The next big question after ‘To be or not To be’ has probably become ‘To AI or not To AI’. Almost half of the tech world is competing on generating the ablest, most humanized, yet perfect AI while the other half is busy justifying whether the season of AI is for good or bad. As always, it is a fun time in the tech world and time for the next phase of life!
Though the omniscient, conversational AI tools are the new talk of the town, the concept of AI has been in our lives for long. AI or Artificial Intelligence refers to applications that perform complex tasks without human intervention that once worked with human input only. Sounds simple, eh? The job of the miners is among the most dangerous jobs. True, it will be a savior if a physical cousin of Bard, say, Nathan could go in with his ammunition, clear up the dangerous patches, and then let the human workers in.
Well, although the job of a salesperson is not as life-threatening as a mine worker, it sure is physically and mentally challenging. What if AI could be of some help to these sales representatives, across industries, around the world? Yeah! We did hear you long back, at Inogic! Maplytics, our flagship, and a 5-star rated app at the Microsoft AppSource has brought in Location Intelligence combined with Artificial Intelligence to make the lives of sales reps a little easy.
You say how? We say, let’s check out!
How does Maplytics work?
Maplytics™ is a comprehensive and powerful Geospatial and Analytical Mapping solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM users. It is designed to enable CRM users to leverage the power of location intelligence to plot, plan, analyze, and take action on their CRM data. It empowers users across industry verticals with Geographical Data Visualization, Territory Management, Appointment Planning, Proximity Search, and so on by integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM with Bing Maps.
The working is fine, now let’s look out for the feature application
Searching by Radius
Meet John a sales rep for a popular pharma group. His daily tasks involve traveling, meeting leads, existing clients, and potential clients for new sales, renewals, problem-solving, etc. If one of his scheduled meetings on one of the days gets canceled/ postponed, does it mean he wasted his travel time reaching the meeting spot? Well, No! With the Radius/ Proximity Search feature of Maplytics, John can open up his laptop/ tablet/ phone, open the Maplytics App within the Dynamics 365 Mobile App and select his current location. He can specify the radius or time around him that he wishes to travel and get the clients plotted that fall within the range. He could find the ones available for the meeting and the closest to his GPS Location and have a meeting with them instead. No Problemo!
Meeting Scheduler
“I agree, Steve has been your preferred POC for renewal discussions, but he is scheduled for other appointments till Friday”, Jason, the Manager mentioned to a client over the call. “But don’t worry, Lianna’s scheduled to be in your part of town tomorrow. She should be able to visit to check the contract with you,” Jason added scanning through the pre-planned schedules of all his field reps. Yep, Jason was up to date with his employee information and could relay the same to the client because he is a subscriber of Maplytics and uses the Auto Scheduling feature religiously. Like Jason, any Sales Manager and his reps can pre-plan for days or weeks and be prepared for the meetings. This would also allow easy ad-hoc accommodations.
Optimized Route Planner
Patricia was reprimanded at a management meeting for reaching a high-profile client meeting 30 minutes after the meeting time. Though the client was considerate, the agenda of the meeting could not be completed. Turns out Patricia was new to the location and lost her way having to backtrack for 20 minutes. Only had Patricia’s employer used the magic of Optimized Routing with Maplytics within Dynamics CRM, the incident could have been avoided. The science of this feature allows optimized routes to be plotted that avoid traffic, tolls, and highways, and are the shortest in terms of distance or time. Patricia would have got turn-by-turn navigation instructions and getting lost would have been out of question!
Mapping Multiple Locations
Jonathan was on his way to a client meeting when his car started requesting fuel. He was new to the area and did not know the places. But no worries with Maplytics at hand. He opened the POI Location feature, selected his current location, and clicked on the Gas Station icon. All the nearest ones were plotted on his screen. He selected the one with the smallest detour and fed his car. Jo can use POI when he wishes to feed himself too by searching for a nearby café or a restaurant. AI keeps you connected wherever you are.
Route Tracking
“I’m at the crossroads, my tracker is on. The meeting location is just 18 minutes from here, but the car is not ready to start”, Julie stressfully called her Manager, Lia. “Calm down Julie, I’m reaching my car, I’ve tracked your live location, reaching in 5 minutes”, Lia calmed Julie down. Julie and Lia could save the meeting as they had access to the Real Time Tracking feature of Maplytics. Some fine AI intruding, but with technology like this, AI could be a savior.
So, if you ask, what is our verdict on AI, we can only reiterate a recent research-
Technology improves functionality by 20%, human input adds 15% more to it!
While AI can be very precise and accurate, it is mechanical. Though it mitigates errors, it needs to be fed information, emotions, and creativity. Only if humans and AI learn happy cohabitating, both could survive the life to come!
What’s more?
To get more acquainted with Maplytics and experience it first-hand, one can write to us at crm@inogic.com. To explore the product in depth, with a free trial of 15 days, or a personalized demo within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM / Dataverse get in touch with our Team.
For applied knowledge, do visit our Website or the Microsoft AppSource. For a quick query resolution, one can hop on to our detailed Blogs, Client Testimonials, Success Stories, Industry Applications, and Video Library.
Until then,
Hey Siri, play some music, please!
