Property management company improves sales with customer-centric CRM

The challenge

Old technology was slowing sales

At the time of this project, our client was storing its business data in an on-premises SharePoint 2013 system. This data included customer and inventory information such as property documents, tenancy calendars, meeting calendars, and customer notes.

 

However, a lack of fast access to this data was causing problems. Staff in sales, marketing, and finance had to search manually through multiple documents to get the information they needed.

 

This sluggish system was preventing the company’s staff from providing the best customer service possible. It was also difficult for the company to capitalise on potential new opportunities such as up-selling and cross-selling.

 

On top of this, the company’s SharePoint system had reached the end of Microsoft support. This forced the company to spend time and effort supporting the SharePoint server. And SharePoint 2013 end of life was also approaching in 2023.

 

For all these reasons, the company decided that a modern and customer-centric solution was needed to replace SharePoint 2013.

The solution

Custom CRM software development

While searching for CRM specialists, the company found our SharePoint development site. The company was impressed by our SharePoint experience and contacted us for assistance.

 

Our solution consisted of three phases: discovery, build, and migration.

 

1. Data discovery

The first phase involved:

 

• cataloguing all the data in the on-premises SharePoint 2013 server
• planning how we could present that data in a customer-centric UI
• creating a mock-up of the new CRM user interface for approval

 

Once the client agreed on the CRM software development plan, we moved to phase two.

 

2. CRM build

The goal of this stage was to build a customer-centric system in SharePoint 365.

 

Our design displayed one page per customer, with all data related to that customer instantly visible. We achieved this by integrating a number of Power Apps modules into the SharePoint interface. These apps enabled staff to easily interact with customer and inventory data.

 

We also added new search and reporting features, making it easier for staff to navigate and monitor usage.

 

The final step of the build was handing the client full documentation of the system architecture, software components, and data model.

 

3. Data migration

With the new SharePoint CRM in place, we were ready to migrate the data from the client’s old SharePoint server.

 

This phase included:

 

• mapping data items to the new model
• design of relevant data-conversion rules
• multiple waves of migration to test success

The benefits

Empowering staff to create more value

Property investors become customer-centric with Power Apps data integration

The challenge

Disparate customer data was hampering growth

Managing £5 billion worth of property assets requires fast and flawless coordination between sales, service, and back-office staff. And to make that happen you need complete, accurate, and easily accessible customer data.

 

For our client, this data included customer requirements documents, tenancy calendars, meeting calendars, and customer notes. However, the customer’s existing system required staff to search manually through multiple documents to find the data they needed. This disparate data was causing inefficiencies across the company’s sales, marketing, and finance teams.

 

In brief, the drawbacks of this unintegrated data were:

 

• no customer-centric view of customer data
• slow processes affecting customer satisfaction
• higher operating costs due to manual tasks

 

And there was another barrier: the customer data was in SharePoint 2013, which had reached the end of Microsoft support. Besides the cost of Microsoft extended support, the company also had to plan for SharePoint 2013 end of life in 2023. Another negative was the high cost of maintaining the on-premises SharePoint server.

 

For these reasons, it was clear that the company needed to migrate its customer data to an integrated modern platform.

The solution

SharePoint Power Apps data integration

Aware of our reputation as SharePoint experts, the client approached egforit to design a data integration and migration solution.

 

Our proposal was twofold:

 

1. to migrate data to SharePoint online, in the cloud — avoiding the need for upgrades or on-premises maintenance
2. to create a single page for each customer, displaying all data in an intuitive format, through Power Apps data integration

 

With the low-code Power Apps designer, this technology also meant we could develop the client’s integrations quickly and at low cost.

 

For the first part, we followed a three-phase process of discovery and design, CRM build, and data migration. This process worked as follows:

 

• Discovery and design: our SharePoint consultant worked to understand the client’s customer and inventory data model, and how we could transform it into a customer-centric UI
• Minimal viable product (MVP) build: we built a new CRM in SharePoint 365, where the client could test the functionality and prove its effectiveness
• Data migration: we tested and automated the data mappings and transformations to load the SharePoint 2013 data into the new model

 

At the same time, our digital integration experts were working on the SharePoint Power Apps data integration. The result was six Power Apps, one for each type of customer data. These six Power Apps were present on each customer page in the client’s SharePoint 365 system.

 

By designing the customer pages to act like a filter on the Power Apps, we made each app only show data relevant to that customer. In this way, the client’s staff could see all data for a particular customer on one page. And they could also interact with that data through the Power Apps. This meant that there was a single, always updated source of record for each customer.

The benefits

Building a customer-centric business in the cloud