June 25, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Dunbar Armored, the largest independently owned American armored car company, has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 to provide its sales teams with all prospect and customer information from an integrated database. Dunbar, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., will bring together data from its 80 facilities and 5,200 employees across the United States. In addition to its armored car operations, Dunbar also provides cash vault and cash management services.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides powerful, role-based customer relationship management capabilities. Dunbar will replace its current system with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be the repository for all the company’s prospect information. The Microsoft solution will be integrated with Dunbar’s legacy software, which houses current customer information, routing programs and other modules. Previously, Dunbar staff members needed to bridge the gap between prospect information and customer information with spreadsheets and a number of manual processes. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is expected to automate the process, eliminating manual operations and making all relative data available to Dunbar teams across the nation.

“We will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a sales force automation tool,” said Seth McElroy, vice president for marketing and sales administration for Dunbar. “When a prospect converts to a win, the technology will feed that information directly into our customer data with no additional manual keying or replication of data entry.

“One of the main reasons for choosing the Microsoft solution was its integration into and synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, as well as the ability to customize the application,” McElroy said. “We had migrated all of our sales team members to Outlook for e-mail and appointments 18 months ago, so adding a system that’s similar in look and feel will speed adoption.”

McElroy also cited Microsoft’s reputation in the industry, his company’s familiarity with Microsoft Office applications and a desire for an on-premise (rather than Web-hosted) solution as factors in the decision.

Dunbar will implement the sales force automation capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “Seventy-four of our 80 offices have sales force teams that will tap into the integrated database,” McElroy said. “Our Microsoft technology also will promote cross-selling. For example, when a franchise location in one geography chooses our services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will alert and share information with a Dunbar office in another part of the country that may apply that knowledge to similar franchise outlets in its locality.”

Dunbar expects to gain a number of benefits from the new processes, integration and automation afforded by Microsoft Dynamics CRM :

• Increased sales effectiveness. Dunbar anticipates that the administrative load on its teams will be reduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, providing them more selling time and resulting in more revenue and more customer attention, which should increase retention. Many of the administrative functions now will be handled automatically within the integrated database, which is expected to eliminate the manual processes and spreadsheets previously used.
  
  
• Cost savings. Internal labor costs are expected to be lower with elimination of the need for multiple entries of data. Dunbar is examining whether the company’s universal access to integrated data will increase the return on investment of travel costs accrued by sales teams traveling for face-to-face meetings.
  
  
• Improved reporting. The Microsoft technology will allow Dunbar to have a dashboard of its field activities, showing its pipeline, sales by services and other indicators in real time. It also enables salespeople to pull their own reports, rather than requesting them from headquarters, and pinpoint prospects that may be easily accessible on their routes.
  
  
• Time savings. Salespeople for Dunbar will save time because they can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for booking and recording appointments and tasks directly, rather than sending a spreadsheet to the headquarters at the end of each week to advise management of each individual’s activity. At headquarters, management no longer will need to spend hours rolling up data from the company’s eight regions into an aggregate snapshot. With a dashboard, all the data will be available in real time, with activity indicated by individual and service line.
  
  
• Better data accuracy. Microsoft Dynamics CRM aggregates and offers up all customer and prospect data automatically, doing away with the need for multiple people to send data to headquarters or to recompile that data into reports. In addition, the originators and users of the data — the members of the sales force — are the ones who will be entering it, further improving its accuracy. Data will be much timelier with the integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM technology than with the previous system, and management will have visibility into the system.
  
  
• Improvement in revenue. The company will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide new cross-selling opportunities. For instance, the salesperson for a major retailer whose deposits are transported by Dunbar Armored can be linked with salespeople for a major bank where Dunbar provides cash vault services, bringing those relationships together and providing multiple revenue streams. Support for growth. By bringing together information from multiple offices, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will serve as a tool to help Dunbar determine where it should open new offices to serve a growing account base.
  
  
• Integration throughout the company. The company’s marketing team will be tied into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database so that it can create e-mail campaigns for sales staff and mine the data for marketing information. For the first time, the client services team will be able to place its notes regarding resolution of issues directly on the same system with other customer information that is accessible to the field sales team.
  
  
• IT support and management. By automating reports and automatically moving information to the customer database when prospects turn into wins, Microsoft Dynamics saves time for the IT team. Further, with data feeding directly into CRM initially, the IT staff will avoid the considerable time devoted to a steep learning curve for users, troubleshooting and managing errors.

