Be honest: why are you implementing CRM? To make relationships smoother, which serves both you and the customer, or to make transactions smoother, which serves just you?

Customers know the difference, says JC Quintana. He is author of CRM to the People; also Speaking Frankly About Customer Relationship Management, and the upcoming Serious Relationships: The 7 Elements of Successful Business Relationships due out in June.

JC is the founder and president of the Corporate Relationship Group, which helps companies resolve business relationship challenges; and before launching his company, was the Global Head of Customer Strategy Innovation with Hewlett Packard. Most recently, he delivered the customer keynote at eXtreme Lisbon, and he’s here to tell us more about customer strategies:

• How the term CRM has become a technology, not a practice
• How Microsoft with Dynamics 365 balances outcomes with functionality
• Why relationships are about human needs – which requires an experience staging that must happen before a relationship begins
• A customer relationship is still the goal; but staging the relationship to succeed is customer experience
• How functionality, accessibility and emotional connection define an experience
• How a CX assessment is the new measure of customer sentiment – but is it enough?
• How to leverage CRM to deliver CX and stronger customer relationships.

This time, a Dynamics download from Summit EMEA 2017 and eXtreme365, plus the fate of AX 2012 R3, NAV "Tenerife", and no kidding, D365 Cannabis.

Among the stories:

• The Dynamics 365 for Operations roadmap – can you wait until July for the next release?
• The “Activities” user level in D365, for roles that don’t need the full functionality.
• What is NAV “Tenerife?” It’s a late 2017 NAV release, closely intertwined with Dynamics 365's Financials app. What can you expect?
• The end of Dynamics AX 2012 R3 licenses. No it’s not being discontinued, but expect D365 to get the R&D dollars.
• With CRM, complexity kills: Hear three new user adoption tactics for Dynamics 365 CRM apps.
• D365 Cannabis, an end-to-end solution for a huge industry that’s gone legit.

And more.