With the presidential election process now over, the US is starting to heal and move forward. Unsurprisingly, technology played a large part in this election cycle, with reports that Facebook’s advertised news posts might have had an impact on the election result, amongst other things! It’s also clear that CRM, ERP and other cloud productivity technologies were used to empower voters, candidates and parties on the road to the 2016 result. According to Fred Humphries, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for U.S. government affairs, “Never before has technology been as important and integrated into U.S. presidential campaigns... For example, Microsoft is helping the election process for both major parties at the Iowa caucuses and assisting candidates as they connect with their potential supporters.”

On the political front line

This election was the first time the Iowa caucuses have properly utilised technology, with apps designed specifically to aid the Iowa Republican and Democratic Party processes. A media center in Des Moines, Iowa, also provided resources for press covering the elections, starting in late January. Microsoft Dynamics CRM was a large component of this package, helping the candidates acquire better analytics about their potential support though Power BI and Azure. Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Dynamics CRM for marketing was used to assess social media analytics for both campaigns, which - when combined with Power BI analytics - created a powerful picture of the Iowa voter.

The national level

Dynamics wasn’t just used locally, however. At the national level, both the Republican and Democratic parties used Microsoft Dynamics for support. For example, the Republican National Committee created dashboards on top of Power BI, working on the latest version of Azure. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee also created a Microsoft Dynamics-based system that tracked issues and incidents at polling places across the country. From these examples and others, it’s clear to see that this was an election powered by Microsoft Dynamics technology. Businesses and organisations across the UK are turning to Microsoft Dynamics technologies en-masse. So should you. If you’re looking for a Microsoft Dynamics role, contact us today on +1 646 202 1761 in the US, or +44 (0)1483 233 000 in the UK.