Modern CRM and database systems must include the ability to automate tasks. Sometimes we need something simple, such as automatically marking an account as a customer after winning an opportunity. Other times we need more complex automations such as having the ability to interface with external systems.

I’ve been a CRM consultant for 18 years, and one of the most common requests I get are from people who want to be notified, by email, when a certain action occurs in the CRM system. Here is an example:

As a manager, when an opportunity is created in the system where the estimated revenue is above $100,000, I want to receive an email with information about that opportunity so I can follow up with the sales rep and make sure they have everything they need to win that opportunity.

I find Excel to be one of the most versatile and useful apps you can have in your toolbox. Recently, I had a large list of names and email addresses that I needed to parse out, and I used a cool feature in Excel to accomplish this.

Imagine that you have a large list that contains both people’s names and their email addresses in a single cell in the following format:

John Smith <JohnSmith@toplineresults.

Sending an automated text message to your CRM leads or contacts is becoming increasingly popular in digital marketing. People may not read all their emails, but they do read text messages. Sending text messages using CRM seems like a daunting technical challenge when you first start looking into it, but with the help of a product like Twilio, it is less difficult.

In your everyday tasks, it’s important to keep an organized workflow. Sometimes, keeping processes in line while working with different apps, services, files, and other data can get a bit messy. That’s where Microsoft’s Power Automate tool comes in handy.

If I can improve my productivity and/or efficiency by 1% per day, it would add up to a tremendous improvement in my quality of work life.

There are some boring, repetitive tasks that I occasionally must perform. I do them often enough that they cause my happiness to drop slightly every time I do them.

One of the greatest achievements in technology that has helped everyday business-people is having the ability to share your computer screen with another person…or to securely view the computer screen of another. At TopLine Results, we do this very often for many reasons including, but not limited to:

Demonstrating a product we support, such as Dynamics 365, Zoho or Salesforce.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has had a native workflow engine almost since inception. For the most part, this has been a great automation tool. It provides a very easy-to-use way to automate simple processes in your CRM database. Also, there is a way to extend the functionality of the native workflow engine using C# and .NET so even if you can’t do something out-of-the-box, it is possible to write some code to get it done.

Security Memo 5: Carelessness

**This is the last memo in a series, straight from Dan's desk, helping you understand more about easy security steps for your work and personal use. Read the fourth memo in this series.**

An overwhelming 80% of corporate security professionals and IT administrators indicated in a recent survey that "end user carelessness" constituted the biggest security threat to their organizations, surpassing the ever-present peril posed by malware or organized hacker attacks.

Security Memo 4: Passwords

**This is part of a series of memos, straight from Dan's desk, helping you understand more about easy security steps for your work and personal use. Read the third memo in this series.**

The easiest way to protect yourself and your company from cyber threats is by having a strong password.