Salesforce vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

CRM Vendor Match Up

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a solution that will transform your manufacturing or distribution organization into a customer-centric enterprise. CRM software is no longer just a sales and marketing tool. Modern CRM solutions enable system-wide improvements and provide your team with real-time data that streamlines your business’s management, sales, marketing, and customer service departments.

CRM software selection is a critical first step in implementing a solution that dramatically improves your business; however, many businesses choose CRM solutions that lead to unclear intentions, confusion, lost time, and ill-defined goals and system criteria. Both Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce are robust CRM solutions; however, each solution has its pros and cons.

In evaluating Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, we will examine three core matchups: reporting, mobility, and affordability. Keep reading to find out which solution reigns supreme.

Reporting

Salesforce provides users with an award-winning, streamlined user experience that has become the industry standard for modern software design. For large, data-driven businesses, the cutting-edge technical user design that builds and modifies custom reports in Salesforce is flexible and easier to use than its MS Dynamics counterpart. Salesforce CRM doesn’t require the technical user to have an expert-level understanding to operate the software; in the user-friendly design, the user can build and create specialized reports without modifying code.

Alternatively, Dynamics offers the familiar Microsoft product look and feel that many users already know how to use. Plus, Dynamics features some beautiful drill-down functionality that delivers not only ease-of-use but also aesthetically pleasing reports; for example, you can depict graphical displays to filter through data in grids.

If you’re a large organization with a sophisticated sales department, Salesforce might offer better reporting options for your business; however, if you don’t have a rigid sales process that is dramatically driven by data, Dynamics may be the better choice.

User reporting capabilities extend far beyond user-friendliness and are the foundation for the CRM software’s overall consummation. Both Dynamics and Salesforce offer robust reporting capabilities, so the interface comes down to personal preference. In this way, we recommend your key decision-makers demo each solution to help understand which systems’ reporting functionality is a better fit.

Mobility

Salesforce is an obvious standout in mobility in the CRM software industry. You’d be hard-pressed to find the functionality, reporting, interface, and ease-of-use on a mobile device in any CRM system other than Salesforce. Salesforce is the only CRM solution to offer the full user experience—including dashboards and reporting—on a mobile device. Regardless of whether you use Salesforce for customer service, management, sales, marketing, or something else, you’ll receive a complete mobile experience. For instance, if you’re a sales user, you can travel between clients all day long while creating contacts, managing activities, drawing reports, and reviewing dashboards, all while using voice data-entry along the way.

Moreover, until recently, Dynamics was drastically behind Salesforce in mobility, but it has completely revamped its mobile experience. Users can do almost everything they can do from a desktop on-the-go from a mobile device. From your Dynamics mobile app, you can customize lists and data features, track KPIs, easily access important CRM data (activities, leads, contacts, accounts, etc.), and enter data. Plus, Dynamics allows its users to work offline; if you’re working in places with limited connectivity, you can continue to work from the mobile app, and your offline data will be saved locally and synced with your online database once you reconnect to the network.

The need for mobile solutions has transformed the way businesses operate and use CRM. Mobile CRM is necessary for any organization with a traveling sales force, remote employees, and a flexible, fast-paced environment. That being said, every business has specific mobility needs, so we recommend choosing a mobile CRM system that fits your business’ unique requirements. By carefully gauging Salesforce and Dynamics mobile capabilities, you will be able to adequately choose the best fit for your business.

Affordability

While Salesforce is a CRM industry leader, it is also more expensive from a licensing perspective. Without going into exact licensing costs, Salesforce generally costs 30-40% more than Dynamics. In addition to this higher price, Salesforce charges for API calls as well.

We might also mention; Salesforce provides an entire app store with their product. Users can download and purchase custom apps that provide limitless potential for integration and compatibility.

Further, if your business plans to make a large volume of calls to your database, this would certainly be something that could add to your bottom-line cost with Salesforce. Microsoft Dynamics 365 does not charge for these database calls.

Comparing costs isn’t apples to apples, but it’s worth noting Dynamics is less expensive than Salesforce from a licensing perspective. That being said, we don’t recommend basing your CRM decision solely on the price of the software.

Wrap Up—Which Do You Choose

Based on the above evaluations, if you operate a large, data-driven enterprise with a sophisticated sales team, Salesforce may be a good investment; your business may greatly benefit from the added features of Salesforce. Alternatively, if you’re a small-to-midsized business, Microsoft Dynamics 365 might be the right choice for you as it offers flexibility while cutting licensing costs.

Nevertheless, deciphering which CRM solution is best for your business is about using the right tools and evaluation methods; each CRM system has clear advantages and shortcomings. And finding the best fit is all about evaluating your business needs and choosing accordingly. In other words, each system’s functionality should be evaluated per your business processes and practices.

At Datix, our CRM evaluation framework has allowed us to aid hundreds of manufacturing and distribution businesses through their CRM selection. As a certified partner of both Microsoft Dynamics 265 and Salesforce, Datix can provide an unbiased perspective on CRM functionality for your unique business.

Our consultants are trained to help you evaluate your business processes to determine which CRM system is the best fit for your business based on the merits of the software. Plus, Datix is a one stop shop with start-to-finish consulting, meaning we can assist with implementation, customization, integration, user adoption, business process modeling, training, and more for all of your enterprise technology!

To learn more about CRM implementation, contact Datix today!