Understanding Opportunities in AX2009 –
CRM Module
One of the nice upgrades in AX 2009 is the addition of
Opportunities in the CRM module. During a recent AX2009 -CRM module
training event, it became clear that the term “Opportunities” doesn’t always
fit nicely into the way some organizations think about their CRM process.
Here’s a quick overview of Opportunities and how they fit into AX.
One way to think about Opportunities is your Pre-Sales
Bucket. This bucket contains everything you need to create, develop and
close sales deals. Opportunities pick up where Leads end. In most
organizations it is important for there to be separate definitions for
recording and working with potential-sales that are unqualified (Leads), and
qualified (Opportunities). In AX2009, Opportunities keep up with:
·Communications
·Contacts
·Competitors
·Partners
·Products being quoted
·Quoted Prices
·Quantities
·Sales Stage
·Associated documentation
Opportunities
are not necessarily companies, and they can contain multiple contacts. From AX2009:
When your lead record
has become an opportunity record, you can start to track more sales-related
information such as quotations and competitors. Tracking the competition for
the sale can give you valuable information about how to win the opportunity and
gain another customer.
When you manage your
opportunities, you can also give probability percentages and prognosis ratings
to the opportunity and track the probability percentage, or chance that the
opportunity will become a customer.
As soon as you have
provided quotations and the contact at the opportunity has made a decision, you
can track whether you won the opportunity and the reason why you won it. If you
have lost the opportunity, you can list why and to whom you lost the
opportunity, as this information might be useful later.
The slide below illustrates how Opportunities and Leads fit into
the AX2009 – CRM flow:
