If customers are the lifeblood of business, then customer relationship management (CRM) is the daily checkup to ensure that the heart is still pumping steadily and that the entire body is in good health. Metaphors aside, CRM describes the processes, tools, and activities that companies employ to understand their customers and respond rapidly to their ever-changing needs and preferences. Given the importance and widespread use of CRM across today’s businesses, it would be natural to assume that CRM implementation is a fairly straightforward and routinely successful process—but rarely is this the case. This raises the question as to why—and more important, as to what your company can do to ensure that your CRM efforts pay off. In this infographic, we address those questions by distilling input from vendors, users, and experts into eight best practices that your company can follow to help deliver a successful (and ultimately, fruitful) CRM implementation.

View: 8 best practices for a successful CRM implementation

Dr. Thomas is an oncologist whose day is divided among seeing patients, reviewing charts and x-rays, meeting with colleagues remotely and in-person, and improving patient services at his practice. With so many tasks to do and only a finite number of hours during the day, Dr. Thomas relies heavily on Microsoft Teams to prepare for upcoming appointments, review confidential patient information, and follow up with nurses and radiologists on test results. He also utilizes Power BI dashboards to visualize and address trends in his practice, like patient wait times and quality of care issues. View the infographic for a play-by-play account of Dr. Thomas’ day, and how Teams and tools like Power BI enable him to more effectively focus on patient care.

View: Spend a day in the life with physician Dr. Thomas

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way, especially in recent times. In the past five years, adoption of AI-driven technology has significantly increased among the world’s enterprises, leading to smarter machines and a validation of AI’s role in these organizations. As more businesses adopt AI, it becomes more important as a potentiator of human talent. Businesses also gain increasing access to unparalleled levels of innovation.

In this infographic, you’ll get a glimpse into how Microsoft-powered AI features have been making businesses around the world smarter and more efficient.

View: A step forward in the age of artificial intelligence

What do your customers expect from sellers? Wouldn’t it be great to easily answer this question! This infographic includes powerful statistics and insight into the minds of customers.

According to McKinsey, the top customer request is to speed up interactions with sellers. This was mentioned two times more often than price. What’s more, according to TOPO, 60 percent of companies lack a well-designed sales process.

Great news! Dynamics 365 Sales Professional helps your sellers stay engaged with customers and provides virtual collaboration via Teams.

View: Map to Your Customers’ Sales Expectation