The Townsend Report

InfoStrat has created a calculator to help customers explore costs for licensing, hosting, and professional services relating to Dynamics CRM projects.   This calculator is based on many assumptions (list price for software, nominal blended rates for services) and is missing some cost items (data migration, hardware, and integration) but is a starting point for understanding the total cost of initial implementation and total cost of ownership. The tool will be refined based on user feedback.  It is no substitute for talking to an experienced implementation team and getting the actual prices based on your Microsoft volume licensing agreement and professional services provide. We hope you enjoy.

Government agencies have diverse requirements when it comes to automating grants management.  I have been helping customers evaluate Grants Manager Plus and it turns out that each agency has a unique approach which requires some customization in order to optimally match their business rules.  One size definitely does not fit all when it comes to grants. Federal agencies are the largest grantors, and rarely receive grants except perhaps from other federal agencies.  These agencies are bound by guidelines established by the Office of Management and Budget and are striving for more consistent approaches to grants such as accepting applications via the grants.gov portal.    Many of their grants are formula grants rather than competitive grants, and the formulas themselves may be quite complicated.    Typically the grant managers are scattered among offices within an agency rather than centralized, although some are consolidating.  The volume of applications and dollar value of federal gr

Maps are a great complement to CRM systems, and can help you visualize data in exciting new ways.  Over the years, InfoStrat has integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM with GIS including ArcGIS (ESRI) and Bing Maps (Microsoft). One of our first GIS integrations was to show cases from constituent management on a map using "pushpins."  This solution allows users to see a map of open cases and filter by search criteria. Field inspection is a great scenario for mapping.    Inspections use maps to navigate to inspection sites, and can present inspection results in maps. Mashups of data from multiple sources, including CRM, can be useful.   This visualizations can include business graphs integrated with maps. Interactive video conferencing often uses maps to communicate critical information.   The virtual meeting experience can be enhanced with Microsoft Kinect as a 3D controller. Modern GIS data and images may be used for scientific and historical research . The exte