationship management and customer focus. The post CRM for SME appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a useful system, but it's not CRM. Companies do need a CRM system along side. The post ERP is not CRM appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

Internal communication is part of customer intimacy. With the use of CRM, you create structure and give employees autonomy. The post Shape customer intimacy appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

Online sales and account management need not be an obstacle for organizations. In fact, with a good CRM system, it's powerful. The post Collaborate online in sales appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

Working from home does not have to be a problem to increase customer loyalty. This is possible with the right CRM software. The post Remote customer loyalty: three tips appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

The right mindset in a CRM implementation is one of the success factors for the success of implementation. The importance of transparency must be clear The post CRM: a matter of having the right mindset appeared first on Archie CRM.... Read more »

First in a number of videos I will be doing around the benefits of CRM technology. Thought I would go back to CRM’s routes and talk about the benefits of contact management. ShareThis... Read more »

Much has been written and said over the years about CRM project failures and their causes, but a lot of it has been by marketing folks and journalists rather than those on the front line. So in this video I wanted to set out what failure really looks like and... Read more »

I was conscious that in last week’s ‘layperson’s guide to a CRM project’ video, where I broke a project down into the different stages, that I didn’t really cover off associated timelines. Something I’ve addressed in the following video, in the context of a mid-sized CRM implementation: ShareThis... Read more »

In this video I wanted to set out the principle stages of a CRM project. It’s aimed at people new to managing a CRM project, and tries to identify some of the things to look out for as you progress. ShareThis... Read more »

People are often surprised how long a CRM project can take. In this video I go through ten ways to speed up the delivery of a system. ShareThis... Read more »

As promised in last week’s post, which outlined the costs involved in running a CRM project, this video sets out ways to reduce them. ShareThis... Read more »

In this video I walk through the different types of costs that are involved in a CRM project. These include software and implementation costs, project team time, the impact of go-live on users, system support, and the ongoing development and management of the system. ShareThis... Read more »

‘CRM Consultant’ is a confusing term, largely because it’s used by a lot of different people that might be involved in a CRM project. In this video Richard Boardman walks you through the different types. ShareThis... Read more »

Just created a video about our CRM Value Maximisation services, which are designed to help organisations generate more value from their existing CRM systems: ShareThis... Read more »

  As a lot of people have noticed, chart customizations in the Unified Interface in Model-Driven Power Apps, or Dynamics 365 does not behave the way they used to in the classic interface. This is because the Unified Interface only supports a subset of the chart customization options that were... Read more »

A great dashboard in Dynamics 365, or Model-Driven App will not only show you the relevant data and insights, it will also make it easy to get to the relevant records so you can take action. Drill-downs and clicking on records to navigate to them has been the standard user... Read more »

As Power BI is used increasingly within Dynamics 365 or Model-Driven apps, attention to detail in the user experience is increasingly important. Users should be able to seamlessly navigate between the two technologies, and the visual cues should match between them for a coherent user experience. Visual cues for example,... Read more »

Last year I wrote a lengthy blog post comparing the three main methods of getting Dynamics 365, or Common Data Service data into Power BI for analysis. Now, at the most recent Microsoft Business Applications Summit, a new method was announced that I was finally able to try out. The... Read more »

Some years ago, I wrote a blog post about how to create a chart that compared monthly sales, to the same month in the previous year. The approach required quite a bit of XML editing and the chart was limited to only comparing this and last year. No data from... Read more »

There are a few different ways to get your Dynamics 365 data into Power BI. Now that the Common Data Service connector has come out of preview and is generally available, I figured it would be a good time to have a look at the different methods and how they... Read more »

It has been a little while since the last update, but Mohamed Rasheed and I just added some bug fixes and improvements to the Power Query (M) Builder for the XrmToolBox. If you are new to the Power Query (M) Builder and how it can accelerate Power BI report development... Read more »

I realize this is my fourth blog on this particular topic, and I am sure it won’t be the last. The occasion: Microsoft has released a new built-in, easier way of embedding Power BI reports on Dynamics 365 and filter them according to record context. The approach is not as... Read more »

