“The species that are most responsive to the changes, often survive”- Charles Darwin

The impounding economic pressures of the volatile, uncertain World are accelerated by the combination of inflation, unskilled talent, scattered global supply, and ever-changing customer expectations. Many observers are predicting the likelihood of a major global slowdown.

To combat this uncertainty, it is important to identify measures that will help you stay competitive. In short, there is a need to focus on digitalization to differentiate your organization from the competition. Digitalization in the form of locational intelligence now facilitates cost estimation and ensures that resources are focused on business objectives. Businesses can mitigate this risk by planning, forecasting, and problem-solving through the use of locational intelligence in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. By applying location-intelligent solutions for the right business opportunities, organizations can overcome ongoing economic pressure.

The use of Location intelligence is constantly changing and improving traditional ways of doing business. Let us understand how organizations can apply location-intelligent capabilities and take advantage of opportunities through their strategic, tactical, and operational analysis. The uses are

Workforce Planning

Availability, the most fundamental criterion of an effective workforce, relates to when an employee can be in a particular location and available to complete a task. Careful planning, measuring, or optimizing improves both the top and bottom lines of the business. By leveraging locational intelligence organizations can have the right number of people with the right skills at the right time.

To convert this into a reality, today, Maplytics provides an Appointment Planning system powered by locational intelligence in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. Scheduling of client appointments done using Auto-scheduling, helps managers to schedule all future appointments for field workforce and delivery teams thereby placing them, when and where their most skilled and valuable work is needed. The field reps and their teams are well aware of the meeting plans in advance, know their optimized travel paths, and can be monitored in real time while being on the go! Since the availability of the reps is monitored, accommodating impromptu tasks or client requests also becomes easy. The scheduling allows meetings to be planned weeks in advance. Thus, the reps are well-aware of their free spots which could be used for personal growth, grooming, or resting. The reps and their Teams in this manner enjoy a work-life balance and have a smooth ride across client requirements.

These well-planned schedules are further supported with properly balanced sales territories for the reps to look at and effective distribution of workload. Location data can provide valuable performance information based on the outputs just by using territory management. A Summary card for each territory easily measures the sales team’s performance and informs the requirements to meet customer needs. In addition, with accurate data, a manager can optimize usage by making smart business decisions about hiring, training, or schedule. Locational Intelligence helps manage workforce usage to reduce the workload of currently overworked employees.

Improved efficiency and savings

Map integration in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM has been used for route planning for years. In fact, by avoiding left turns, a leading logistics company was able to save an estimated 10 million gallons of fuel annually. Maplytics assists fleets and field reps with Turn by Turn Navigation in Dynamics 365 to reduce time and increase gas efficiency. The time saved in unnecessary backtracking and traffic is beyond measure. A little wait at the toll plaza or on a slow-moving bridge seems all right on paper, but when measured in terms of the minutes, fuel, and money wasted over the years adds to the worry! Imagine this waiting time being used for brainstorming or improvement strategies and the money, being re-invested into the capital! Measuring all this seemed only a hypothesis a few years back, but, with this new era, the available data is much wiser!

Proximity search in Maplytics can help field reps select the next meeting location or find nearby gas stations along the route for the delivery staff, reducing both, the distance traveled and the number of trips. Using location intelligence in daily operations, organizations can save hundreds of hours, fuel, and related costs on a daily basis thereby increasing their profitability and competitiveness.

Customer and employee satisfaction

Locational Intelligence within your business has a huge impact on customer and employee satisfaction. With the Check-In and Check-Out feature of Maplytics, users are empowered with the ability to monitor their foot force which in turn facilitates better customer communication thus, eliminating hassles and enhancing the customer experience. Maplytics with its Location intelligence aids in streamlining delivery by providing consistent, accurate, and predictable arrival times. Location information helps simplify last-mile delivery, ensures on-time delivery, and increases customer satisfaction.

Some more about Maplytics

Maplytics™ is a geo-analytical mapping app that helps in Maps integration within Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide features like Territory Management, Radius Search, Appointment Planner, and Routing within Dynamics 365. With the power of locational intelligence, Maplytics helps organizations cut labor costs, increase efficiency and improve customer, and employee satisfaction to improve their bottom line. By leveraging the power of geo-mapping technology, many organizations are already experiencing improved customer engagement. The biggest benefits of Maplytics are increased productivity, efficiency, and cost savings which matter the most while facing the current and ever-growing economic pressure.

If your business plans to integrate Maps with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and needs some consultation on ‘How to enable Maps for Microsoft Dynamics 365?’, then reach our dedicated team by emailing us at crm@inogic.com.

Visit our website or Microsoft AppSource to learn more about Maplytics.