Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mapping vs. Manual Route Planning: What's the ROI?

It's time for sales and service teams to get better at moving from one place to another. In an astounding percentage of places, however, the routing is still done the old-fashioned way: with a spreadsheet of addresses, a rep squinting at it and punching a few addresses into Google Maps and making a best guess at the best order to visit.

Manual route planning isn't a question of whether or not it works. It technically does. The true answer would be what it is costing you versus planning routes directly within Microsoft Dynamics CRM with a Dynamics 365 map integration and route optimization tool. For the ROI case, let's take apart the case.

The manual method of route planning has a hidden cost.
Manual planning is free since there is no software line item involved. The expenses, however, are simply hidden in places that finance teams wouldn't think to look.

2. Don't waste time planning, sell it! A guy working 30-45 minutes a morning scheduling appointments, verifying addresses, and estimating drive times isn't in front of customers during that time. Take that times 20 people working in the field, 5 days per week, and you've got dozens of lost selling days per week.

Avoid inefficient routes that will cause fuel and mileage to escalation. If not optimized using the optimization engine, reps will usually plan routes according to “gut feel” or the order that leads are listed in a lead list — not necessarily the shortest or fastest route. Unnecessary detours, backtracking, and poorly planned stops accumulate in fuel, vehicle wear and mileage reimbursed.

3. Less frequent visits a day. Each minute that is lost travelling the wrong way is a minute that is not spent with a prospect or customer. Manual planning means fewer visits per day, which directly limits revenue potential versus using optimized routes with CRM integration.

4. Blind spots are caused by disconnected data. When planning the route away from the CRM (a paper map, an app for the rep's mobile phone, a sticky note on the dashboard) then all that context goes with the visit, too — deal stage, last interaction, service history — and the visits go from informed to transactional, and managers lose sight of what's really going on in the field.

5. No territory logic. Manual divisions are often non-uniform; some divisions with more representatives than others, some with more clients than others, and some with more high priority clients than others. There is no data-driven mechanism to evenly distribute workload based on client density, client priority, geography, etc.

None of these costs are reflected in an invoice. They manifest themselves in reduced productivity, increased operating expenses and slower revenue growth, and are not only easy to underestimate but difficult to solve with lack of visibility. How does the Dynamics 365 Map Integration change? Native Dynamics 365 provides simple mapping using Bing Maps, but it's not optimized and is usually one record plotted at a time. This is when a dedicated dynamics 365 map integration can step in, transforming your CRM data into an operational routing engine.

1. Multi-stop route optimization. Rather than manually arranging stops on the day, the system can calculate the most efficient route across a rep's appointments for the day, considering distance, road closures and traffic, and do it in seconds, compared to the better part of an hour.

2. Mapping of visual territory and pipelines. Reps and managers can view leads, accounts, and opportunities on a map and identify geographic lead or opportunity clusters, gaps, and coverage imbalances that are not revealed by spreadsheets.

3. All stays within the CRM. Routes, appointments and checkins are directly linked to CRM records. No switching to a maps app or back to CRM, no re-keying data, no loss of context. At each stop, Reps have full visibility of the account history and the next actions.

4. Real-time adjustments. Routes can be recalculated for a meeting that is too long or for when a customer moves it up or down, without having to replan the route manually.

5. Manager-level visibility. Sales and service teams have the real-time location of their reps, adherence to the sales route, and territory coverage – information that isn't available when planning is done without CRM.

Running the ROI Numbers

The benefits of a CRM route planning system are evident at four measurable points:

Productivity will be improved by this.This will boost productivity. Number of planning sessions per rep/day 30-45 minutes Less than 5 minutes Are visitation times shorter or longer than usual, or varying? Yes, less than usual Yes, more than usual (and consistent) Efficient routing reduces fuel/mileage spend compared to inefficient routing. Action plan for corrective measures Wrong, manual balance; Balanced, data-driven balance

Small increments, for example, one additional completed visit per rep over the course of a day, and a 10-15% savings on fuel usage add up over a quarter or a year across an entire field team. Then factor in the hours that reps would have spent planning before they finally put that time into selling and the payback time for a mapping tool can be in weeks, not months.

Where CRMJetty Fits In

CRMJetty's mapping solution was designed to fill just this one. CRMJetty's MappyField 365 is a Dynamics 365 map integration that integrates seamlessly with your existing CRM data, without any additional system or manual exports, and makes it a powerful route planning tool.

MappyField 365 enables teams to:

Visualize and plot CRM records (Leads, Accounts, Opportunities, Service cases) directly on the map. Calculate optimized multi-stop routes for shortest path, traffic and priority. Create and optimize territories based on actual CRM data, rather than gut feel. Allow field reps to check in and schedule visits through proximity. Provide managers with real-time visibility of reps' locations and route progress.

It's native to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, so no data silo to manage: The time savings are noticeable almost from the moment it's deployed, since route planning is integrated into a rep's workflow that is the same one they use for all other CRM tasks.