Power BI recently started supported embedding Power BI visuals securely out-of-the-box. That means we can now show Power BI reports inside Dynamics 365, without having to deal with authentication. And with minimal use of code, we can filter the visual to the record that it is being displayed on. Like... Read more »

Migrating document templates in Dynamics 365 Dataverse is straightforward for system entities — but when custom entities are involved, a hidden pitfall can render migrated templates completely unusable. KingswaySoft's SSIS […] The post How to Migrate Dynamics 365 Dataverse Document Templates with Custom Entities Using KingswaySoft appeared first on CRM... Read more »

There is a quiet failure happening inside many Dynamics 365 CRM environments right now. Organizations invest in predictive analytics for Dynamics 365, models get trained, scores get generated, and then […] The post Why Dynamics 365 AI Predictions Get Ignored - And How Explainable AI Fixes the Trust Gap appeared... Read more »

TL;DR: Most Dynamics 365 adoption problems are not technology problems. They are configuration, training, and post-go-live support problems. Sales teams disengage when the system adds friction instead of removing it. […] The post How to Improve Dynamics 365 Adoption on Your Sales Team appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

In many organizations currently using Salesforce, the friction does not initially feel like a CRM problem. It feels like extra steps throughout the workday. Sales teams collaborate in Teams but […] The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs Salesforce: A Practical Comparison for Enterprise Teams appeared first on CRM Software Blog... Read more »

Boost Outside Sales Performance with Map-Based Dynamics CRM Planning in Maplytics Outside sales is one of the few roles where the quality of your planning determines the quality of your […] The post Stop Planning Outside Sales from a List, Use Maps in Dynamics 365 appeared first on CRM Software... Read more »

Marketing automation often starts with a handful of campaigns, a few forms, and a relatively small contact database. Then things grow. New nurture programs are added, more users gain access, […] The post Marketing Automation Governance for Dynamics: Preventing Chaos as Programs Scale appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

Your Dynamics 365 team isn't slow. They're just copying the wrong way. The native duplicate feature in Dynamics 365 was never designed for real-world record complexity. Here's what that costs […] The post Why Power Automate Isn't the Answer to Record Cloning in Dynamics 365 appeared first on CRM Software... Read more »

Most businesses have a portal idea sitting in a backlog somewhere. A customer self-service site. A partner hub. An employee request portal. The idea is clear. The problem is always […] The post Microsoft Power Pages General Availability (GA): What's New in 2026 appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

The organizations that get the most out of CRM and AI do not start by picking a platform or evaluating features. They start by understanding what the business is actually […] The post Why Do Great CRM and AI Solutions Start with Understanding the Customer? appeared first on CRM Software... Read more »

The ultimate goal for any mature government contractor is a "single source of truth" that spans the entire business. While GovCon365 AwardTrack revolutionizes the front-end (Capture and Contracts), its true […] The post The Unified GovCon Suite: Connecting AwardTrack CRM to GovCon365 ERP appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

In many CRM planning conversations right now, AI agent discussions are starting before organizations have fully aligned governance, integrations, or operational ownership underneath the environment. Executive stakeholders want to understand […] The post AI Agents in Microsoft Power Platform: Where Custom Agentic CRM Fits in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement appeared... Read more »

In the manufacturing industry, timing often determines whether a deal moves forward or ends up with a competitor. Sales representatives manage large volumes of distributors, suppliers, quotations, purchase orders, service […] The post Real-Time Dynamics 365 Sales Alerts for Manufacturing Teams: Close Deals Faster appeared first on CRM Software Blog... Read more »

Getting Dynamics 365 live is a big milestone—but it’s usually where the real issues start to surface. Questions pile up, processes evolve, and what worked during implementation doesn’t always hold […] The post Why Dynamics 365 Starts to Break Down Without Ongoing Support appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

If you manage Dynamics 365 CRM data, you know the merge screen. Two duplicate records. Six conflicting fields. And someone, usually the busiest person on the team, is making a […] The post AI-Powered Duplicate Merge in Dynamics 365 CRM – New Release appeared first on CRM Software Blog |... Read more »

