Selecting which CRM is right for your business can often be a helpless task. Choosing to implement a comprehensive CRM solution like Dynamics 365/CRM or SugarCRM needs careful planning and serious consideration. So, how do you decide which one of these two options is best for your business?
In our latest blog article, we will compare the two CRM options: SugarCRM vs Dynamics 365 and deliver our opinion on which one you should choose.
Before, we get started let’s define both:
Dynamics 365/CRM
Microsoft’s premier CRM solution is Dynamics 365 Sales which is a fully scalable and complete CRM solution that provides sales automation to help both your sales and marketing teams. Furthermore, it is able to be easily integrated with other Dynamics 365 applications such as Business Central in addition to other products within the Microsoft ecosystem like Microsoft 365, PowerApps and Power BI.
Dynamics 365 Sales can be implemented either in the Cloud, on-premise or in a hybrid environment depending on your requirements. You will find that the pricing is based on a subscription model where users pay a monthly subscription fee after an implementation.
SugarCRM
You will find that SugarCRM consists of three different elements that allow you to both market, sell as well as to help serve your customer base. Sugar Sell is a sales tool that brings together emails, account updates, social media posts as well as other useful data to help assess each specific prospect in your system. Sugar Sell and SugarBPM combine to allow for complex operations. As well as this, there are a number of addons available across Sugar’s exchange site.
Sugar Sell is cloud-based with a decent level of security and some scalability available through SugarCloud.
So, let’s dive into the main differences between the two CRM systems
Mid-market vs Small Business
You will find that both the size and scope of your business will have a huge bearing on which software you choose to implement. SugarCRM solutions can be better placed for really small businesses because of their low cost and fast implementation. Some businesses may like the fact that Sugar offers a number of software bundles whereas smaller businesses may look to the Sugar Sell application. You will notice that this solution is very limited in scope but it can give some focus to small businesses. SugarCRM can be used by bigger businesses, however due to how unfocused it is, it could hold back your business if it grows quickly.
Without a doubt, Microsoft is a juggernaut in the software market. The Dynamics 365/CRM solution is perfect for either small businesses or mid-sized ones who are wanting to expand their operations as well as scale up at the same time. Better still, the seamless integration this software has with other Microsoft products such as other Dynamics 365 applications, Microsoft 365 and Power BI is a real gamechanger for businesses looking to expand their infrastructure.
Insight
The whole purpose of Dynamics 365 Sales is to deliver highly intelligent-based scores and recommendations to help you sell in a much more sophsticated way. You will find that both leads and opportunities are provided with scores through the use of data models, thus enabling you to concentrate your efforts on buyers who are ready to close. Furthermore, you will be able to gain a much better understanding of the way customers engage with your business so that you use this to your advantage when emailing contacts. Taking this a step further, it can even provide you with some useful talking points to make these engagements much more personalised. In order to expand the reach to newer prospects, you will be able to make use of various tools and data through Microsoft’s data platform such as embedded Microsoft 365 features and much, much more.
You will notice that the Sugar Sell CRM system concentrates its efforts on delivering the best possible experience for customers. Through the use of its ‘no touch’ function will collate data from a whole host of different sources to enable you to build the perfect picture of your customer, enabling you to avoid having to add data manually. From here, it will make use of Hint to provide you with insights as well as updates along with notifications.
Customer Service application
You will notice that Dynamics 365 Customer Service would provide your support team with access to data in one place through the use of technology so that they are able to deliver a much more personalised service to your customers. Through the use of the sophisticated search function you will be able to see the best content & how the customer wants to be contacted through the use of AI to outline what the customer will need based on the data within the CRM. Agent-facing bots, Team collaboration as well as Form Pro surveys and swift case resolution can be used alongside all of this.
Agents can access a console within SugarCRM that gives order cases and inquiries in terms of rank based on the specific SLA and level of expertise required. Sugar Serve provides self-service portals which can limit service calls and instead enable customers to try and help themselves first.
Why should you choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM over SugarCRM?
Microsoft is constantly developing
You will find that Microsoft is constantly updating their Dynamics products with major releases twice a year that enables you to get more from your existing system. Furthermore, Microsoft has invested significantly into this space, buying up different technologies and bringing them into their own products. Given how financially well-off Microsoft are, you can easily get access to both AI and machine learning for a relatively small cost.
Fully integrable with all the Microsoft products you know and love
It doesn’t come as much of a shock to say that Dynamics works very well with other Microsoft 365 products such as Teams, Word and Excel. Therefore, you are able to process customer opportunities through Dynamics via different technologies that your employees are already using on a day-to-day basis.
Security and safety
As many of us already know, you don’t want your customer data to be lost or even worse stolen by someone who doesn’t work for your business. To make sure that your data is kept under lock and key, Microsoft Dynamics uses Azure and its leading security mechanisms.
In Summary
You will find that Dynamics 365 is a comprehensive and evolving system that brings together all your ERP and CRM needs to give your business the perfect all-in-one solution to help transform the way you work. Whereas SugarCRM is a basic CRM software that has some useful features and packages.
However, the benefits that you can gain from Dynamics 365, if your business has the budget or are already using other Microsoft products such as Microsoft 365, it makes logical sense to choose Dynamics 365. Furthermore, you need to see Dynamics 365 as an investment not a cost! As well as this, Dynamics 365 has so many more features when compared to SugarCRM which makes it the more logical choice.
Next Steps?
If you are a business that has read the above article and are keen to invest in a Microsoft CRM via our Quick Start offering then please reach out to our CRM team today so we can arrange for you to see the product in action.
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