Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce.com – A Great DebateOver the past several years, doing a value and feature comparison of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com (SFDC) was sometimes a tough debate to win in favor of Microsoft Dynamics CRM when customers were comparing apples to apples. SFDC is a great product and it had a significant head start on Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the CRM marketplace, especially in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space – but times have changed with Microsoft’s latest release. With the introduction of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, we feel the scales have (finally) tipped toward Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the better value for most customers. This paradigm shift has recently sparked some great debates in SFDC circles and we wanted to outline some of the rebuttal questions and some of our counter answers. Where is Microsoft recognized as the CRM market leader and by whom?[ABLEBRIDGE] Microsoft Dynamics CRM was recently recognized a Leader by two leading independent research firms, (1) Forrester (Forrester Wave Report: CRM Suites for Midsized Organization (June 2010) and CRM Suites for Large Organizations (June 2010) (2) Gartner (Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (July 2010) and 2010 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers . Here is a link for full Press Release What is the 3 – 5 year total cost of ownership of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online vs. SFDC?[ABLEBRIDGE] Since SFDC doesn’t have an “On-Premise” option (where the customer hosts their own CRM application and data) we will only show the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the online editions. Capitalizing the cost of licenses vs. an operational expense of a monthly subscription will be less expensive over the long-term; however IT infrastructure variables will also need to be taken into consideration on a per customer basis when doing a TCO of on-premise vs. online deployment.
| 3 Years |
$15,840 |
$23,400 |
$45,000 |
| 5 Years |
$26,400 |
$39,000 |
$75,000 | What is Microsoft’s platform strategy? Where can I view a real time status of their resources?[ABLEBRIDGE] Enclosed is a link to Microsoft’s recently published (September 2010) “CRM Statement of Direction”. This document gives a good background of the overall strategic direction of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and future planned releases. Who looks after page response time, outages and all the other fun things that come with running your own infrastructure? How dependent is the customer on their Microsoft partner?[ABLEBRIDGE] On-Premise – (not a SFDC deployment option) the customer manages their own IT infrastructure. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partners work closely with their customers to make sure their on-premise CRM deployment meets the best practices and requirements of installing CRM within their environment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (same as SFDC deployment, hosted with Microsoft) offers a 99.9% Service Level Agreement (SLA) with a financially backed industry-leading SLA. All Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers are covered by this operational policy. We don’t believe this is the case with SFDC. How committed is Microsoft to cloud computing and CRM in general? Or are they more interested in Windows, Office, Xbox, hotmail, Flight simulator, etc?[ABLEBRIDGE] Very committed, see Microsoft’s “CRM Statement of Direction”. How many people does Microsoft have dedicated to ensuring customer success? Where can I view Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer success stories?[ABLEBRIDGE] http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/Default.aspx What else can Microsoft integrate with, apart from Outlook? How about SAP, Oracle etc. How easy is it really?[ABLEBRIDGE] We would argue Microsoft Dynamics CRM has a more flexible and widely adopted architecture compared to SFDC proprietary architecture. There are multiple integration options at various levels of the application and we’ve performed many integrations with 3rd party, non-Microsoft systems. Does Microsoft Dynamics CRM have an AppXchange equivalent?[ABLEBRIDGE] Not yet, but currently planned to be released in January 2011. See CRM Statement of direction link or link directly to their current beta site (Microsoft Marketplace) What does Microsoft have like Chatter? It completely changes the CRM game by bringing people and process together.[ABLEBRIDGE] SFDC did a nice job with Chatter. Microsoft could respond that SharePoint could be utilized in the same context but we personally don’t feel it’s a fair comparison. The concept of Chatter isn’t new so we believe Microsoft will make a similar offering available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. What is the Microsoft Dynamics CRM equivalent of SFDC native report and dashboard builder? It’s easy to use and gives users immense power to query and report on their data – a major driver of improving data quality.[ABLEBRIDGE] SFDC definitely had a leg up on dashboards and analytics before Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Compared to SFDC, the dashboards and in line analytics offered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 offer more features (real time data, multiple drill downs, in line analytics, etc.) and in our opinion is more intuitive to the end user. How are new versions and patches handled? Are they available in real time when released?[ABLEBRIDGE] With CRM Online (hosted by Microsoft) scheduling new versions and patches are managed by Microsoft, just like SFDC. With CRM On-Premise (hosted by the customer) the updates are handled by the customer and are available once released by Microsoft. About AbleBridgeAbleBridge is a Massachusetts (MA) based Microsoft Gold Partner focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. AbleBridge has been successfully implementing CRM technology dating back to the inception of Contact Management applications through the evolution of Sales Force Automation and ultimately Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. AbleBridge is 100% focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and our involvement dates back to the first beta release in 2002. AbleBridge is uniquely comprised of seasoned Business Consultants and Technical Software Architects; all experienced and focused on CRM implementation success. We are equally proficient in providing sales, marketing and business process consulting as we are in developing rich software solutions on Microsoft’s .NET framework technologies. AbleBridge specializes in providing pre-built Industry Solutions and Add On components that extend the business value and user adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
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