Customer experience prioritization is your greatest (missed) opportunity for growth.... Read more »

Customers' prosperity fuels everyone's prosperity. So, how well do managers in every function understand customers' goals?... Read more »

Bad CX metrics practices are like out-of-date GPS or a broken compass: you think you’re on the right track, only to find you’re going in circles or way off target.... Read more »

AI relies on data quality: you assume AI outputs are truth, but if your data is junk, then AI recommendations are likewise junk.... Read more »

Do “customer experience metrics” enrich your understanding of: the customer? their experience? value to them? For companies you buy from, how well do their “CX metrics” tell them about you, your experience, and your value from them? Let’s take an inventory of popular “CX metrics”: Marketing Metric Definition About Whom... Read more »

Maximizing growth means starting with alignment in your corporate strategy and customer experience strategy. Otherwise, you’re robbing investors of growth. Highly aligned companies see:1 58% faster revenue growth + 72% higher profit + 2.2X customer retention + 3.2X customer satisfaction + 8.7X effective leadership + 16.8X engaged employees Highly aligned... Read more »

High-potential customers are your starting point for customer experience management. — What are their aims? — How aligned are you? If you don’t know the aims of your high-potential customers, what does that say about your aim? High-Potential Customers High-potential customers might not be the biggest firms. — Who’s spending... Read more »

Revenue risks are anything out-of-sync with customers. $3.8 trillion (USD) revenue globally is risked by bad customer experiences annually. — This is $119 billion higher than last year.1 Issues in bad customer experience:1 — Service delivery issues 46% — Communication problems 45% — Employee interactions 39% — Price 37% —... Read more »

Bad CX practices deceive managers and rob investors: A) Insults repel customers: the opposite of your goals. B) Falsehoods derail customer-centric growth. C) GIGO (garbage-in, garbage-out) metrics stunt your potential. D) Misdirected actions squander opportunities. This is the first of a 4-part series covering (A) insults, (B) falsehoods, (C) GIGO,... Read more »

The definition of customer experience typically centers erroneously on the word “interactions”. 1) B2C Example: Celebrating my nephew’s winning soccer season with brunch at a busy restaurant, my brother got a pager from the reception desk, and we enjoyed the pretty landscape in the parking lot while waiting for our... Read more »

In revenue operations, demand generation, customer success, and business development, how often are cost decisions central to your work? Not beyond your own budget, right? Ironically, company-wide cost decisions shape all growth strategies. Gaps Rob Growth Potential The recipe for success is simple: Say what customers get and give exactly... Read more »

Customer experience dashboards and compensation shape your culture. — Revenue emphasis = mercenary culture. — Narrow scope = myopic culture. — Score-based = self-centric culture. — Root cause focus = value culture. When Vodafone mistake-proofed root causes of customer experience gaps, value ebbed and flowed accordingly! Gray trend = their... Read more »

CX Day is a highlight of the year, celebrating customers, CX professionals, and CX outcomes. It’s always the first Tuesday of October. This year’s theme is: Why this theme? According to the Customer Experience Professionals Association (cxpa.org/get-involved/cxday): To explore and highlight credible proof of business impact. Real-world return on investment:... Read more »

Your CX ROI metrics roadmap is a cause-and-effect sequence that multiplies growth. All customer experience metrics used today are lagging indicators of growth. You’re measuring what already happened with customers. Therefore, it’s lagging. Leading indicators are what you are doing that causes the lagging indicator. A leading indicator shows what... Read more »

The man who helped build marketing automation explains why the MQL model most B2B teams still run on was designed for the wrong 5% — and what to do about the other 95%.... Read more »

Your dashboard says the GTM machine is running. And yet deals slip. Here is what dashboards almost never show you -- and the diagnostic work that actually finds where revenue breaks.... Read more »

A PE-backed company had $13M in pipeline against an $8.5M target. Over 150% coverage. They still missed the number. The problem was not volume. It was what happened after pipeline was created.... Read more »

