Combine QlikView with Microsoft CRM for membership insights

Microsoft CRM 2011 has some pretty cool features, but utilising business discovery has allowed us to take this this to new heights. By pointing QlikView at an existing Microsoft CRM database Professional Advantage has been able to develop QlikView reports that give significant insight.

The CRM database is UpBeat, a membership application built by Professional Advantage over the top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. It’s an application specifically designed to help membership organisations capture, track and manage interactions with their members. However, like most ‘transactional systems’ most of the benefit comes not from recording information, but mining and exploring it.

This is where QlikView comes in. By developing reports which interrogated the membership data locked inside UpBeat, what started as a casual experiment quickly yielded benefits. The versatility of QlikView is such that within a short space of time meaningful reports could be developed.

Having a business discovery tool such as QlikView enables organisations to give meaning to their information at three levels.

1. Static demographic data. This may be considered basic summary or overview facts. In the case of UpBeat this comprises fundamental demographics such as: How many members do we have; where do they live; how much money do they contribute; do we have dominance in a particular gender or age bracket. Whilst this data is simple, it remains fundamental. Having the ability to quickly and easily access this information across the whole organisation should be a given, but this is not always the case. QlikView provides a convenient solution to this challenge.

2. Dynamic data. This may be considered background or supporting information. This is particularly relevant in the case of time-based data. Using QlikView to display multi-year data gives the user an ability to assess trends and patterns. For example: Are membership numbers growing or shrinking? What type of members are we attracting? What campaigns or events attracted most interest?

3. Reporting and analysis. A true business discovery tool has the power to aggregate and display significant amounts of data in an easy to use and condensed fashion. The value of this to membership organisations is the ability to explore or interrogate the data. For example: which types of members are likely to renew their membership? What is the correlation between events and revenue? Do we see patterns emerging about types of services different members request? Often in this type of data exploration, we are not even sure of what to look for, but to start looking is the key. For more information about this check out my blog QlikView Business Discovery – how do you find something you weren’t looking for?

So while Microsft CRM gives you access to data, used with QlikView you can go further and get some actionable insights for your organisation.

For details of Professional Advantage’s upcoming QlikView seminar series, click here.

Blog written by Chris Pennington, Consultant to PA. The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the writer. Content published here does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Professional Advantage Pty Ltd.