Essential security features of an efficient CRM tool

 

WHAT IS CRM?

CRM means a combination of business strategies, software and processes that help build long-lasting relationships between companies and customers.

And refers to all strategies, techniques, tools, and technologies used by enterprises for developing, retaining and acquiring customers.

This software ensures that every step of the interaction with consumers goes smoothly and efficiently in order to increase the overall profits. The software gathers customer data from multiple channels. Hence, CRM stores detailed information on overall purchase history, personal info, and even purchasing behavior patterns.

Who can benefit from CRM

CRM software allows businesses to focus on their company’s relationships with customers, colleagues, suppliers, etc. With a professional CRM in place, it becomes much easier to find new customers, win their trust, provide qualified support, and provide additional services throughout the relationship.

The best part about a CRM system is that almost any organization unit can benefit from it- from sales and marketing and business development. Good CRM software gives a better way to manage external relationships.

Storing all customer information in one place, recording service issues, identifying sales opportunities, managing marketing campaigns - these are just a few of the capabilities that CRM features.

Since CRM provides easy access to data, it also becomes much easier for the users to collaborate within different departments and increase productivity. Another strong argument in favor of CRM is that it is suitable for business of any size.

 

 

 

HOW DOES CRM WORK?

CRM solution includes functionality that allows users to track customer and company interaction through various available channels. These channels include contact forms, emails, phone calls and more.

CRM software provides sales and marketing teams with a set of tools to manage the entire sale and marketing funnel, from leading qualification to opportunity management, forecasting and deal closure. It enables customer service terms to manage customer requests and automate service operations by following predefined processes for customer care excellence.

CRM systems are packed with tracking features that record numerous customer interactions online. In addition, CRM automates routine processes and provides managers with tools that allow for the tracking and measuring of the company's performance and productivity for example, CRM software can remind you of tasks that you need to complete the given time you can make it perform pre-scheduled activities like sending emails and initiating phone calls. Everything done with the CRM is recorded, giving you enough time to make better actions plans to close any potential sale. Some CRMs also offer analytics capabilities, allowing users to track the efficiency of various marketing efforts to generate leads and conversions. Take a look at the key benefits of Creatio CRM products to get a better understanding of how CRMs work.

CRM security management

CRM security management is critical to creating and maintaining an effective CRM system. Any CRM system worth the name will offer you powerful tools to control access and privileges within your records, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales is no exception.

In this article, I will introduce the core concepts behind the Microsoft Dynamics CRM security management model.

This is by no means an exhaustive guide. Were I to write an exhaustive guide to security in one post, it would be exhausting for all of us!

Instead, this article focuses on the basics, and offers a jumping-off point from which you can take deeper dives into specific aspects of Dynamics 365 CRM security management.

To that end, I’ve divided this article into three parts: 1.) defining your organization in CRM, 2.) understanding access rights and privileges, and 3.) the three most common layers of Dynamics CRM security.

Part 1: Organization

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM divides your organization into business units, teams, and individual users, much like most businesses do for their day-to-day operations.

When you create an organization in CRM, Dynamics automatically sets up a root business unit: this is your organization as a whole, and it cannot be deleted or disabled (though you can rename it).

Once you have your root business unit, you can create other business units, teams, and user roles to mirror your organizational divisions and hierarchies.

These organizational elements are the building blocks of your CRM security settings.

Business Units

Beneath your root business unit, you can create additional business units to represent the important divisions and departments within your business.

For example, you can create business units for your sales, marketing, customer service, and accounting departments. If your company is organized by region or specific location, you can break those business units down further.

When you create a new business unit, you must specify the parent unit. Your highest level will be your root business unit, but you can create multiple child business units beneath it, and then multiple child business units beneath those, and so on. Essentially, you can re-create your org chart in Dynamics 365 for Sales.

Your teams and users will be associated with one business unit each, so build your business units with that in mind!

You can also set some of your security parameters by business unit if you so choose.

Teams

Owner teams and access teams allow you to share and collaborate on records across business units. Unlike business units, a user can be assigned to as many teams as you wish. A user and their teams do not all need to be assigned to the same business unit.

You will need to set permissions and access levels (see Part 2) for each of your teams. Keep in mind that users gain all the rights granted to them by all the teams they are assigned to.

When you create a business unit, Dynamics will automatically create a default team for that unit. But just like with business units, you can add additional teams to your organization.

For example, you can create sales or service teams within larger business units, or teams dedicated to specific tasks or events.

Users

Users represent the members of your organization in CRM. Each user must be assigned to a single business unit, but can also be assigned to one or more teams.

Each user must be assigned a role, which is important for role-based security (more on that in Part 3).

Part 2: Access

Once you have built your organization in Dynamics 365, you can use that structure to add rights and restrictions at the unit, team, and user levels.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales uses privileges and permission levels to set those rights and restrictions.

Basically, a privilege represents something a user can (or cannot) do with a record. An access level represents which and how many records that user can exercise those privileges on.

Privileges

Dynamics 365 uses 8 basic record-level privileges:

1.) Create enables a user to make a new record.

2.) Read enables a user to open and view a record.

3.) Write enables a user to make changes to a record.

4.) Delete enables a user to permanently erase a record.

5.) Append enables a user to associate another record to the current record.

6.) Append enables a user to associate the current record to another record.

