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Showing posts from December, 2013

Dynamics CRM Customizations for Government Contractors

If your business focuses on government contracting, you can tailor Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help you manage your business development efforts.  Out of the box, Dynamics CRM is missing some of the data elements you will need to track opportunities, and the standard business processes will probably not match your requirements. You may want to consider how you approach marketing and determine whether or not you want to use the Leads entity or purchase mailing lists for marketing purposes.  Our experience is that many traditional marketing approaches do not work well for government customers.  One reason is that government separates the people who need products and services from people who purchase them. You can populate the Accounts entity with all the agencies and sub-agencies that you sell to.  Be sure to enter the data to reflect the hierarchical nature of government agencies, departments, branches and offices. This data is available from several sources for import if you would li

Microsoft Dynamics for Government Contractors

A recent article in the Washington Post told the story of the rise of Deltek, a company that pioneered research and accounting for government contractors.  According to the article, the company has virtually cornered the software market in government contractors because it is perceived as the only choice for companies that want to feel secure in compliance with government accounting rules.  Government auditors make contractors feel like they are taking a risk if they choose anything other than Deltek. It turns out that there are alternatives to Deltek which may be better choices for many government contractors.  Microsoft and its implementation partners offer the Microsoft Dynamics family of products which can fulfill the needs of large and small government contractors. McGladrey, for instance, offers Dynamics SL accounting software which has been tailored to the needs of government contractors .   Pleasant Valley Business Solutions has helped government contractors migrate from

Microsoft Cloud, Hybrid and On Premise Options -- Update from the Field

InfoStrat has witnessed growing interest in cloud computing among its customers, but not as much movement as you might expect based on the amount of press received from cloud computing.  Our primary customers are public sector: federal government, state and local government, and education.  These are not usually the first to implement new technology, so they tend to lag behind trends.   Nonetheless, we are seeing solicitations which either call for cloud deployment or request bids for both cloud and on premise deployment. Another barrier to cloud computing is that government agencies impose security standards for computing solutions, and cloud providers are scrambling to achieve certifications such as FISMA and FedRAMP which are needed by federal agencies.  Our solutions are based on the Microsoft platform, especially SQL Server, Dynamics CRM, and SharePoint.  Most of our clients own traditional volume licenses for these Microsoft products, and Microsoft affords an unusual flexibil