Why you should switch from Excel to CRM (and integrate Excel into your CRM)

As a business grows, change is inevitable. And, the software that’s relied on to run the operation is no different. For many, Excel has been a reliable tool during the initial growth of the business, but, as things get bigger, the limitations of Excel become more and more obvious. It’s then that the debate begins about whether it is time to switch from Excel to CRM.

There are many advantages to using a CRM software like Dynamics 365. In Excel multiple users can’t access files at the same time, large amounts of data are difficult to view and Excel doesn’t allow for any type of Marketing. CRM does all of that and more.

By making the switch from Excel to CRM, and in particular to Microsoft Dynamics 365, you will experience a massive improvement in functionality over what you are used to with Excel

With a design and functionality that is similar to the Microsoft business products that everyone is familiar with, you will have a reduced learning curve, making it simple for your team to learn. Marketing integration will allow you to better visualize your campaigns and more effectively gage the effectiveness. You will be able to identify open leads and track their outcomes, link email conversations with the account and store sales and marketing literature for easy access and distribution.

Use Excel re-import to make your CRM experience even better

But, even after you business has long moved past the days when it relied on Excel to manage important data you still will have use for the old standard of Excel. In fact, it can be a great supporting program to allow your Dynamics 365 experience to be even better.

You see, Excel is like the trusted old friends from high school who never left home. You may have moved on the big city and met new and exciting friends that have opened your eyes to all the possibilities of the world (like Dynamics 365 has), but there is still something comfortable and reliable about your original friends. You instinctively get them and they always come through – just like Excel does. So, it remains an invaluable tool in changing and manipulating data. It is particularity useful when you have more than 250 records that need to be changed, as D365 limits you to that many changes at a time in the CRM.

For large amounts of data, the far better way is with Excel. Let’s say that you wanted to create two lists that were sorted by gender preference from a list of 100,000. Doing that in Dynamics 365 would be exceptionally time consuming, with the 250 limit. Instead, you would export all 100,000 records to Excel. Once in Excel, you can easily populate respective gender fields, which you’d then re-import back into D365. Your records would now be updated with the new data.

The process for accomplishing this is quite simple. Please view this video produced by CRM Dynamics an HSO Company to learn how:

Are you still primarily using Excel to manage your business? Are you finding that you are outgrowing the capabilities of the program? Let the experts at CRMD-HSO walk you through why it is time to switch from Excel to a Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solution today.