Six reasons why Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solution is a sales (and marketing) force to be reckoned with

Microsoft Dynamics 365 doesn’t back you into a development corner. It’s built using universal web standards such as Java, HTML and .Net.

What does this mean for your organisation? Well, it gives you the ability to develop your own customisations internally, based on your specific needs. So, there’s no need to rely on a specific or rarely-used programming language. Phew. And if you can’t do it in-house, there’s a massive network of trusted and experienced Microsoft partners (such as Fusion5) who can do it for you, or even teach your team how!

Why is this important?

One of the complaints we hear most often about Salesforce is that because it has its own special little snowflake programming language called Apex, you have limited ability to customise it. In effect, unless you have developers who know Apex, you can’t customise your Salesforce CRM in-house. At all.

Another thing to note, is that because Salesforce is based in multi-client cloud environments, the resources are shared across many organisations that are completely separate entities. The result? You can experience slower business process speeds, and this creates extra workarounds for your developers as they try to negotiate this issue. It also requires far more development work at your end to make sure your solution performance doesn’t suffer due to burden of other tenants’ customisations.

All of which means that if you decide to move away from Salesforce, you’ve got problems. As no-one else uses Apex as a programming language, you will likely need to start again from scratch.

Microsoft has so many common and familiar solutions in everyday use in businesses around the world (think Outlook, Office 365, Exchange and more). Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers native integration with them all.

Why is this important for your organisation?

Without native Microsoft integration, and with a CRM like Salesforce, you need more time — and definitely more budget — to leverage the rich functionality of your Microsoft business solutions.

We’d all like to have an open cheque book when it comes to buying new technology (or cars, houses and overseas trips for that matter!). But when reality bites, there’s no getting around the fact that cost is a major consideration when making the final decision as to which enterprise application you can afford to invest in.  

What do you get for your dollar?

When we talk in terms of features offered for the price, Salesforce is the most expensive SaaS CRM solution in the market. (To the extent that we have seen customers save over 40% on their licence costs by simply moving over to Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 platform).

Now we know that cost and value aren’t the same thing, and we are sure you do too. So, logically, you’d assume Salesforce must have way more value packed into their solution to justify their price. But is this the case? For example, Dynamics 365 offers a complete CRM solution which includes basic marketing, customer service, and case management, as well as sales force automation. By comparison, Salesforce only includes their sales force automation as a core offering.

And to top it off, when it comes to any add-ons you’d like, Microsoft options are both far less expensive and more customisable.

Microsoft costs are transparent and upfront from the beginning of your buying journey. You won’t get caught out by add-on pricing, storage and “premium” pricing when you are so far down the sales path that it’s almost impossible to back out.

What are the ‘traps for beginners’ when looking at costs?

Apples with apples — compare the price per user of Microsoft CRM with Salesforce’s Enterprise Edition. And bear in mind that the Microsoft solution has more in-built features (for around half the price).

Functionality — are you paying extra for add-on Salesforce features that are either free (as they’re inclusive) or cheaper with Microsoft CRM?

Storage wars — what if you need additional storage? An extra GB of data a month from Salesforce can cost your 25x more than a GB of CRM storage from Microsoft. Ouch.

One of the major benefits of Dynamics 365 is that you can leverage it as a development platform. So as your organisation grows and evolves you can be confident that your Dynamics 365 CRM can be continuously customised and extended to meet your changing needs.

With its no-code approach to customising views, business entities, and field forms, Dynamics 365 allows you to implement changes faster. No more slow development times and roll outs!  

When you couple this with the intranet and private hosting options offered by Microsoft, you’ve got greater user flexibility when it comes to 3^rd party and customer app integrations that if you choose Salesforce.

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM you’re spoilt for choice. You can deploy it using an SaaS model, private hosting, on-premises, and naturally on a cloud platform (choose from Azure, vendor cloud, public or private).

By comparison, you only have one deployment choice with Salesforce. And that’s on-demand SaaS.

How does this impact you? Well, while most organisations are heading the way of the cloud, being stuck in a SaaS contract means you may risk committing your organisation to a higher TCO (total cost of ownership) in the long run. Additionally, if you’re a government or health organisation, and you’re concerned about your sensitive data being sent via the internet, you definitely won’t have the same degree of control and security you’d experience with an on-house IT environment.

May the force be with you.