Dynamics 365 CRM Heavily Customized to Sell Engineering Software

Client

Our Client is a prominent provider of software for engineering surveys and design of objects of industrial, civil and transport construction. The software is used by 14,000+ manufacturing companies and 300+ educational institutions.

Challenge

The Client had a legacy custom system, similar to a CRM in many functions. However, the company found it unreasonable to upgrade the system due to a technical debt and the associated efforts and time.

Alternatively, the Client decided to get a full-fledged CRM to manage the sales process. Several years ago, the company decided on Dynamics 365 Sales and hired third-party developers to tune the application. The developers introduced multiple customizations; however, for some reason, the system was not finished and left unused but not forgotten.

The Client decided to make another attempt with its CRM and was looking for Dynamics 365 developers to audit the system and finish the work.

Cooperation

Upon the system audit, two Dynamics 365 developers assigned by ScienceSoft reported to the Client that the custom code was cluttered. Our developers estimated the refactoring efforts and recommended starting from scratch, with the out-of-the-box Dynamics 365 Sales app. With this approach, our team would be able to meet all the Client’s requirements and create a user-friendly and cost-effective CRM. The Client gave the go-ahead.

First of all, our team upgraded the Dynamics 365 Sales app to the latest ninth version. Then we performed a series of minor (but multiple) Dynamics customizations of business logic, grids and buttons to reflect the specifics of the Client’s business. We created two functional modules — a configurator of hardware keys and a request and payment module — that were critical for the Client’s business processes.

Configurator of hardware keys

In the Client’s business, a hardware key is a special USB device that stores one or several software products sold to a client with versions, number of licenses and duration period for each license. Hardware keys protect the products from unauthorized use.

We realized a possibility to manage keys in the CRM: associate a key with a client, add/delete products to/from the key, change a product version, change periods of license validity, prolong a product license, etc. We implemented a complicated logic of how different software products can coexist on a single key. With that, we fully prevented any possibility of an error at the moment of sale.

We also integrated the configurator with an external MS SQL database the Client uses to store information about the keys. When the key is updated in the CRM, the record in the database is automatically updated, too.

Request and payment module

We customized a sales pipeline to enable:

• Drawing up commercial proposals.
• Automated copying of information from won commercial proposals to opportunities.
• Automated rule-based calculation of discounts, different for end customers and resellers.
• Tax calculation.
• Generating payment docs and contracts for customers from templates.
• Event-driven notifications to users (e.g., upon the change of opportunity status).

Also, we integrated the module with accounting systems of the Client for two-way exchange of payment information.

Results

2+ years from the project start, ScienceSoft is approaching the delivery of a CRM created in full accordance with the Client’s requirements. When the migration of historical business data from the current systems to a new CRM is completed, the Client will be managing their sales processes more effectively.

Technologies and Tools

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, .NET, JavaScript, CSS3/HTML5, DevExpress