Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities Module Overview
Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities Module Overview
RESPONSIBILITIES
Module Overview
The salesperson is a key component of the Microsoft Dynamics® AX Sales and
Marketing module. The salesperson, also called the Sales and Marketing
employee, administers and maintains day-to-day contacts with prospects.
The salesperson talks to the contact person from the prospect, maintains
correspondence, and is frequently perceived as the caretaker of the prospect for
the company. The salesperson also increases the sales value of the prospect by
adding volume to the sales and increasing customer satisfaction with the
company.
While the salesperson has many responsibilities in the sales cycle, other team
members such as account managers, project managers, and trainers might have
responsibilities associated with the sales cycle too. With Microsoft Dynamics AX
Sales and Marketing module, you can set up responsibilities for all of these team
members.
Objectives
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Scenario
An experienced software consultant is implementing the Microsoft Dynamics AX
CRM functionality. The consultant is charged with creating and maintaining
responsibilities, contact persons, and activities for the customer.
Defining Responsibilities
By using responsibility assignments in Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can have a
worker title automatically assigned to new procedures and tasks. Identifying and
assigning process responsibilities on an organizational level can make it easier and
more efficient to assign the appropriate staff to specific tasks, such as developing
and conducting marketing campaigns.
When responsibility assignments are made in the system, you do not have to
remember or track which workers or worker titles are assigned to specific activities
in your organization’s business process. If the worker title that appears for a
particular task is incorrect, you can change it.
For example, if the sales manager is responsible for tracking opportunities in your
organization's sales processes, selecting the Opportunity check box on the sales
manager line in the Responsibilities form automatically assigns the sales
manager to all opportunities.
Setting Up Responsibilities
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
5. Select the appropriate fields to allow the responsibility to have access
to specific records. For example, an account manager may need to
access the opportunity, prospect, customer, and case records.
Therefore, you would select the associated check boxes.
6. Close the form.
Note: Click Inquiry to open the forms that correspond to the responsibilities.
Only the selected responsibilities are available.
Assigning Responsibilities
The data in this form is not defined by the system requirements of Microsoft
Dynamics AX but by the business methods and procedures of the company.
The salesperson or main contact person may not be the only employee interacting
with the prospect. The responsibilities of an employee regarding a prospect are
defined in the Responsibilities form.
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You can assign responsibilities to various individuals in your organization, based
on their roles and tasks. You can also change or delete assignments of
responsibility at any time.
Prospect Responsibilities
You can also include employees other than sales personnel in this form to achieve
a better overview of the tasks, responsibilities, and number of employees the
prospect encounters with your company.
The responsibilities used here are set up and maintained in the Responsibilities
form.
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All
prospects.
2. Select a prospect in the All prospect list page, and click Edit.
3. On the General tab in the Setup group, click Responsibilities.
4. Click New to create new responsibilities for this prospect.
5. Select a Responsibility, and then select a Worker.
6. Add additional Responsibilities if warranted.
7. Click Action, and then click one of the following:
• Apply Select: Apply only the selected responsibilities to the
selected prospect.
• Apply All: Apply all responsibilities to the selected prospect.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
Contact Information
The Sales and Marketing module focuses on person-to-person contacts between a
salesperson and the contact person for the prospect. Because personal contact
and personalized communication frequently facilitate the entire communication
process, a good salesperson knows or has access to knowledge about the contact
person.
Use the Sales and Marketing module to store and easily access detailed
information for each contact. You can keep track of interests, loyalty, and personal
information to aid you in adding personalized content when communicating with
a contact person.
• Plan activities.
• Link documents and mailings to the contact.
• Display telemarketing call lists the contact participated in from the
Contact persons form.
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When a prospect is recorded in the Sales and Marketing module, you must
connect a contact person to the prospect. Contact between the prospect and the
company is accomplished through a contact person. Having this contact person
connected to the prospect allows for personalized communication, regardless of
whether the means of communication is email, telephone, or face-to-face contact.
Note: You can have multiple contact records for each prospect.
Contact Setup
There are eight setup forms used for administering contact persons. None of these
are mandatory and each can be defined after the original setup of the module,
although you should regularly enter as much information as possible.
The setup forms are found in Sales and Marketing > Setup > Contacts and are
described in the following table:
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Setup Table Description
Salutation Set up standard greetings for written
correspondence. Some contact persons
prefer formal greetings; other contact
persons prefer personal greetings.
Examples: Hello, Dear, Sir.
Each setup form brings character and life to contact persons. This aids sales
personnel in adjusting the tone and contact forms to the personality of each
contact person, facilitating a more personal type of contact.
To create entries in these forms, open a new record and add the appropriate
information to the appropriate fields.
Contact Maintenance
Use the Contacts form to record contact information for individuals. To open the
Contacts form follow these steps:
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Contacts > All contacts.
