Microsoft Dynamics
Customer Solution Case Study
Powersports Manufacturer Supercharges
Dealer Management with Application Platform
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Manufacturing—Automotive and
industrial manufacturing
Customer Profile
Polaris Industries Inc. is world-renowned
for its off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and
motorcycles. Headquartered in Medina,
Minnesota, Polaris employs 3,600 people
and sells through a network of more than
1,600 dealers.
Business Situation
Saddled with five different legacy support
applications, Polaris could not gain a
holistic view of dealers and consumers. As
a result, employee productivity lagged and
customer service suffered.
Solution
Polaris deployed Microsoft Dynamics® CRM
and built five Web-based support
applications on top of that shared platform.
The company continues to use the solution
to undergird other efforts.
Benefits
 More efficient IT operations
 Ability to handle 30 percent greater
caseload volume
 Holistic view of support operations
 Greater dealer and customer satisfaction
“When our team examined Microsoft Dynamics CRM
with SharePoint Server, everyone felt that it would fit
the unique approach we wanted to take. It was the
perfect balance between buy and build.”
Bill Fisher, Vice President and CIO, Polaris Industries Inc.
Polaris Industries Inc. is the number one off-road vehicle
manufacturer in the world and a recognized leader in the
snowmobile industry. The company relied on a group of
unconnected systems to provide support to customers and a
network of 1,500 dealers. Because these systems did not share
information, Polaris support teams could not effectively track
individual dealer issues, and it was difficult to assess the
performance of the teams holistically. Polaris evaluated several
solutions, but chose Microsoft Dynamics® CRM as an application
platform layer because of its superior technical flexibility and cost
effectiveness. After deploying several applications to its various
support operations, Polaris continues to extend Microsoft Dynamics
CRM as a platform for other projects, including a dealer extranet
and e-commerce Web site.
was transferred to technical support—a
separate organization—their issue was
tracked in an IBM AS/400 system, requiring
the caller to repeat information. This type of
support redundancy and inability to share
information not only hampered productivity
among support teams, but also negatively
impacted customer service.
In 2008, Polaris became the
market-share leader for off-road
vehicles in Europe.
What is XRM?
XRM is a Microsoft application
platform layer that underpins
Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It
accelerates the development of
relational, line-of-business
applications through point-andclick configurations and
customizations. The platform is
Situation
With annual 2008 sales of U.S.$1.9 billion,
Polaris Industries Inc. is one of the largest
manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles in the
world. The company is a recognized leader in
the snowmobile industry, and its Victory
motorcycle division—established in 1998—
represents the first all-new, American-made
motorcycle in nearly 60 years.
Five separate organizations within Polaris
provide support to consumers, internal sales
staff, and dealers for products and related
parts. With a variety of product lines, 3,600
employees, and more than 1,500
independent dealers, effective
communication between these five support
groups is critical to the success of the
company.
built upon integration-friendly
Microsoft technologies, such as
Windows Server, Microsoft SQL
Server, and the Microsoft .NET
Framework.
However, because each support organization
relied on disparate systems, these teams
could not track issues that they shared in
common. If a Polaris dealer called about an
issue, the dealer support team logged the call
in a custom Web application. But if the dealer
“With nearly 1,000 support calls each day,
our support organizations need systems that
will help them work as efficiently as possible.
We have a phenomenal support team, but
the systems made it very difficult for them to
deliver high levels of service,” says Bill Fisher,
Vice President and CIO for Polaris. “Another
aspect of the problem was the time that our
dealers wasted. We want them to be as
successful as possible selling our products.
And, we want to provide better service to our
dealers than competing manufacturers.”
In addition, because the support systems
were unconnected, management at Polaris
had no easy way to gain a 360-degree view of
customers and dealers, and measure
performance holistically. “We had no
actionable data,” says Fisher. “It was difficult
to decide what to fix first.”
Solution
Recognizing it needed a unified view of its
support operations, Polaris decided to look
for a solution that would be flexible enough to
fit the company’s unique organizational
structure and range of products. Polaris
evaluated customer relationship
management systems from Siebel and a
number of smaller software vendors, and
considered developing a custom system.
After careful evaluation, the company
decided to use Microsoft Dynamics® CRM as
a platform on which it could create teamspecific applications.
“Many customer relationship management
projects fail because the technology doesn’t
Consumer support group that assists
customers who are using Polaris products.
 Consumer Web support group that deals
with inquiries generated through the
Polaris Web site, including e-commerce
issues.

Polaris created the applications by using
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and
Microsoft ASP.NET, with each application
tailored to how support employees work with
case records. For example, when helping to
resolve an issue, employees use forms that
are prepopulated with existing dealer or
product information and use drop-down
menus that only show options relevant to that
type of case.
