Building a strong customer base with Dynamics 365

Our client is a well-known manufacturer and retailer of chilled and frozen food items in the US with a business spanning across more than 10 states.

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Challenge

Change it to- The client’s major business is online. They did not have a proper process in place to keep in touch with their customers.

Data Collection - AhaApps

AhaApps’ Methodology

AhaApps started by researching about the client. Being a major client, a lot of information was available to review. We had a good understanding of how their business works.

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AhaApps’ Solution

We advised the client to move to Dynamics 365 and they agreed. We imported the data from the legacy system and put up a proper process in place based on their business needs.

Client’s challenge:

The client’s major business is online. Approximately, 65% of their sales happen on their eCommerce website. The client did not have a proper process in place to keep in touch with their customers. If any new promotion or sale was coming up, they did not have a proper process on how to get that message out to their customers. Due to reasons like this, they did not have a lot of repeat customers and hence losing business.

AhaApps’ analysis:

Upon inspection of the system, we discovered that the legacy tool was used to store the customer contact information. However, there was not a proper process in place on what to do with that data. There were no marketing campaigns in place to make the customer purchase again. There were also issues with the whole sales process on the website.

AhaApps’ methodology:

AhaApps started by researching about the client. Being a major client, a lot of information was available to review. We had a good understanding of how their business works. Later we started interacting with the client in detail.

  • We started by asking about the business, their strengths, weaknesses, where would they like to see their business (progress), etc. Once we got enough information about the functional aspects, we started reviewing the technical components.
  • We analyzed in depth their legacy tool. We analyzed how it was designed and worked.
  • Based on the requirements given, we reviewed if it would be cost-effective for the client to add the functionalities requested on to their legacy system or just start over in a new tool.
  • Upon detailed analysis, we concluded that the best way forward was to start over in Dynamics 365.


We would have loved to just add the functionalities in the legacy tool itself, but unfortunately, the legacy software had a lot of issues and bugs and it would take less time and money to start over rather than trying to resolve the issues in it.

We gave a detailed report on the pros and cons of moving to D365 vs their legacy tool and left the decision to the client. The client decided to move to D365.

We used the Agile methodology for this project. Once the development was completed, we provided detailed training to the users. We also gave detailed user manuals that spoke about the product. Once their training was complete, the product was live.

AhaApps’ solution:

We advised the client to move to Dynamics 365 and they agreed. We imported the data from the legacy system and put up a proper process in place based on their business needs. We developed a custom tool built exclusively for this client which acts as a sales engagement tool with the customer.

Using this tool, users can set up their custom marketing campaigns. The unique thing about these marketing campaigns is that the campaigns will allow the user to send communications to the customer over a while. The entire process is automated.

For example, the user can set up a marketing campaign that runs for 1 week. On the first day, an automated email will be sent to the customer. On the fourth day, another email will be sent to the customer. We also configured a functionality that tracks which customers read the email.

On the seventh day, we can record a call to the customer. This was done using the Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) tool installed. Using the tool, the user can make calls. If the call went to Voicemail, we had a provision to update the status of the call automatically. We also had call recording features that could be used for training purposes.

Charts and Dashboards were also created using Power BI to provide insights for the users. Some of the Charts which were created are the Number of Sales calls, Customers who read the emails, Number of contacts yet to be contacted, upcoming activities, etc.

Tools Used:

  1. Power BI
  2. Dynamics 365
  3. Scribe
  4. SSIS
  5. SSRS

Time taken:

  1. 6 months

The ‘aha!’ moment

After seeing the implementation’s results the client wondered why they didn’t do this earlier! Their Aha moment was when they realized that after making the upgrade to Dynamics 365, their business grew by a whopping 145%.
The client mentioned “AhaApps was very clear in their thinking. They asked the right questions, had clear plans on how to resolve the issue, and made very good recommendations. Along with the technical team, AhaApps’s marketing team was also a major help in this project. Understanding our business, the marketing teams also provided valuable insights into the marketing campaigns.”