For more than 30 years, Smarter Furnishings has supplied furniture for student housing across North America, serving both on-campus dormitories and off-campus developments. Known for their commitment to customer service and rapid fulfillment, the company grew steadily. But with that growth came complexity.
Legacy systems, manual processes, and siloed data made it increasingly difficult to collaborate, forecast, and scale efficiently. Customer communications lived in inboxes and text threads. Sales forecasting required spreadsheets and meetings. Project execution relied on memory, not data.
That changed when Smarter Furnishings partnered with JourneyTeam to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and Business Central. What began as a base CRM adoption, quickly evolved into a broader digital transformation, culminating in a connected, data-driven platform that powers accurate quoting, streamlined operations, and a better customer experience.
About the Customer
Smarter Furnishings provides student housing furniture to on-campus residence halls as well as off-campus developments. The company manages high-volume installations with precision and speed—often during tight summer timelines. Their business is built on long-term relationships with universities, developers, and property managers, many of whom rely on them year after year for timely deliveries and consistent quality.
The company operates through two distinct business arms: Smarter Furnishings, which handles large-scale installations and contract orders, and a secondary branch focused on manufacturing and replacement parts. As their customer base and order volume grew, coordinating sales, logistics, and customer communication became increasingly difficult. To maintain their high standard of service and scale efficiently, leadership knew they needed to evolve their systems and strategy—starting with a unified platform for CRM, ERP, and customer engagement.
The Challenges of Scaling Legacy Systems
Disconnected Tools, Disconnected Teams
Before Dynamics 365, Smarter Furnishings relied on a patchwork of tools to run their business— Smartsheet, Zoho, SharePoint, Excel, Outlook emails, and even text messages. With no central repository or standardized process, each team had its own method for capturing and sharing information.
The tools themselves weren’t flawed, they just weren’t integrated. These inefficiencies became more pronounced as the company expanded. Key sales information was trapped in personal inboxes, and the lack of visibility made it difficult to coordinate or plan proactively. Internal meetings frequently revolved around trying to piece together the full customer picture.
- Lack of CRM Created Sales Gaps:
Without a CRM, sales reps tracked pipelines in spreadsheets and shared drives. Leads, opportunities, and follow-ups went undocumented, and forecasting relied on memory and hallway conversations. If a rep left or was unavailable, their pipeline stalled. - No Shared View of the Customer:
With customer data (quotes, service issues, order status) in separate tools and formats, teams operated on different assumptions, leading to miscommunication, delays, and rework. “There was no visibility into what our pipeline was, what was coming,” said Jason Moore, Smarter Furnishing’s Director of Continuous Improvement. - Tribal Knowledge Led to Missed Opportunities:
Much of the company’s operational knowledge lived in employees’ heads, and if someone was out, key context disappeared. Quotes were lost, deals slipped through the cracks, and handoffs became chaotic. “Our biggest pain point was maybe having one person with all the information in their head,” said CEO Johnny Collins.
Why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales?
Smarter Furnishings didn’t just need better tools, they needed tools that worked together. The company had already started using Microsoft Power BI for improved reporting visibility, but without integration into their CRM or ERP systems. Their vision was a fully connected business system where sales, operations, and finance shared a unified data source.
Dynamics 365 Stands Out
Dynamics 365 was a prime choice for Smarter Furnishings because of its seamless integration across Microsoft tools and platforms. CRM and ERP could sync through Microsoft Dataverse, while Power BI could surface real-time dashboards using shared data from both systems. The ability to link quotes and customer data with product, inventory, and financial information gave the company an integrated ecosystem.
“We started with Power BI, but we realized we needed the full Microsoft stack,” said Moore. “CRM, ERP, Power BI—they all needed to talk to each other. Dynamics was the only solution that gave us that level of integration.”
