Today, businesses of all sizes are rapidly upgrading their network infrastructures to deliver comprehensive IP Communications (IPC) capabilities. One of the most compelling IPC applications is customer relationship management (CRM). When integrated with an IPC network, customer care solutions enable companies to more efficiently and effectively address customer needs and, by doing so, build profitable customer relationships.

To help ensure that your communications system gives you all of the capabilities you need now and in the future, Cisco has developed the Cisco Business Communications Solution – the first smart, simple, secure, integrated voice, video, data, and wireless communications solution designed and priced for small and medium-sized businesses like yours.

As part of the Cisco Business Communications Solution, with the support of Microsoft Corporation, the Cisco CRM Communications Connector enables small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) or empowered branch offices to provide superior customer service by connecting Cisco IPC solutions with the Microsoft Business Solution Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM) application.

Cisco and Microsoft – Combining Strengths
The Cisco CRM Communications Connector is ideal for SMBs or empowered branch offices wanting to create a comprehensive CRM solution built on Microsoft CRM and Cisco IPC. Such a solution enables all employees within these organisations, not only call center agents, to improve productivity and deliver superior customer service.

A Complete Communications Solution
Historically, integrating a traditional private branch exchange (PBX) with a desktop CRM application required expensive specialized hardware and software, and often produced only mixed results. Installed at the desktop, the Cisco CRM Communications Connector creates one complete customer communications solution, requiring only Microsoft CRM and Cisco IPC.

Smooth Integration
The Cisco CRM Communications Connector, developed with technical information and feedback from Microsoft, is available for Cisco CallManager Express (CME), and Cisco CallManager and Cisco IP Contact Center (IPCC) Express. Apex can quickly and easily integrate Microsoft CRM and Cisco IPC solutions at the desktop with no additional hardware required. The Communication Connector is now equipped with auto-detect which will identify which Cisco IP platform is currently being utilised. Additionally, the full line of Cisco IP phones is supported, from the entry-level Cisco IP Phone 7902G to the advanced Cisco IP Phone 7970G. The Communications Connector uses Microsoft Outlook or an Internet Explorer interface as the primary client for managing tasks and contacts.

Features
The Cisco CRM Communications Connector enables SMBs or empowered branch offices to fully tap the potential of both Microsoft and Cisco to provide a complete CRM solution. Its advanced feature set includes:

Screen Pops

• Opens contact record and creates new phone call activity record as call arrives
• Creates screen pops based on the caller-id of the caller for inbound and outbound calls

Click to Dial

• Supports click-to-dial feature from a Microsoft CRM contact record

Call Duration Tracking

• Accurately tracks duration of phone call and associates it with phone activity record

Call Information Capture

• Captures incoming and outgoing call information, including calling number, called number, and call start and end times

Customer Record Creation

• Easily creates a new CRM customer record when a new customer call arrives

The Business Benefits of integrated IPT & CRM

• The Cisco CRM Communications Connector:
• Helps increase sales and service productivity and customer loyalty by providing a single view of all customer communications for all employees within a company, not just call center agents
• Enables everyone to deliver more personal customer service from information in screen pops
• Provides ease of use and a high adoption rate because it has the look and feel of Microsoft Outlook
• Provides ease and efficiency of placing calls, using the click to dial feature
• Enables accurate and complete billing with the call duration tracking feature
• Avoids data silos inside organisations by integrating voice communications with CRM