2. On the All contacts list page, select a contact.
3. Select the contact, and click Edit to change the contacts information.
Use the filter functions on the All contacts list page to filter the list. Also, remove
outdated contacts by selecting the contact and clicking Delete.
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Creating a Contact
Every time a prospect is created, define a contact person for the relation.
Although Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM functionality does not require creating
contact persons, many relationship management facilities are useless if contact
persons are not used. The contact persons table frequently grows rapidly as each
prospect evolves to include many contact persons.
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Contacts > All contacts.
2. Click Contact in the New group on the Action pane. The Contact ID
defaults from the set up parameters.
3. Use the Contact for field to select or enter the name of the party for
whom the selected person is the contact.
4. Click Save and Open to save the information, and open the Contacts
form to enter more details about the contact.
Key Fields
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General FastTab
This FastTab has an option to Show more fields so you can to enter more detail
for the contact. Some of the fields and data areas include the following:
Address FastTab
Make entries on this tab to indicate address information for the contact person.
The default address is taken from the address of the prospect associated with the
contact person. Since the prospect is a party record, you cannot make changes to
the shared address from the contact. On the More options tab, select an action
that you want to perform for an address record. The following options are
available:
Note: Click Map to view an online map from maps.bing.com for the selected
address (if a Bing® map account is configured in the System Administration >
Setup > System > System service account)
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Contact Information FastTab
Make entries on this tab as appropriate regarding contact information. The field
groups are a standard set of contact information fields available on many forms in
Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Note: Use Add to add records for email addresses, fax numbers, web sites,
and phone numbers that can easily be identified for marketing campaigns.
• Job Title and Function: Select the contact person's role; choices
default from the Contact person titles and the Functions of
persons form.
• Time available: Select the time in which this contact is available
during the day.
• Miscellaneous information: Use this area to enter the name of the
Manager to whom the contact reports, Sensitivity, and mailing
preferences.
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• VIP: Select this option if the contact person is a very important
person at the prospect company. The field is informational only but
can be used for filtering purposes in queries.
• Personal: Add information about the contacts Citizenship
country/region and Native language.
Contact Actions
Use the Contact tab in the Action Pane of the Contacts form to create or update
information about a contact, or associate a contact with a customer, vendor, or
prospect. Use the following table to apply the appropriate actions:
Button Action
Delete Delete the selected contact.
Edit Edit information for the selected
contact.
Inactivate Set the status of the selected contact
record to inactive.
Contact Create a new contact record.
Add to Microsoft Outlook Add the selected contact to the list of
contacts contacts in Microsoft Outlook.
Customer View the customer record in which the
selected person is a contact.
Vendor View the vendor record in which the
selected person is a contact.
Prospects View the prospect record in which the
selected person is a contact.
Attachments View documents or notes that are
attached to the selected contact.
Competencies Actions
Use the Competencies tab in the Action Pane of the Contacts form to view or
update the professional competencies of the contact. Use the following table to
apply the appropriate actions:
Button Action
Interests View or enter the personal interests of
the selected contact.
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Button Action
Professional experience View or enter information about the
selected contact’s professional
experience.
Certificates View or enter professional or
educational certificates that the selected
contact has acquired.
Courses View or enter professional or
educational courses that the contact has
attended.
Education View or enter information about the
selected contact's education.
Positions of trust View or enter information about any
position or role the contact performs
that is outside the responsibilities of the
contact's primary position.
Project experience View or enter information about the
projects to which the selected contact
has contributed.
Skills View or enter the skills of the selected
contact. These skills can be used for
performing skill mapping.
Market Actions
Use the Market tab in the Contacts form to view or maintain marketing
information for the contact. Use the following table to apply the appropriate
actions:
Button Action
Campaigns View the campaigns that include the
selected contact.
Calls View the selected contact’s call log.
Call lists View the call lists that include the
selected contact.
Mailings View the mailing lists that include the
selected contact.
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General Actions
Use the General tab in the Action Pane of the Contacts form to view more
information about the contact and the contact's associations. Use the following
table to apply the appropriate actions:
Button Action
Quotations View the quotations that have been
created for the selected contact.
Sales orders View the sales orders that have been
created for the selected contact.
Leads View the lead records that are
associated with the selected contact.
Opportunities View the opportunity records that are
associated with the selected contact.
Transaction log View the transaction log for the selected
contact.
Activities View, create, or update activities for the
selected contact.
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Scenario: You are working at the Contoso company. The company has discussed
the parameters necessary to create and maintain contact persons. Create contact
persons for the Adventure Services company. The table shown here contains
information for additional contact persons.
Challenge Yourself
Find the appropriate forms for creating the contacts and make all entries from the
information in the table. If any selections are not available from the setup forms,
create new selections in the setup forms for use when contacts are created.