“We believe Microsoft Dynamics CRM can make a sales force far more efficient than less-integrated systems do,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s U.S. Dynamics business. “By effectively automating the sales and customer relationship processes, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can expose new opportunities for cross-selling, customer-service improvements and marketing that may not have been apparent with stand-alone or manual systems.”

June 19, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Century Martial Arts Supply, the world’s largest manufacturer of martial arts, mixed martial arts, boxing and fitness equipment, has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to provide customer information on a more detailed level than was available with its previous systems. Century’s customers include thousands of martial arts schools globally for which the company supplies equipment, curriculum programs, trade-show events and customized products.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides powerful, role-based customer relationship management capabilities. Century will integrate it with the company’s current Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 business management solution and its Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange Server.

Century, with more than 300 employees based at its Oklahoma City manufacturing and distribution center, sells products through catalogs and the Web as well as through sporting- goods chains.

“We wanted to get to know our customers better,” said Paul Webb, vice president of Information Technology at Century Martial Arts. “Dramatic differences exist among our customers — for example between a karate school and a jujitsu school. We wanted to know how to help them better with their businesses, and that meant we had to understand their needs and buying patterns over multiple dimensions — sizes, colors and versions. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will dramatically improve our understanding of each customer on an individual basis.”

Previously, Century had examined historical purchases, buying trends, surveys and feedback from customers and focus groups to gather business intelligence, compiling spreadsheets, reports and analytics. Century needed more extensive reporting, however, to achieve its goal of taking a more proactive approach in suggestive selling to customers, and to increase brand loyalty.

Century Martial Arts considered Salesforce.com and SugarCRM open-source software before determining that Microsoft Dynamics CRM would best meet its needs.

“Besides being competitively priced, Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrated into our existing Microsoft architecture, its functionality and ease of use were attractive, and other Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers that we interviewed gave it extremely high marks on productivity,” Webb said.

Century will plan implementation of the marketing aspects of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that will be used by the marketing and sales staff members conducting outbound calls and visits. Century expects to refine its marketing campaigns to ensure that they are reaching the right customers and prospects, that the marketing messages are timely and appealing, that their efforts are compelling to customers, and that they build the company’s brand.

Century Martial Arts anticipates that Microsoft Dynamics CRM will benefit the organization in a number of ways:

• Support for company growth. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is expected to help Century increase sales, because the company will be able to hone its marketing efforts to the unique needs of various sectors of its customer base. The technology will form one of the pillars of the company’s ability to gather information that will equip its sales and marketing staff members more effectively than before.
  
  
• Improved return on marketing investments. The company will be able to spend marketing and advertising dollars more wisely and thereby should obtain a higher return on the resources it invests in those areas. It also will have the capability to introduce new marketing methods in the future through e-mail campaigns and other programs based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality.
  
  
• Time savings. The organization expects to be able to analyze its results more readily and respond more rapidly to developments in the marketplace. When it runs a marketing campaign, Century will be able to measure its effectiveness quickly and fine-tune subsequent campaigns. This heightened effectiveness also is expected to save the company money in its marketing budget, because it will be able to target its programs more precisely.
  
  
• Improved reporting. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will furnish Century with timelier reporting at a more detailed level than was previously available to the organization. With dashboards, it also will provide better and more up-to-date business intelligence than the company previously could gather. With the reporting from Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Century will be able to analyze the buying patterns of different schools and work with customers on missed opportunities for volume discounts and other savings.
  
  
• Better data management. Century anticipates that its new Microsoft technology will increase the integrity of its data as well as the amount of data the organization can manage.
  
  
• Better planning data. Over time, as Century records more information in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database, it will gain insights to help it plan and execute sales, marketing and advertising better than before, because executives will be able to see which campaigns and offers are working the best.
  
  
• Integration across the company. All aspects of the company are expected to benefit from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the way it will integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX and Century’s forecasting capabilities.
  
  
• Improved use of IT staff. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM will allow sales and marketing personnel to produce their own reports and make most changes to formatting, such as adding a tab or a field, the administrative burden on Century’s IT staff is lightened. The IT staff now can work on transitioning to new technologies and capabilities while non-IT staff takes ownership of their own data.

“An organization like Century Martial Arts, which operates as a manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer, requires a deep and individualized understanding of its thousands of customers, each with its own needs,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for U.S. Dynamics business at Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the customer with intelligence and ease of use that make such a deep comprehension of customer preferences and buying patterns possible in a timely manner.”