Connect your data with Microsoft tools
Boyer debuts Power Platform and CRM practice
Boyer & Associates is proud to announce a new Microsoft Power Platform/CRM practice.
A Microsoft gold-certified partner, the Minneapolis-based company has focused almost exclusively on ERP solutions since its debut in 1994. As of December 2020, we are expanding our solutions to include Microsoft’s Power Platform and Dynamics 365 CE (CRM).
Boyer has joined forces with industry experts Lee Witkop, Merlin Schwaiger and Matt Fleming to head up the new practice. Witkop is the practice’s vice president and has a background in both consulting and sales. Partner Schwaiger has 17 years of experience in the industry, specifically with data integrations. Fleming serves as the practice’s principal solution architect and go-to consultant. The trio previously worked together at a Minneapolis-based CRM firm.
“Jack realized the value of bringing a wholistic story to his customers. Microsoft has shown that ERPs and CRMs need to talk to each other and be on the same platform,” Witkop said.
While many CRM partners are starting to dabble in Power Platform as an additional toolset, Boyer & Associates brings a Power Platform-first message. Flipping the focus from one large tool to an entire suite of small but powerful tools will give us more versatility in solving multiple problems, according to Schwaiger.
“There’s a lot of potential to solve a lot of problems in Power Platform. An organization can have lots of smaller problems, and you can solve all of them,” he said.
Witkop referred to the adage, “When all you have is a hammer, everything you see is nails.” Boyer believes that opening that focus to an entire toolset will give us more breadth in choosing the right tool to help solve a client’s particular problem.
Despite — or perhaps because of — the challenges of a pandemic forcing changes in the workplace, Witkop believes this is the right time to start this new venture.
“There’s never a good time to start a practice. There’s never a good time to make a change. The reality is people are looking for a solution to interact with their customers and employees in a digital manner more than ever,” he said.
Unlike a large, time-consuming implementation of ERP or CRM, a Power Platform solution can be deployed within weeks, sometimes even days. It’s much simpler, faster and cheaper to change out one simple process than to implement an entirely new system. Plus, that quick fix to a small problem can greatly improve a company’s efficiency.
“Jack realized the value of bringing a wholistic story to his customers. Microsoft has shown that ERPs and CRMs need to talk to each other and be on the same platform.”
— Lee Witkop
Power Platform refers to the following toolbox of solutions:
- Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Power BI
- Power Virtual Agent
Lack of visibility to sales processes and data scattered across many spreadsheets are just a couple common problems facing businesses.
With Power Platform, you can create a Power App to streamline a business process, bring the data together through Power Automate and create an actionable report with Power BI. Power Virtual Agent can also help you better meet the needs and questions of your own clients.
“Microsoft is doing more with AI and ML than anyone else in the world,” Witkop said. “It’s a platform where many of an organization’s business processes live, and Microsoft makes it simple for the organization to retrieve that data in an actionable and timely manner. It’s no longer about collecting data. It’s about letting the data help guide the organization.”
Along with the Power Platform, Boyer now has the expertise to implement the following solutions related to Microsoft’s CRM platform:
- Dynamics 365 Sales
- Dynamics 365 Customer Service
- Dynamics 365 Marketing
- Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
“CRM is just a very complex Power App,” Witkop said. He noted that far too often, companies implement a CRM system that collects lots of valuable data, but then they’re unable to do anything with it. Over time, they end up with data dispersed across multiple systems and spreadsheets and lose the true value of their data.
Integrations across all business operations can help a company connect the data to better make data-driven decisions. That’s where the focus on multiple solutions and ongoing projects comes into play.
Schwaiger noted that most consultancies focus on one specific project, finish it and move on to the next client. He believes the focus should be on continuous improvement, a goal that fits nicely with Boyer’s tagline, Making Businesses Better.
“It’s not just a project. We’re building out a product, and that product is solving business problems for your business and resulting hopefully in good outcomes,” Schwaiger said.
He pointed out that businesses are constantly evolving, yet their software stays stagnant. The goal is to help clients put a plan in place for proactively modifying the software to best meet the organization’s evolving needs and processes.
With this new practice, Boyer & Associates will be focused not on a prospect’s specific requirements but on their specific outcomes. A wholistic offering of ERP, Power Platform and CRM makes us uniquely suited to be able to recommend the best Microsoft solution to meet that goal.
To learn more about Power Platform, register now for our upcoming Boyer Power Hour webinar series. Together we can make your business better.