7.) Assign enables a user to give ownership of a record to another user.

8.) Share enables a user to grant access to a record to another user.

 

Access levels

Dynamics 365 uses 5 access levels:

• Global allows access to all of an organization’s records.

• Deep allows access to all records in their business unit and in subordinate units.

• Local allows access to all records in their business unit.

• Basic allows access to records they own or that are shared with them or their teams.

• None allows no access to records.

• Microsoft recommends a few basic best practices for Dynamics CRM access levels:

Part 3: Security

Microsoft Dynamics CRM security management can appear quite complicated at first. But it’s useful to break it down into three parts: role-based security, record-based security, and field-level security:

Role-based security controls access by entity type.

Record-based security controls access to individual records.

Field-level security controls access to specific fields.

 

Role-based security

Role-based security enables you to restrict or allow access to record types by entity.

When you use role-based security in Dynamics 365, you create roles with specific privileges and access levels, then assign those roles to your users and/or teams.

You can also use default security roles provided by Microsoft. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales comes with 14 pre-built roles:

1.) CEO-Business Manager

2.) CSR Manager

3.) Customer Service Representative (CSR)

4.) Delegate

5.) Marketing Manager

6.) Marketing Professional

7.) Sales Manager

8.) Salesperson

9.) Schedule Manager

10.) Scheduler

11.) Support User

12.) System Administrator

13.) System Customizer

14.) Vice President of Marketing

15.) Vice President of Sales

You can customize existing roles or create new roles, but we strongly recommend you avoid changing the out-of-the-box security roles.

Instead, we recommend you copy an existing security role and modify it to fit your needs.

 

Record-based security

You can also set security for individual records by business unit, team, or role. This enables you to restrict or allow access to individual records in ways not covered by (or contrary to) your role-based rules.

For example, if your salespeople would normally only see lead records they own, but you want your sales team to be able to work on some leads together, your sales manager could use record-based security to give users access to those lead records.

Keep in mind, though, that record-level access rights apply after privileges. So if you share read access to a record with a user who does not have any read privileges for that record type, the user will still be unable to read the record.

 

Field-level security

Even more granular than record-based security, field-level security enables you to restrict or allow access to specific fields within your records.

This is extremely useful in ensuring data integrity for records used by multiple business units.

For example, if you have a credit approval field in your account records, you probably want to restrict write access to members of your accounting department. Field-level security allows you to do so.

 

Ways to Secure Your CRM and Avoid Security Risks

One security breach can cause irreparable damage to your brand image. Data breaches hurt your internal and external relationships, and, ultimately, your ability to generate revenue.

Hackers can even engage in competitive espionage by stealing financial information, and details about planned projects.

The bottom line? When hackers maliciously hack into your system, your company pays the price.

If you’re looking to be more proactive and less reactive, start with an inspection of your Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). This is where the majority of your private data lives.

How To Prevent A CRM Data Breach 

The burden of responsibility for securing the sensitive data in the CRM belongs solely to the companies who requested, or accepted, this personal data.

When the request for data is made, there is a reasonable expectation that data will be kept under lock and key. 

Here are a few tips to help prevent a data breach by securing your CRM.  

1. Secure Your Servers 

If you have physical servers at your office location, make sure your servers have secure points of entry, and your routers and local networks are secure as well. This can be accomplished many ways; here are a few best practices:

This can be accomplished many ways; here are a few best practices:

• Lock down the SSID of your router. Don’t use easy-to-guess names that a hacker could easily figure out.

• Disable your router’s SSID broadcast. Prevent unwanted visitors from finding you by turning off this broadcast.

• Create and continuously update your administrative login credentials, for any application where data is stored or accessed. Set a calendar to change the password regularly, use a strong password, and keep a log of who has credentials. 

• Eliminate or limit remote access to your server. It might be inconvenient, but doing so can help to strengthen your wall of security and prevent outsiders from accessing your server remotely. 

• Ensure your browsers are updated to support the latest security updates.

• Enable firewalls for all computers on your network. 

• Ensure your cloud storage provider follows strict data storage, encryption, and security measures like redundancy.

2. Ensure CRM Administrators Follow Best Security Practices

Managing internal administrators can be one of the biggest challenges to implementing CRM security. 

1. Staff members want to feel they can be trusted, but you have to manage access and access-levels to your CRM – even if that means limiting admin access. 

2. Ensure employees are using their own individual accounts to login, instead of share logins. Additionally, when an employee leaves the company, make sure their login is expired or restricted. 

3. A commonly overlooked CRM security risk is the ability to download information. While many employees need access to reporting to do their jobs, broad access can pose risks to the precious data that lives inside your CRM. Limit the number of individuals who can download data, and make sure everyone knows your company’s  policy on how to properly handle the information.

3. Stay Up-to-Date

One of the biggest security missteps? Not staying up-to-date on the latest versions of your CRM software! With each update, you’ll gain deeper protection from data breaches and risk of vulnerability of your system to hackers, viruses, or bad actors of any kind. 

CRM security risks are real and could threaten the very lifeline of your business, not to mention leave your business exposed to legal threats if negligence exists. In lesser scenarios, it can damage your brand, hurt your bottom line, and impact your internal culture – all things that can take years to rebuild.

Be proactive and empower your employees to support your CRM security goals to help you succeed in this area.