A collections agency endorsed by Mother Teresa changed how I approach B2B marketing. When we stopped converting and started helping, we got 303% more sales opportunities.... Read more »

A billion-dollar building products company had 20,000 leads flowing into 10+ follow-up paths with no visibility. The funnel was not broken. The system underneath was never built. Here is what they fixed.... Read more »

Most content is not bad. It is aimed at the wrong moment in the buyer's journey. Content mapping means deciding what your buyer needs to believe next.... Read more »

Bad nurturing doesn't announce itself. It just slowly trains buyers to ignore you — and AI can now scale that damage faster than ever.... Read more »

Clicks tell you someone showed up. They don't tell you what the buyer was trying to do — and that gap is where most marketing falls apart.... Read more »

Empathy-based marketing isn't about being nice. It's about designing GTM systems around how buyers actually decide. One email tone change produced a 349% conversion lift.... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayCX Journey Inc.'s site is growing up! I'm so excited to have a new site going live this week! I'm sharing this note as a blog post as it will be my last post on what is currently www.cx-journey.com. A couple of things to note:This site will... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayToday I'm pleased to share another guest post by Paul Laughlin. This post originally appeared on Paul's site on March 9, 2019.This is the second in two-part series from Paul about agile working. Find the first post in the series here.In my first post on how to... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayToday I'm pleased to share a guest post by Paul Laughlin. This post originally appeared on Paul's site on February 21, 2019.The term Agile working is being used within more and more businesses. Although loosely defined, it generally refers to a more flexible and pacey way of... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayI originally wrote today's post for Forbes. It appeared on the Forbes site on November 14, 2018. I've made some slight modifications since then, as it turned into a two-part series. This is the second in that series; the first part can be found here.In this follow-up... Read more »

In today's post, I reveal the secret sauce for journey mapping success. Are you ready?There's a lot of bad press out there about journey mapping. And there's a lot of bad journey mapping (or what people think is journey mapping). A few months ago, I shared my six-step journey mapping... Read more »

If you're a speaker, thinking about becoming a speaker,  an event organizer, or considering hosting an event in the near future, you'll definitely want to read this. And even if you're none of the above, please continue reading. And feel free to share this whitepaper with anyone you believe will... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayI originally wrote today's post for Forbes. It appeared on the Forbes site on October 18, 2018. I've made some slight modifications since then, as it turned into a two-part series.The good news is that you've embarked on a customer experience transformation journey. The bad news is... Read more »

This is a modified version of a post I originally wrote for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on June 14, 2018.If you want to move beyond cosmetic changes and lip service to real changes in both the employee experience and the customer experience, the first thing you have to... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayDo you know the difference between means and outcomes? Between the journey and the destination?I know. I know. Those are silly questions to ask.Of course everyone knows the difference between means and outcomes. Of course everyone knows the difference between the means to an end and the... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayHow do leaders drive (lasting) change?Last week, I enjoyed spending a few days in Vegas, speaking and networking at Fiserv's annual client Forum. The keynote on the second day of the event was Troy Aikman, who was interviewed by Fiserv's CEO Jeff Yabuki about sports, of course,... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayI originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on July 12, 2018. When companies focus on people, their people - employees first, then customers - the numbers will come.This is a tough concept for a lot of executives to grasp. They know the... Read more »

I hate to tell you this, but you're just not.*I've been doing a bit of speaking lately, either about journey mapping or with journey mapping as a piece of the talk, and I've learned a lot - or, rather, confirmed a lot. Namely, you might think you're journey mapping; you... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayI originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on April 13, 2018.How do you prioritize your CX improvement initiatives?You've listened to customers. You've mapped their journeys. And you've identified a lot of improvement areas that would make the experience light years better for... Read more »

Image courtesy of PixabayThis is the second of a two-part series on common VoC program mistakes.In case you missed the first post in this series, you can find it here.Note that I haven't prioritized or categorized these mistakes, but take a close look at each one to ensure you're not... Read more »