Built for the Microsoft 365 Tools They Already Use
Dynamics’ tight integration with Microsoft 365— particularly Outlook, Teams, and Excel—also proved advantageous. These tools were already core to Smarter Furnishings’ day-to-day operations, so embedding CRM directly into those workflows made adoption far easier.
For example, sales reps could track emails, schedule appointments, and update records directly from Outlook without ever logging into a separate interface. “Dynamics just made sense for us,” said Collins. “It wasn’t just a new tool—it enhanced the tools we already used every day.”
CRM Implementation and Sales Transformation
Dynamics 365 Sales transformed Smarter Furnishing’s fragmented systems. Every interaction, quote, and customer detail is now stored and visible within the CRM, creating transparency across the organization.
JourneyTeam worked closely with Smarter Furnishing’s to map their existing sales process into CRM workflows. Now, new opportunities automatically trigger account and contact creation, while related activities— like emails and notes— are auto-tracked via Outlook integration.
As a result, team members can open any opportunity record and immediately access the full customer history, including notes from prior conversations, deal value, expected close dates, associated quotes, and even attached files. It’s eliminated the “backstory scramble” and ensured continuity, even if a rep is out of office or transitions off an account.
We went from Find-Waldo mode to finally having one source of truth.
— Dean Harvison, Managing Partner
Data Integrity Drives Confidence
The CRM system now serves as the single source of truth for all sales activity. Dashboards and views provide leadership with real-time summaries of open opportunities by rep, stage, or estimated revenue. Sales managers no longer need to chase reps down for updates—they can view in-flight opportunities and see when the last customer interaction took place, thanks to auto-captured email and meeting data from Dynamics 365’s native Outlook sync.
The solution also includes templates with validation rules, business process flows, and automatic field population to ensure consistency and reduce manual errors. The team also integrated the system with Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) to manage permissions, ensuring appropriate access by role.
Speeding Up the Quote-to-Close Cycle
Reps now use Dynamics 365 quote templates that auto populate based on selected products, customer data, and pricing tiers, and generate a polished quote directly from an opportunity record with just a few clicks. If a quote requires approval, it’s automatically routed through approval to ensure compliance and consistency.
JourneyTeam also configured Word document generation templates in CRM, so reps can create branded PDFs for quotes that are emailed to the customer straight from the platform. Once a quote is accepted, the opportunity is marked “won” and synced to Business Central for order processing—closing the loop between sales and operations.
Our sales team is busy—we want them focused on selling, not building quotes. Since moving to Dynamics, we’ve been able to reduce quote turnaround time by up to 80%.
— Johnny Collins, CEO
Cross-Functional Visibility
With role-based dashboards, teams can now access real-time CRM data tailored to their role. For example, operations managers can view won opportunities with estimated delivery timelines, while accounting can prepare billing plans based on accepted quotes.
Operations dashboards show installation dates and customer commitments, while finance dashboards highlight closed deals, payment terms, and projected revenue. This focused visibility allows for proactive planning, and that’s particularly valuable during the busy summer install season.
Extending the Impact with Business Central
After stabilizing the sales process with Dynamics 365 CRM, Smarter Furnishings turned their attention to the back office, specifically Dynamics 365 Business Central and a customer-facing portal. “CRM wasn’t the end goal. It was the first step,” said Moore. “We knew we needed Business Central, we knew we needed better forecasting. CRM gave us the foundation to build toward that.”
Improving Accounting Integrity
One of the most immediate benefits was in accounting. Business Central’s integration with CRM and standardized data entry significantly reduced errors. Journal entries, approvals, and reconciliations became easier to track and audit.
Smarter Furnishings can now manage project-based accounting more effectively, by tying orders and payments to specific install locations or job numbers. Projects can be tracked by profitability, not just by customer or product line. Month-end close became faster, and variance reports were no longer a surprise.
Dataverse Integration for End-to-End Visibility
With both CRM and ERP built on the Microsoft platform and unified through Dataverse, the company unlocked full data visibility across their customer lifecycle. Sales could see invoice and delivery history. Operations could access customer notes and quoting details. Finance had a direct line of sight into what was sold, when it was due, and how it affected cash flow.
