If your business is currently using a Salesforce system and are considering making the switch to Dynamics 365, you clearly have the knowledge of these two CRM heavyweights.
To give you a bit of background, Salesforce has been operating in the CRM market for a number of years before becoming one of the first to become cloud-based. However, Microsoft Dynamics 365 hasn’t been far behind, becoming one of the figureheads in the cloud CRM sector and has seen substantial growth over the last few years.
Like with anything both of these platforms have their specific advantages and disadvantages and specific reasons why you should choose one over the other.
This is why in our latest blog article, we will provide you with 4 reasons why you should consider moving from Salesforce to Dynamics 365.
1) Apps
Let’s start with Salesforce which consists of 3 overarching cloud-based offerings which fall under the following categories: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud Einstein. The next level directly below these are made up of smaller apps that look to address specific functions of a business-like Sales, Marketing etc. You will find that Dynamics 365 is structured in a similar way which makes it easier to map out one from the other depending on which particular version of Salesforce you are using.
To give you a heads up on the structure of the Dynamics 365 applications, similar to Salesforce looks to address specific business requirements such as Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Project Operations, Business Central and many more. In addition to this, Microsoft’s latest edition to come to the party, the Microsoft Power Platform seamlessly integrates with Dynamics 365 is made up of the following: PowerBI, Power Automate, Power Apps as well as Power Virtual Agents. This enables you to easily manage all aspects of your business in a single place.
2) Deployment Flexibility
If you are using Salesforce, you will be aware that it can only be deployed in a Cloud environment. Whereas Dynamics 365 on the other hand can tailor the deployment depending on your specific requirements with the following options available: on-premise, cloud or hybrid. Despite the fact that Microsoft can implement an on-premise solution if required, the focus is very much on leading potential customers down the road of the Cloud in the first instance.
3) Flexible Costing Structure
It goes without saying but as a Salesforce user, you will already know the pricing model that is used with four different licensing options with costs starting at £20 per user per month. As you already know the licensing for Salesforce is based on an annual pricing model which compared to Microsoft is a much higher commitment.
The major difference between the two platforms is the fact that Dynamics 365 licensing are much more flexible and scalable which means that you start with what you need and scale up as and when you need to. The pricing around Microsoft’s CRM offering, Sales starts from £49 per user per month with basic functionality. Stepping up in functionality to Sales Enterprise will start from £71.60 per user per month as well as the extras of embedded intelligence and social engagement. If you are looking to add more licenses to your account you can for as little as £15.10 per user per month. If you need users to have a basic level of access you can achieve this through the Team Member licensing which starts from just £6 per user per month.
This might be stating the obvious but unlike Salesforce with Microsoft you are not signing up for a specific period of time simply a rolling monthly subscription.
4) Flexible Integrations
As you probably already know, Microsoft and Salesforce have the capability to provide a number of different third-party integrations through both AppSource (Microsoft) and AppExchange (Salesforce).
To put this into context for you, Salesforce’s AppExchange provides over 3,000 apps so there are plenty of options to choose from. However, the main problem is the fact that Salesforce is just a single CRM system which means that every single 3rd party application will need to be integrated.
On the other side, Microsoft’s AppSource doesn’t have as much as choice as Salesforce’s App Exchange, however Microsoft is continuing to make rapid progress in building up its integrability. What Microsoft Dynamics 365 does have on its side currently is the fact that already seamlessly integrates with things we already use on a day-to-day basis such as Office 365. This is an absolute gamechanger and something that gives Microsoft that competitive edge over Salesforce by giving users a much more streamlined synchronisation and familiarity of the user interface present in other Microsoft products.
Another point to mention is the fact that Dynamics 365 can be easily extended without the need for any additional connectors, meaning that other applications offered by Microsoft can be brought into the existing system without any problems.
Next Steps?
If you are a business that is looking to make the move from Salesforce over to Dynamics 365 with Advantage then please get in touch with one of our Dynamics 365 experts today so we can help you to start the transition today.
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