ATV Magazine named the
Sportsman XP the 2009 ATV of
the Year.
“Now, when we talk to a
consumer, we can see
everything about them—
the products they
purchased, their service
history, and interactions
with dealers.”
Bill Fisher, Vice President and CIO, Polaris
Industries Inc.
meet the needs of the business. I was
adamant that we were not deploying a
customer relationship management solution
in the traditional sense and was skeptical
that a packaged software solution could meet
our needs,” explains Fisher. “When our team
examined Microsoft Dynamics CRM with
SharePoint® Server, everyone felt that it
would fit the unique approach we wanted to
take. It was the perfect balance between buy
and build. I am glad the team pushed as hard
as they did for this solution.”
Five Support Applications
Polaris worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified
partner Inetium to implement Microsoft
Dynamics CRM and create customized portal
applications for each of the five support
organizations, including the:
 Sales support group that processes orders
for dealerships.
 Technical support group that troubleshoots
problems with vehicles.
 Parts support group that interacts with
dealership parts departments.
Each of the support applications share
Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a data source so
that information from a call logged in one
application is available to all the others, as
appropriate. And, all the applications are
linked to legacy systems that house critical
information on order status, bill of materials,
schematics, and component parts through
the Scribe Insight integration solution. This
connection provides employees with the
information and functionality that they need
to resolve issues faster. For example,
personnel in the technical support group can
pull up all the related information about a
specific vehicle, including service history, by
entering a vehicle identification number (VIN)
or serial number. Parts support staff can
easily look up the bill of materials and
schematics of components.
Although each of the five support applications
are tailored to meet specific group needs, the
interfaces are similar enough to facilitate
cross-training among different Polaris support
teams. “If we need to shift resources from
one group to another, we can focus on just
the processes that are unique to that group
instead of worrying about orienting people to
the interface in general,” says Fisher.
Created with ASP.NET and Web links into
Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the dealer selfservice portal—dubbed “Ask Polaris”—lets
dealers log their own cases into the Polaris
case-tracking system, update records that
they own, and access information pertinent to
their cases. They can also research detailed
information on Polaris products and services
without having to call dealer support.
“Our dealers love the self-service tools we
offer because it saves them a tremendous
amount of time that would otherwise be
spent on hold,” says Fisher.
Victory Motorcycles is among the
highest-rated brands in quality
and has maintained the highestoverall ownership satisfaction for
the last five years, according to
tracking by a leading independent
research firm.
With all support applications built on a single
platform, managers can track issues and
performance more effectively. They can run
all-up reports and export them into Microsoft
Office Excel® for in-depth analysis. Because
Microsoft Dynamics CRM works with Office
Excel, managers can pull up the full case file
by simply clicking on it in the spreadsheet.
From the case file, they can view associated
information that is stored in legacy systems.
Also, about 70 field sales representatives
access the support portals to gain visibility
into cases associated with a particular client,
including attachments, that can help them
prepare for sales calls and visits to
dealerships.
Dealer Extranet, E-Commerce Tracking,
And Campaign Management
Besides using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for
internal support, Polaris is using the
extensible platform to undergird Web-based
applications for field sales teams, dealer selfservice, and online consumer sales, and to
manage marketing campaigns.
Polaris is also currently transitioning its ecommerce operations onto Microsoft
Dynamics CRM so that orders placed online
are automatically entered into and tracked in
the system. “We’re starting to explore various
ways that we can take advantage of our
investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM,” says
Fisher. “Our marketing department recently
ran its letter campaigns on the solution, and I
expect that we will continue to find more uses
for the solution.”
Benefits
Polaris quickly met the needs of its five
support organizations by building business
applications on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
These applications share a common platform,
providing support personnel with an up-todate and comprehensive view of dealers,
consumers, products, and even individual
vehicles. In addition, the company gains a
holistic view of its dealer and consumer
issues, which will help the company better
identify and respond to trends.
“The solution was flexible enough to meet the
diverse needs of our support organizations,”
says Fisher. “And, the platform approach
enables us to support fewer infrastructure
components than before, build new
applications faster, and provide simplified
training for our support teams.”
“As a result, our
employees handle
approximately 30
percent more cases
than previously. Our
staff now spends more
time training on our
products, training
dealers, and
reengineering
processes.”
Bill Fisher, Vice President and CIO, Polaris
Industries Inc.
More Efficient IT Operations
The Polaris IT team now has a platform to
efficiently create applications that meet the
unique needs of groups within the company.
Polaris invests less than 1 percent of revenue
in IT—which includes a staff of 78 IT
professionals—and was prepared to build
custom solutions. However, in retrospect,
Polaris saved time and delivered better
results with the platform approach. “The
team made a good decision to build on
Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In the end, it
turned out to be much faster and produced
better results than if we had built those
applications from scratch,” says Fisher.
