12 Reasons Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Wins Out Over Salesforce

Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement – Which is the better choice in CRM solutions?

When choosing a Customer Engagement solution for your organization, the options are more and more focused on two choices – Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Salesforce. Both are mature solutions, as well as recognized market and feature leaders. Having assisted dozens of clients to make the migration from Salesforce to Dynamics 365, we have compiled a list of what drove these clients to their decision to switch. For us at enCloud9 many reasons point to the conclusion that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is the superior choice over Salesforce in CRM solutions. In this post, we will explore ten reasons Microsoft Dynamics 365  is the better option.

1. Overall Costs– Salesforce is the most expensive CRM solution out there.  The cost per user for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is about half of the cost of Salesforce CRM. With Dynamics 365, you get more features at a more reasonable price- a better value.  The features of Dynamics 365 Professional Edition is highly comparable to the Salesforce Enterprise Edition- only Dynamic’s solution is about half the cost. Also with Salesforce, add-ons are more expensive and less inclusive. For quite some time, Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) has offered customers the best value.

2. Seamless integration with other technologies– Although many reasons are supporting Dynamics 365  as the leading choice in customer engagement solutions, this one is significant.  More people tend to choose Dynamics 365 because of its easy integration with other familiar Microsoft technologies. Dynamics 365 works well with apps such as Sharepoint, Yammer, Outlook, Azure, and Office. For example, you can create a proposal right from Outlook without having to switch apps. Just think how productive your salespeople would be with this ability! According to the American Psychological Association, a worker loses 40% of their productive time when switching tasks. This leads right into the next reason.

3. User Friendliness– The ease of use of Dynamics 365 is due in part to its similarity and compatibility of many well-known and well-used programs. People are more comfortable with what they already know. Getting everyone in your company on board to use CRM can be a challenge, but having something easy to use can be a distinct advantage.

4. Ownership of Data– Salesforce and Microsoft have significantly different policies when it comes to the data that you enter into your CRM system.  Salesforce charges extra for API access or backups of your data.  Microsoft, on the other hand, believes that the data in your CRM system is yours to do with as you please. Backups of your Dynamics 365 data are available upon request and API access to your data is included with your subscription. Microsoft allows you to use outside Apps to update your data at no additional cost.

5. Development and Flexibility-

• Development– Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement employs universal programming languages (such as HTML, .net, and Java) while Salesforce uses its own programming language (Apex).  Dynamics 365 users have the advantage to develop their own customizations without having to rely on a particular programming language.  One of the biggest complaints among Salesforce users is that the customization function is limited. Because of the extensively used programming languages in Dynamics 365, you have a wider base of developers to draw upon.
• Flexibility– Dynamics 365 users have the ability to move from hosted to in-house. The same options are available at Salesforce- but for an additional cost.  The unlimited version must be purchased. This leads to our next reason.

6. Hidden Costs– Salesforce has a reputation for hidden costs. Many of the features that are add-ons with Salesforce are either built-in or available at a lower cost with Microsoft Dynamics 365.  Additional storage costs can also be very high with Salesforce. (For example, 1 gigabyte of storage costs around $250 with Salesforce, while the same amount of storage with Dynamics 365 would cost around $10).

7. Deployment options– Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is available through SaaS (multi-tenant hosting), private hosting, on-premise hosting, and Cloud Platform- while Salesforce only has one method of deployment. The SaaS Model of deployment is the only one available with Salesforce.   Some organizations (such as government) can’t risk sending sensitive data over the internet. Organizations such as this need security or control that is only achieved through on-premise. It is important to get a CRM that is right for your requirements.

8. Dynamics 365 for Marketing– This is one of the latest additions to the Dynamics product line. Here some of the most significant features offered through Dynamics 365 for Marketing:

• Improved UI and capabilities.
• A 360-degree view of the customers. Understand your customers in an entirely new way!
• Empowers you with the ability to personalize the customer experience and to easily measure and track the health of customer relationships.
• The ability to bring together any kind of customer data.
• The ability to use pre-built KPIs to truly understand the customer journey with real-time updates.

9. Extendability– As mentioned previously, customization is much easier with Microsoft Dynamics 365. As companies grow and evolve, it is crucial that they can customize views quickly and not have to worry about slow development times or coding issues.

10. Data Visualization– Most CRMs have a sophisticated dashboard, but unfortunately- they are not all the same. Dynamics 365 users have the capacity to effortlessly create their own role-based dashboards in real-time data.  Salesforce users have to manually refresh their dashboards.

11. Lead Nurturing- Built-in lead nurturing ability (Similar to, but not as limiting as Salesforce Sales Cloud).

• Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement offers Dynamics 365 for Sales and Dynamics 365 for Marketing solutions for lead nurturing.

12. Innovation– Because of Microsoft’s ongoing innovation and investment in AI and machine learning, they continue to be a leader in the Digital Transformation movement. Microsoft is continually looking for ways to use technology to improve the way companies do business. Satya Nadella’s 2015 mission statement for Microsoft hold true. “Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,”

So, as you see, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is the better choice in CRM solutions. Both CRM systems have some great customizable features to offer, but for many reasons, Dynamics 365 has a clear advantage over its counterpart. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Roadmap provides you information about what is being made generally available to the public and what is in development.

Want to Learn more?

To learn more about how Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement can help innovate and change the way you do business, contact the experts at enCloud9.  We have helped many businesses both to implement Dynamics 365 and to migrate from Salesforce.  We’d love to talk with you, learn about your company and their needs, and discuss how we can help you increase your company’s productivity and efficiency with Dynamics 365.

Visit our blog to read other interesting articles about Dynamics 365.

To learn about other reasons that Dynamics 365 is the right choice for you click here or download our PDF comparing the features of Dynamics 365 and Salesforce.