The news At its PegaWorld conference in Las Vegas on June 8, 2026, Pegasystems announced Pega Infinity 26, which it says will be available in Q3 2026. The principal change is commercial: Pega is moving away from per-token pricing for its AI agents toward a flat charge per completed “case,”... Read more »

Microsoft Build 2026 produced two announcements that, read together, describe something more interesting than the usual conference launch cadence: a plausible scenario in which enterprise AI stack decisions made in the next 12 months could become significantly harder to reverse. The operative word is “could”. Several pieces of the announced... Read more »

Every single week, I sit through pitches from enterprise software vendors boasting about the next iteration of their ” AI-powered sales pipeline optimization platforms”. They promise to auto-magically turn cold leads into closed contracts while minimizing human intervention. That sounds great on a slide deck designed to pump the stock... Read more »

The contemporary B2B sales landscape is currently drowning in its own engineering achievements. For the past decade, the holy grail of outbound sales development was scale: how many touches could an automated sequence tool squeeze out of a Sales Development Representative (SDR) per day? The answer was always “more”. With... Read more »

If you only read the press releases, Zendesk Relate 2026 told a strong, clean story. The era of the chatbot is over. Welcome the Autonomous Service Workforce. Resolution replaces deflection. Outcome-based pricing is the new norm. Specialization beats generalist orchestration. That’s strong. Really strong. If you also watched the customer... Read more »

SAP Sapphire 2026 was a major platform announcement, a competitive shot at ServiceNow, a coherent acquisition story across Reltio, Dremio and Prior Labs. It featured an Anthropic partnership that puts Claude at the center of the SAP Business AI Platform. For anyone who cares about customer experience, it was also... Read more »

We have reached a point in the hype cycle where “AI” is being sprinkled on enterprise software like a seasoning on a cheap steak: it masks the poor quality of the underlying meat but doesn’t make it more nutritious. In the latest CRMKonvo, Bhawani Shankar and the CRMKonvo team tore... Read more »

The AI Content Trap: Multiplying Mediocrity at Scale Marketing has always suffered from a volume addiction; however, the advent of generative AI has turned a bad habit into a terminal condition. In the recent discussion with Volker Hildebrand in our CRMKonvo, we explored the uncomfortable reality that while AI has... Read more »

On May 4, 2026, SAP announced two acquisitions in the same breath: Dremio, an Apache Iceberg-native agentic data lakehouse, and Prior Labs, a pioneer of Tabular Foundation Models. Neither acquisition is exotic. Together, they are contributing to the most coherent enterprise AI platform strategy any major vendor has shown this... Read more »

Health wearables are constantly collecting your personal information, but who owns that data, and what does it mean for your privacy?... Read more »

If you suspect someone may be on your Wi-Fi network without your permission, here's what you can do to get to the bottom of it.... Read more »

Android Auto isn't just for city streets anymore. Here are the apps that help me get more done when I'm off-road.... Read more »

Motorola's Razr+ is not the awkward middle child of its series; it arguably offers the best balance of features, performance, and value.... Read more »

The Ugreen FineTrack 2 has several unique features that make it stand out against Apple's AirTags.... Read more »

Clearing out your excess photos and videos is now just a swipe away with an easy-to-use app called Sponge.... Read more »

What's really in that DNA kit? It turns out, it's not just a spit tube, but a whole lot of fine print.... Read more »

Patients have never had more information about their health, but much of it is unusable. Here's why.... Read more »

While known primarily for containers and servers, this lightweight distro could easily be your daily driver. Here's why.... Read more »

Tech companies are evolving their health trackers to make them smaller, thinner, and near-invisible. Here's why.... Read more »

Using a portable power station to its full potential is ideal for getting your money's worth and enjoying uninterrupted power.... Read more »

Our guide lists the top routers on the market that provide VPN coverage throughout your entire home. We've ranked them based on speed, security, and reliability.... Read more »

A new partnership between Visa and OpenAI takes the next step in AI-led purchasing. Here's what an expert wants you to know.... Read more »

Marshall revamped its midrange headphones with stellar comfort, repairability, and a marathon battery life.... Read more »