When a business develops products and services, there is a desire to ensure that work done with sales and with customer support is kept in lockstep with current and future events. This way, the company can predict how they need to sell products and services to maximize profits and how to custom tailor their solutions to fit as many groups as possible. A popular model for this methodology is the concept of customer relationship management. A huge player in this field is Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Product Information

  • Title: EZ Opp for Dynamics CRM
  • Author: Sonoma Partners
  • Supported operating systems: Windows RT and Windows 8
  • Price: Freeware

EZ Opp

If your sales team is out on the road making calls and setting their sights on clients that can possibly bring the company some serious income, CRM tools that are portable and mobile friendly are most certainly in order. Sonoma Partners develops a free app for Windows 8 called EZ Opp for Dynamics CRM, and it gives you the power and ability to create opportunities for sales, make adjustments and corrections for various products and services, as well as display all communication activity between the company and clients at a glance.

The main screen graces you with an informative timeline for opportunities.

To get started, you will need to have your own Microsoft Dynamics CRM server live and ready to go. Then all you need to do is point EZ Opp to the server and it is smooth sailing from there. The touch-friendly user interface allows for quick timeline and expected sales adjustments with the swipe of a finger. In the main screen, any number of yellow colored circles representing the products and sales goals are charted by date. Using your finger, you can resize the circle bigger or smaller for the projected revenue amount or drag the circle by probability and estimated close date. Fields for the estimated revenue, probability, and closing date exist as well, so that you can input fine-tuned values instead if the finger-resizing method isn’t accurate enough.

Additionally, on the left hand side, you can set up your companies or stores known as opportunities, which contain details on the goal, such as estimated revenue, probability of success, and dates for closing. There is also customer information as well as an activities area letting you know if you are due to follow up with a client, make an appointment or accomplish a set of tasks based upon calendar information. The activity feed then sums up every action that occurred on the opportunity so you can gauge progress without having to dip deeply into the app.

There is a bit of customization capability, but it is decidedly basic.

Aside from all those bits of functionality, the app doesn’t do too much else. If you desire a more comprehensive outlook on information as well as further customization, you will need to interface with Microsoft Dynamics CRM directly via your company’s custom web-portal, albeit without the added touch friendly functionality that comes with the EZ Opp app experience. Fortunately, for taking your sales projections on the road or for quick previews from a simple point of view, EZ Opp is still worth a look anyway.

Bottom line

If you are looking to try a CRM experienced based on touch that conforms well to a tablet and other Windows 8 touchscreen devices, Sonoma Partners’ freebie EZ Opp is worth a download. Although it’s not as customizable as a full blown Microsoft Dynamics CRM native portal, it certainly can have its uses. Also, if you don’t happen to have a CRM server up and running, yet want to try EZ Opp anyway, a demo mode is provided in the app which pushes sample data for you to explore and adjust to your heart’s content.

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