Everything is finally connected. We don’t have to piece together the story anymore.
— Jason Moore, Special Projects Manager
Data reliability has had ripple effects beyond sales: customer records and transactions now sync between systems, ensuring that what’s quoted in CRM can be forecasted, invoiced, and fulfilled accurately in the ERP. That end-to-end consistency has drastically reduced confusion and rework.
A Smarter Approach to Customer Experience: The Portal
To streamline one of its most frequent service requests, Smarter Furnishings launched a self-service portal for customers to re-order furniture. Designed with university housing managers in mind, the portal lets customers log in, browse a tailored product catalog, and submit requests without needing to call or email.
Each request is tied to the customer’s purchase history, ensuring accurate product selection, pricing, and delivery preferences. The requests flow directly into Dynamics 365 CRM and trigger workflows in Business Central, eliminating manual entry and accelerating coordination across teams.
A key differentiator is automated quote generation. By leveraging historical data, the system pre-fills quotes based on previous purchases and pre-approved terms—allowing operations to review, approve, and send them in minutes, flagging urgent or high-volume requests for priority handling. “This portal gave our team time back and gave our customers control,” Moore said.
Working with JourneyTeam
From the outset, JourneyTeam acted as an extension of the Smarter Furnishings team. Rather than deploying a generic solution, JourneyTeam took the time to understand the intricacies of the company’s operations—from quoting nuances to fulfillment timelines.
Regular check-ins and reviews ensured the implementation stayed aligned with Smarter Furnishing’s evolving priorities. The agile approach meant features could be adjusted based on feedback from early users, minimizing surprises and increasing confidence across the business.
JourneyTeam didn’t just implement software—they helped us reimagine how we work.
– Jason Moore, Special Projects Manager
JourneyTeam helped Smarter Furnishings build internal muscle through structured training, role-based documentation, and enablement sessions for leadership. Smarter Furnishings now sees their Microsoft platform not as a one-time investment, but as a foundation for long-term innovation. “We didn’t just buy a system—we built a capability,” said Dean Harvison, Managing Partner.
Furthermore, JourneyTeam understood our needs and how technology could fulfill those needs while adhering to a tight timeline and staying within budget, Moore added. “Our project was on time, within scope, and came in 30% under budget when the project came to closure.”
Outcomes and What’s Next
Finance, sales, operations, and leadership are now working from the same set of real-time insights. Reports are easier to generate, KPIs are better aligned, and data-backed conversations have replaced guesswork, and decisions are based on data, not assumptions.
Smarter Furnishings is now positioned to take advantage of AI-powered copilots, Power Automate workflows, and deeper analytics with Power BI. “We’re still just scratching the surface of what Dynamics can do for us,” said Moore. “The goal now is to keep building—more intelligence, more automation, and even tighter connections between departments.”
JourneyTeam remains a trusted partner in this evolution, offering both strategic guidance and technical support. With a partner like JourneyTeam, and internal champions driving continuous improvement, Smarter Furnishings is well-positioned in their digital maturity.
“We finally have the visibility and control to grow the way we want to,” said Johnny Collins. “And we have the right platform—and the right partner—to take us there.”
Powering Possibility with JourneyTeam
JourneyTeam is an award-winning Microsoft Solutions Partner with over 30 years of experience helping organizations implement and optimize Microsoft technologies. Recognized as the 2024 Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Business Central, JourneyTeam is trusted by clients across industries to lead digital transformation initiatives that are both strategic and sustainable.
Whether you’re modernizing your sales process, rethinking financial operations, or scaling through self-service portals, JourneyTeam delivers the strategy, tools, and support to help you move forward with confidence.
Ready to take the next step? Contact JourneyTeam to discuss your business goals and learn how we can help you unlock what’s next with Microsoft Dynamics 365.