PandaDoc Integrates with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

PandaDoc has integrated its document automation tools with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling Microsoft users to create, send, sign, and track sales-related documents in one environment.

Run on an HTML, open-source format, PandaDoc's platform serves as a central hub through which users can complete digital transactions, manage their content, and activate quote-to-cash functions, while interacting with and taking action on the associated documents. The integration brings PandaDoc's document creation, analytics, configure-price-quote (CPQ), and eSignature capabilities into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

The consolidation of such tools promises to help sales teams boost their productivity, close deals faster, and increase revenues, as it will enable them to create and send proposals, contracts, and other content from one location without engaging in unnecessary activities, according to both companies. For instance, a salesperson in a hurry can use prebuilt templates while automatically importing data recorded in any of the other fields in their CRM systems to populate PandaDoc documents. Users can also keep track of the engagement rates on sales collateral, monitoring documents as prospects open and view them.

"With PandaDoc, we can see detailed analytics to help us understand which parts of our proposal are being viewed more," one advocate, Jon Hearty, chief operations officer of Datanyze, said in a statement.

"More and more sales reps are looking for new ways to reach their prospects, and companies are always looking for ways to get more out of their Dynamics CRM investments," Mikita Mikado, CEO of PandaDoc, wrote in an email to CRM magazine. "With PandaDoc's partnership, we are extending the capabilities of the platform and increasing the productivity of sales teams with the ability to create, send, sign, and track proposals, quotes, and contracts directly within Dynamics CRM."

Mikado adds that prior to this release, Dynamics CRM users could turn to other tools, like DocuSign for their eSignatures, but within such tools it is "extremely difficult to make changes" once documents have been sent out. "PandaDoc is different because it is not bound by .doc and .pdf files, but rather utilitzes Web-based files," he adds.

For PandaDoc, founded in 2013, the announcement follows a string of integrations with other industry notables, most recent of these being its late-June alliance with SugarCRM. Also this year, the company partnered with Insightly and Oracle. PandaDoc is used by more than 5000 companies, including Tata Steel, Rakuten, and the PGA Tour.

For Microsoft, the integration is regarded as a welcomed expansion of the Dynamics CRM ecosystem. According to data from Sysco Software Solutions, Microsoft has been quite active, with the number of its online seats more than doubling in 2015. The platform is used by more than 40,000 companies, and claims 4.4 million users.

In a statement, Jujhar Singh, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, noted that his company is "pleased to welcome PandaDoc to the growing family of Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrated solutions."
"Sellers will benefit and be able to collaborate on sales material with this integrated solution from PandaDoc," Singh added.

In the future, PandaDoc plans "to focus on improving editing and collaboration on documents, such as redlining, annotations, and more dynamic document designs," Mikado says. "We will also look to improve our reporting features, which will give better visibility into how documents are received, viewed, and for how long by a recipient."