Have a central portal for Sales and Marketing information

List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 enables you to display CRM data inside a SharePoint portal page.

The List Web Part provides a subset of the Microsoft CRM record list. It allows you to view records from Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a list in a SharePoint dashboard and connect multiple web parts to gain insight from different sources.

If you would like to know more about this feature or how to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 please contact your Account Manager microsoftcustomers@pa.com.au.

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Gain visibility into the business events that matter to you with the CRM Notifications Accelerator

The CRM notifications accelerator allows you to subscribe to the CRM “business events” relevant to your role.

For example, as a sales person you will  be interested in new leads and opportunities assigned to you, whereas as a customer service representative your interest will  be in new service cases.

Once subscribed, you can elect how you want these event notifications to be delivered. Notifications are delivered via a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed and can be consumed with many desktop tools including Microsoft Outlook 2007 or the standard news feed Windows Vista® gadget.

If you would like to know more about this feature or how to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 please contact your Account Manager or email microsoftcustomers@pa.com.au.

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New customers join Professional Advantage

We would like to welcome Comcater and Nutricia Australia as new customers of Professional Advantage.

Comcater, the major food service equipment supplier in the Australian market has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP as an integrated solution to provide increased operational effectiveness and efficiencies across the business.

Nutricia Australia, leader in specialised nutrition has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to automate its sales force and better manage relationships and collection of information.

For more information on Comcater and Nutricia Australia, please visit their websites.

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Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Display automatically pop- up reminders for tasks and other activities that you create in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Pop-up reminders, similar to those in Microsoft Office Outlook, are not available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. However, you can take advantage of the integration between Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook to display Outlook reminders for most activities, including tasks, phone calls, and e-mail messages.

To display Outlook pop-up reminders automatically, follow these easy steps:

1. Create a task, e-mail, or appointment in Outlook with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook installed.

2. Set the reminder.

3. Save this task as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record by clicking Track in CRM. This button is located on the CRM toolbar of the task form. Note that you can save the Outlook task as a phone call, letter, or fax by clicking on the down arrow and selecting your preference.

4.  To select a parent record, click Set Regarding in Outlook 2007 or Regarding if you are working with Outlook 2003.
   

Enhance CRM Outlook’s performance by changing the synchronization settings.

To improve your Outlook experience and enhance performance you can reduce the amount of information being synchronised between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Outlook.

When the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Desktop or Laptop Client is installed by default you are synching all your appointments, tasks and contacts to CRM every time you launch Outlook and every 15 minutes when Outlook is running. This synchronisation process slows down the launch of Outlook.

So, if you do not create many appointments, contacts and tasks within the Web interface or the web navigation within Outlook, simply uncheck the “Synchronize the items” in my Outlook folders at startup and set the synchronization interval to 60 minutes.

Remember that if you need to synchronize at a certain point, you can always do it manually by choosing CRM > Synchronize with CRM. Once you’ve settled on the best approach for your organization, change the system setting to the appropriate time for your organisation.

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Find documents, manage information and collaborate with Microsoft Office SharePoint

As an integrated suite of server applications, SharePoint improves organisational effectiveness by providing comprehensive control over electronic content, accelerating shared processes and facilitating better informed decisions.

You can use this powerful platform in many ways, see below some examples:

• If you keep all your emails in Outlook, SharePoint is the perfect place to archive them

• If you collaborate a lot on documents with others and find it difficult to know who has done what, SharePoint allows you to see earlier document versions

• You can create a company blog to start communicating and sharing ideas with your team

• Utilise the document management system that uses a check in/check out feature to prevent loss of work

• Share documents and other information with clients and/or partners, in a secure and private environment

• Streamline existing business processes and simple business functions such as leave applications and expense claims using simple forms. More

Check Timbercop’s case study to learn how they have improved document Management by using Microsoft Office SharePoint.

If you would like to know more about Microsoft Office SharePoint contact your account manager or email microsoftcustomers@pa.com.au

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Five ideas to cut IT cost

Our infrastructure team would like to offer 5 solutions that are helping other customers cut costs, achieve more out of their budgets and enable high performance. 

The five solutions are:

• Virtualisation: Reduce the number of physical servers in your environment

• Unified Communications: Reduce your call costs and increase staff productivity

• Hosting: Significantly reduce your IT capital expenditure and project costs        

• Workflow and Collaboration: Reduce inefficient manual processes

• Business Intelligence: Know your business better and improve your decision-making capabilities to impact profit

For details on the above solutions click here.

If you are interested in learning more, we are happy to meet with you to explore how these solutions can work for you! Email your enquiries to microsoftcustomers@pa.com.au or phone Angela 02 9919 8932.

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Introducing Professional Advantage Referral Program Receive up to $2000 in Gift Vouchers

As part of the Referral Program, we are offering an incentive for you to refer your customers/suppliers or business colleagues to Professional Advantage.

If you are aware of companies that would benefit from our software and services then you or your company can earn up to $2000 in gift certificates.

Just call marketing on 1800 126 499 or email microsoftinfo@pa.com.au and refer a previously unregistered prospect (i.e. someone that we are not yet working with and is not in our prospect pipeline) and one of our Business Development Managers will contact them.

For details click here.

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