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Contacts > All contacts.
2. Click New to create a new contact.
3. Make the appropriate entries in the fields on the Contacts form from
the information provided in the table.
4. Create a new record for each contact person.
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Step by Step
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Click Sales and Marketing > Common > Contacts > All Contacts.
2. Click Contact in the New record group to create a new record.
3. Select Adventure Services as the Contact for, and click Select.
4. In the First name field, type “Carol”. In the Last name field, type
“Philips”.
5. In the Job title field, select CEO from the list.
6. In the Function field, select Senior Management.
7. Click Save and open.
8. Click the Miscellaneous details FastTab.
9. In the Loyalty field, select Very loyal from the list.
10. In the Character field, select Visionary from the list.
11. Click the Competencies tab on the Action Pane, and click Interests.
12. In the Interest field, select Baseball.
13. Click New to create a new record.
14. In the Interest field, select Music.
15. Close the Contact interests form, and then Close the Contacts form.
16. Repeat steps 2-16 for each new contact person you must create as
designated in the table. Make appropriate selections in the various
fields for each different contact person.
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Activities
Activities are the tasks, appointments, events, and actions sales personnel perform
regularly together with prospects, contact persons, marketing campaigns, and
quotations.
Entering these activities in the system helps sales personnel track work tasks.
Examples of activities are writing letters, delivering sales presentations, attending
meetings, or making follow up telephone calls. Whatever a salesperson does,
internally or externally, should be entered in the system as an activity, especially if
it affects a prospect or contact person.
Activity Setup
Activities are used throughout the system and used for many processes. To create
activities use the Activities form. Use this form to create, view, and update all
activities (open or closed) that are assigned to you or another employee.
The Activity form can be opened from many locations in Sales and Marketing.
This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• Prospects form
• Quotations form
• Contact persons form
• Opportunities form
• Sales order form
Activities can also be set up by clicking Home > Common > Activities > All
activities.
Note: To delete an activity, click Delete on the Action Pane. If the activity has
attendees, you receive a message stating that the associated activities for the
attendees are also deleted.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
Activity Phases, Plans, and Types
There are three setup forms for registering activities. None of these tables are
mandatory when activities are created, but using them eases the categorization of
activities.
• Activity phases: Click Sales and marketing > Setup > Activities >
Activity Phases. The Activity phases form groups the actions
required to complete a task. Set up groupings that best fit the activity
and the company. For example, groupings may break an activity into
the percentage of the task that is complete - 25%, 50%, 75%, and
100%. Another example of phases might include planning, execution,
and review.
• Activity plans: Click Sales and marketing > Setup > Activities >
Activity plans. The Activity plans form groups related activities
together; group activities involved in a convention, activities
surrounding a product fair, or activities that are part of building a
sales proposal. Activity types and phases are created and then
assigned to a plan.
• Activity types: Click Sales and marketing > Setup > Activities >
Activity types. The Activity types form defines types of activities.
Examples include meetings, letters/faxes, or conference calls. Each
activity defines a task relevant to a procedure.
Activity Categories
Categories are standard and cannot be adjusted, but they can be combined with
different types of activities defined in the setup tables.
Because the appointment and task activities can be synchronized with Microsoft
Outlook, they can include reminders that pop up in the Outlook calendar.
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Note: A major difference between activity categories and activity types is that
activity types can be user defined and activity categories cannot. This is because
some activity categories can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook.
Activities Maintenance
The Activity form can be opened from many locations in Sales and Marketing.
This includes the following:
• Prospects form
• Quotations form
• Contact persons form
Activities can also be set up by clicking Home > Common > Activities > All
activities.
To create or update and activity for a prospect, click Sales and Marketing >
Common > Prospects > All prospects, and then click Edit. Click the General
tab.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
• Record event: Create a new record event for the prospect.
• New task: Create a new task for the prospect.
Information Display
The data displayed when the form opens depends on where the form was
opened. For example, opening the Activities form from the Prospects form
automatically filters the data to display only activities for the selected prospect.
The tabs and fields appearing on the Activities form depend on the activity
category. For example, an event is not synchronized with Microsoft Outlook. This
means the Synchronization FastTab is removed from an Event activity. The
displayed fields and field groups also change depending on the activity type. For
example, the General FastTab for an event does not contain the Recurring and
Reminder field groups.
When a new activity is created, some of the Activities form's fields are pre-filled
with information depending on where the form was opened. For example, if the
Activities form opens from the Prospects form, the Activity number is
automatically updated based on the setup parameters and the Category field is
updated with the activity type.
General FastTab
Use the General FastTab to enter and view information about the activity. The
following information details the key fields of this FastTab and their use. For
information about other fields, click the help icon in the Microsoft Dynamics AX
toolbar while the Activities form is open.
