RDT: A Titan among ISV's

All this week I'm highlighting some of the early adopters of Dynamics CRM "Titan".  For your enjoyment, today I'm showcasing Relational Database Technology (RDT).

 

Relational Database Technology: Insurance Software Provider Bolsters Product with Enhanced CRM Capabilities

 

 

Established in 1991, Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner RDT provides insurance systems and ratings software to major insurers and large brokers. RDT’s Landscape solution is based on Microsoft technologies and offers a modern, component-based alternative to insurance companies’ legacy systems. Based near London, RDT counts four major U.K. insurers among its customers, and estimates 3,000 people use its flagship Landscape solution.

RDT is committed to keeping Landscape leading-edge in terms of technology. The company releases updated versions every six months to incorporate new developments and customer input. Over the past several years, RDT added more customer relationship management (CRM) functionality—such as contact information and account notes—to enable large insurers to manage their brokers more effectively. RDT realizes that CRM will play an increasingly significant role in its solution as insurers require more control over their sales channels.

“Many of our improvements focus on allowing insurers to optimize their broker relationships. They need to target accounts that meet a certain criteria for a marketing or sales campaign, for instance,” says Mark Bates, Managing Director for RDT. “In discussions with our Microsoft application development consultant—provided through our Microsoft Services contract—we learned that Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM could offer superior CRM functionality that would be relatively easy to incorporate into our solution.”

RDT began working with a pre-release version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM—code name “Titan” — to explore integration opportunities with its Landscape software. “We replaced much of the custom CRM functionality that we had built ourselves with components from Microsoft Dynamics CRM,” says Bates.

RDT’s integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM improves customers’ ability to execute and track marketing and sales campaigns, and ties into the business intelligence solution RDT built using Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Analysis Services and Reporting Services. RDT used the sophisticated business entity modeling available in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM business application platform to associate Landscape data with entities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The result is increased automation; account activity in Landscape automatically triggers appropriate workflow tasks in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, such as inclusion in marketing e-mail campaigns. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes it easier for Landscape users to execute marketing and sales campaigns, and have greater confidence in the results,” says Bates.

Because Landscape is built using Microsoft technology such as Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and SQL Server 2005, RDT developers were able to use their existing skills to integrate the product with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Adding CRM reports to RDT’s existing SQL Server 2005-based reporting system was as simple as adding another tab to the reporting screen. “We were able to accomplish a huge amount of work with just two developers in a couple of months,” says Bates.

 

 

 

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