Chris: Adaptive Solutions is a consulting services firm. We specialize in business intelligence and advanced analytics. We don't have physical locations. We are constantly on the move, working from our clients' sites, working from hotels, so mobility is critical for us.

Darrin: We've got clients that call at all time of day and nights. For us, the ability to communicate and do it effectively is everything.

Chris: Adaptive is a very small company, but we compete with very large firms. When we go to our client, we have to function as a consistent and a cohesive team. We have to appear as one.

We use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. We use Office 365. We saw the integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 as being a key point for why our consultants could start to use the tool. They can have access to a consistent email. They can access to all of our literature that is client-specific. They're informed immediately, and that's impressive to the client.

Darrin: It allows to streamline all of our backend functions, and anything that we can do to streamline the process is time and money.

Chris: Our management approach has changed significantly using these technologies. We've become much more metrics-driven ourselves, so we are able to look at the information and react to it.

Darrin: Because we've been able to understand our customer base, do the analysis, figure out what customers are important, we've doubled our growth. We're looking to have probably another 20% growth this year or more.

Chris: Our industry is really changing a lot. The combination of Microsoft technologies has really helped Adaptive to evolve and to compete.

Darrin: A great transaction is when the client is happy, when our people are happy and when we're happy. When all three of those things are in balance, everybody wins. From a cost perspective, from a collaboration perspective, from ease of use, from the ability to scale, it's been a huge win for us.

Chris: I'd encourage every small or medium-sized company to use a partner.

Darrin: By leveraging a partner, you're going to get the experience of people who have been implementing these solutions for year.

Chris: PowerObjects was recommended to us by Microsoft when we selected the technology. PowerObjects specifically uses the same platform, and they use it in pretty advanced ways. Initially, we used Salesforce as our CRM system. We had an issue with adoption. The number one issue that PowerObjects helped us with was adoption. They have a lot of experience implementing CRM systems and implementing process around the use of CRM systems, so they really guided us and helped us to understand what's the best way to get the organization to effectively adopt and use a CRM system.