By building on top of a platform, the Polaris IT
team can deliver new applications with
incremental amounts of effort. For example,
the team extended its work with the internal
support tools to create the “Ask Polaris”
extranet, which gives the company a
significant competitive edge in terms of
dealer satisfaction.
Polaris is also maximizing its existing
technology investments by linking some of
the new applications to its legacy systems.
For example, the new applications pull
information from production and billing
systems based on the company’s Oracle and
IBM DB2 databases.
Improved Employee Productivity
With applications that share common sources
of data, Polaris has eliminated much of the
miscommunication and inefficiency in its
support operations. Because information and
functionality is shared across applications,
Polaris employees can complete common
processes much faster. For example, the
warranty claim approval process was reduced
from 20 steps to 3 steps, saving both Polaris
and dealers a significant amount of time.
“Instead of e-mail; faxes; sticky notes; and
multiple, unconnected systems, our support
personnel now have a single platform that
organizes the work to be done and keeps
cases from falling through the cracks,” says
Fisher. “As a result, our employees handle
approximately 30 percent more cases than
previously. Our staff now spends more time
training on our products, training dealers, and
reengineering processes.”
In addition, the single platform lets Polaris
evaluate processes more effectively and
identify areas for improvement. So far,
through process reengineering, Polaris has
reduced the number of dealer support cases
by 20 percent. “We are much more efficient,
but just as importantly, our dealers are much
more efficient as well,” says Fisher.
The platform approach provides Polaris
unprecedented visibility into customer
interactions. “Now, when we talk to a
customer, we can see everything about
them—the products they purchased, their
service history, and interactions with
dealers,” says Fisher. “Our support
employees spend much less time searching
for information while the customer is on
hold.”
Polaris employees’ jobs are also made easier
due to the customizable nature of the portal
applications, which prepopulate forms with
dealer or consumer information where
applicable, automatically validate VINs and
serial numbers, and display only the fields
that are necessary for the particular task at
hand.
Besides improving the productivity of Polaris
employees, the new support applications also
help Polaris dealers save time and serve their
customers more efficiently. With the “Ask
Polaris” dealer extranet, dealers can track all
the issues that are associated with their
account and enter new cases that Polaris
representatives will answer through e-mail.
“Everyone gets to see what is going on
according to their role,” says Fisher. “In the
past, dealers would call us or call our field
sales representatives—who would then call
us—to check on the status of a case. It was a
waste of everyone’s time.”
Holistic View of Support Operations
Now that all five support operations at Polaris
are sharing information, management at
Polaris can easily see a comprehensive view
of dealer and consumer service. With reports
generated in Microsoft Dynamics CRM,
management can identify trends and take
proactive steps to improve service. “We can
more easily spot problems that are shared
across dealer, technical, and consumer
support,” says Fisher. “Previously, we were
tracking information in an inconsistent
manner—sometimes even resorting to sticky
notes. But now, we have the ability to foresee
issues and share solutions.”
Greater Dealer and Consumer
Satisfaction
Since Polaris deployed Microsoft Dynamics
CRM, call volumes to the company’s support
groups have grown significantly with the
volume of business. Fisher, who is also
responsible for service at Polaris in addition
to his position as CIO, believes that the
solution has enabled Polaris to turn its dealer
and consumer support into a competitive
advantage. “With Microsoft Dynamics CRM,
we have been able to not only handle a larger
volume of cases but handle them more
effectively,” he says. “We have an awesome
service team that now has the systems they
need to deliver the service our dealers and
consumers deserve. Our entire team—the IT
department; dealer services; and our
implementation partner, Inetium—did an
incredible job delivering this system.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a great platform
to work from and a great platform to build
on.”
For More Information
Microsoft Dynamics
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www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated,
adaptable business management solutions
that enables you and your people to make
business decisions with greater confidence.
Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar
Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office,
which means less of a learning curve for your
people, so they can get up and running
quickly and focus on what’s most important.
And because it is from Microsoft, it easily
works with the systems that your company
already has implemented. By automating and
streamlining financial, customer relationship,
and supply chain processes, Microsoft
Dynamics brings together people, processes,
and technologies, increasing the productivity
and effectiveness of your business, and
helping you drive business success.
For more information about Polaris
Industries Inc. products and services, call
(800) 765-2747 or visit the Web site at:
www.polarisindustries.com
For more information about Inetium
products and services, call (952) 6460800 or visit the Web site at:
www.inetium.com
For more information about Microsoft
Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Software and Services
Partners

Microsoft Dynamics
− Microsoft Dynamics CRM
 Microsoft Office
− Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
 Technologies
− Microsoft ASP.NET
− Microsoft .NET Framework



This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published July 2009
Inetium