CRM usually doesn’t make our lives easier. It helps management collect relevant information about our “Customers,” the relationship we have with them, and with that data collection, make important business decisions. You have all heard the saying, “You need to put in what you want to get out of CRM.” Sometimes it can be information overload. Or, that information is no longer relevant. How can we identify those items that are no longer relevant or no longer being used?
Are you using too many fields?
One of the first things you can do is look for fields that are not being used on an entity. One of my favorite tools to use with Dynamics CRM is XrmToolBox. In this toolbox, there is a plugin called the Attribute Usage Inspector.
Use this plugin to connect to your CRM environment to find out which fields are being used in an entity. The results will display the percentage of all the records in that entity where the field has data.
It is quite an eye-opener to see how many fields you may have on an entity and how little some of them are being used. This can help drive discussion with your end users on what appears to be working and what doesn’t. It can help you find areas that need improvement when it comes to collecting data.
I recently lead a session at CRMUG Summit on tips and tricks for keeping your CRM environment clean. I had a lot of fun delivering this session because there was a good amount of interaction with the audience as well as helpful information for everyone. I will be repeating the session online via a webinar with CRMUG.
About the author: Sarah Jelinek is a Senior Consultant and CRM trainer for Arctic Information Technology. For help on how to keep your CRM clean, contact Sarah at sjelinek@arcticit.com or follow her on Twitter @dyn365diva.
Look for Part Two of Keeping CRM Clean coming soon!