• Priority: The priority of the activity. Set this to one of three levels -
low, normal, or high. This field is for information only.
• Purpose: The objective of the activity. This field can be synchronized
with the Subject field in Microsoft Outlook.
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• Category: The category of the activity.
• Responsible: The employee responsible for completing the activity.
• Date/Time and the Personnel field groups: Date and time of
activity, and employee responsible for it. Some of the fields may not
be present depending on the type of activity..
Other fields on the General FastTab include the Recurrence State (for tasks and appointments),
Plan, Phase, and Type. Make choices for these fields from the defaults from the activity setup
forms.
Use the Associations FastTab to connect the activity to core business activities:
Click the Add button to add an association.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
Select a Parent type from the list. After you have selected a Parent type, select a
specific Parent ID to associate with the Parent type. For example, if you select a
Parent type of Prospects, then you can select from the list of prospects for the
Parent ID.
You can select one association to be the Primary link. By selecting the Primary
link check box, you indicate the association is owned by the parent activity.
You can synchronize activities in the Activities form to the Microsoft Outlook
calendar if the parameters in the employee's profile are set up correctly. These
parameters are set up on the Employee form.
Attendees
Click the Attendees button on the Action Pane from various list pages or from
the Activities form. Invite other employees to planned activities. You can select
any number of additional attendees. The activity appears in Microsoft Outlook
calendars if the activity is synchronized with Microsoft Outlook.
The Activities form displays all attendees of the activity and information about
the attendees.
Use this form to assign attendees to an Appointment activity type. When the
form opens from an appointment, the system realizes it is a new appointment and
that no attendees are assigned to the activity. The system automatically creates a
new record:
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• The E-mail field is automatically populated with the worker’s email
address.
• The Attendee type field is set to organizer.
• The Requirement field is set to required.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
Scenario: You are employed at the Contoso company. You are asked to set up a
meeting with staff at Adventure Services, a new prospect, as part of your business
plan. The purpose of this meeting is to show Adventure Services some of your
product line. You have contacted Adventure Services and set up a meeting for
next Wednesday from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. The meeting is in Conference
Room C. The attendees from Adventure Services are Paula Bento and Brian
LaMaa. Attendees from your company are Alan Steiner and Benjamin Martin. This
meeting is a very high priority because this prospect could turn into a very large
customer.
Challenge Yourself
Create an activity that includes all the appropriate information for the scheduled
meeting. Invite staff members from the Contoso company.
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All
prospects.
2. Select Adventure Services in the All prospect list page, and click
Edit.
3. Click Activities > Schedule appointment.
4. Make the appropriate entries for the Date, Category, Responsible
person, Plan, Purpose, Type, Time, Attendees, Location, Business
account, and Contact person. Use the appropriate FastTabs on the
Activities form to accomplish this lab.
Step by Step
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All
prospects.
2. Select Adventure Services in the All prospect list page, and click
Edit.
3. Click General > Activities > Schedule appointment.
4. In the Purpose field, enter Show product line.
5. In the Location field, enter Conference Room C.
6. In the Plan field, select Proposal from the list.
7. In the Priority field, select High from the list.
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8. In the Phase field, select In progress from the list.
9. In the Type field, select Product presentation from the list.
10. In the Start date/time field, enter 2:00 pm. Click the Calendar icon,
and select the date for the next Wednesday.
11. In the End date/time field, enter 4:00 pm. Click the Calendar icon,
and select the date for the next Wednesday.
12. Click the Attendees button on the Action Pane.
13. Click New to create a new record.
14. Select Alan Steiner from the list, and click Select.
15. Click New to create a new record.
16. Select Benjamin Martin from the list, and click Select.
17. Close the form.
18. Click the Associations FastTab.
19. Click Add.
20. Select Contact in the Parent type field, and then select Paula Bento
in the Parent ID field.
21. Click Add.
22. Select Contact in the Parent type field, and then select Brian LaMaa
in the Parent ID field.
23. Close the Activities form.
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Module 5: Contact Activities and Responsibilities
Module Review
Module Review and Takeaways
Most of the setup tables are basic and contain only two or three columns. Making
entries in these tables is a matter of opening new records and entering the
selections the company decides to use.
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( ) Do nothing.
( ) Activity categories
( ) Activity phases
( ) Activity plans
( ) Activity types
( ) Action
( ) Appointment
( ) Event
( ) Calendar
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5. Responsibilities must be manually set up and maintained.
( ) True
( ) False
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( ) Do nothing.
( ) Activity phases
( ) Activity plans
( ) Activity types
( ) Action
(√) Appointment
( ) Event
( ) Calendar
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5. Responsibilities must be manually set up and maintained.
(√) True
( ) False
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