It becomes impossible to overlook the cracks—disjointed tools, blocked pipelines, and increasing departmental complexity—when a rapidly expanding business like Smarter Furnishings reaches the boundaries of its legacy systems. Smarter Furnishings has been a reputable supplier of furniture for student accommodation for more than 30 years, handling extensive installations with care and accuracy. However, their systems found it difficult to handle the growing demand. That changed when they implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and Business Central with Cherrie business solutions.
This is about creating a single platform that links finance, operations, and sales to boost growth, performance, and visibility—it is not simply about new software.
The Issue: Disjointed Teams, Disconnected Systems
Before deploying Dynamics 365, Smarter Furnishings operated its business using a patchwork of platforms, including Smartsheet, Zoho, SharePoint, Outlook, and even text messaging. The lack of integration between these systems resulted in significant inefficiencies throughout the company. Inboxes were buried with sales information. Spreadsheets were used for forecasting. Additionally, important project knowledge was not stored in a system of records but rather existed in people's minds.
Sales representatives manually monitored opportunities in the absence of a CRM. Teams did not share a common customer vision, which resulted in missed follow-ups, delays, and redundant labor.
Smarter Furnishings required a fundamental shift to grow further without compromising the quality of its services: a completely integrated platform that could aggregate consumer data, optimize processes, and grow with the company.
Selecting Microsoft Dynamics 365: Scalable Architecture and Smooth Integration
After weighing their options, Smarter Furnishings decided on Microsoft Dynamics 365 because of its smooth interaction with Power BI, Outlook, Teams, and Excel, among other Microsoft products. Although they were already utilizing Power BI for reporting, they understood that true visibility would remain elusive unless they integrated their ERP and CRM systems.
By using Microsoft Dataverse as a shared information layer, Intelligent Furnishings was able to create an interconnected environment where analytics, CRM, and ERP all rely on a single source of truth. By directly integrating CRM features into the Outlook and Teams workflows that staff members were already using, the native integration with Microsoft 365 tools further facilitated user adoption.
Implementing CRM: The Basis for Sales Transformation
Handled the implementation of Dynamics 365 Sales, which changed the chaotic, manual quoting and sales processes at Smarter Furnishings with more automated, structured procedures. A single, searchable customer record is now created in the CRM by capturing each client interaction, quote, and opportunity.
Among the primary outcome-based competencies were:
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Account creation, activity logging, and the retrieval of relevant customer history are all initiated by automated opportunity tracking.
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CRM data is automatically updated with Outlook emails and meetings, ensuring current timelines and communication logs.
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Automated process flows standardize the generation, assessment, and approval of quotes.
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Custom role-based dashboards that provide pipeline status, KPIs, and sales performance in real time are available to representatives, managers, and executives.
Using Automated Templates to Cut Quote Turnaround by 80%
Reengineering the quote-to-close process was one of the most noticeable enhancements. Smarter Furnishings introduced templated quotation generation directly within CRM with the help of the Cherrie teams. Quotations are converted into branded PDF documents using Microsoft Word templates, and they appear automatically based on client tiers, previous prices, and selected products.
As a consequence, representatives only need to click a few times to generate and deliver professional estimates. If a quote needs to be approved, it is routed automatically through an approval workflow. The opportunity syncs to Business Central to start order fulfillment as soon as it is accepted.
Collins stated, "We want our busy sales crew to concentrate on selling, not creating quotes." "We have been able to cut quotation turnaround times by up to 80% since switching to Dynamics."
Using Business Central to Continue the Transformation
Following the stabilization of the sales process, Smarter Furnishings resorted to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and back-office operations. This modification improved cash flow visibility, streamlined reporting, and consolidated project-based accounting.
Among the main results were:
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Project accounting has been integrated to link orders and payments to work counts for project-level profitability tracking.
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Month-end close has been made simpler by standardized journal entries, approval procedures, and data validations, which have sped up reconciliation and decreased errors.
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Dynamics 365 Sales eliminates the need for duplicate entry and ensures consistency by sending sales data directly into Business Central.
The CRM and ERP systems now share data because of Dataverse connectivity. From within their separate systems, operations can monitor delivery schedules, finance can access quote data, and sales can check invoicing histories. At last, everything is connected.
Constructing a Customer Self-Service Portal
Another significant achievement was the launch of a customer-facing site designed specifically for university housing administrators by Smarter Furnishings. Consumers do not need to call or send emails to place reorder requests; they may log in and peruse a carefully curated product list.
To apply price criteria, pre-fill quotes, and make sure the right goods and delivery conditions are chosen, the site uses historical purchase data. Requests that are submitted go straight into Dynamics 365 CRM, starting Microsoft Business Central procedures for evaluation, approval, and fulfillment.
Measurable Results and Upcoming Plans
Significant effects have resulted from the Dynamics 365 change:
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80% shorter response time for quotes
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Project delivery was 30% behind budget.
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Weeks of manual data cleansing are eliminated.
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Centralized dashboards enable real-time cross-departmental visibility.
Today, sales, operations, finance, and leadership all use the same real-time analytics. KPIs are matched, reports are easier to develop, and decisions are grounded in facts rather than speculation.