Microsoft CRM vs Salesforce.com

Microsoft CRM vs Salesforce.com: Consider this?

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 out, the race between Microsoft CRM and Salesforce became a lot closer. If you are considering the investment into Salesforce CRM and you haven’t looked at Microsoft CRM, first consider the below. If you are a business that utilizes Microsoft Office applications, including Microsoft Outlook, choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 over Salesforce.com is a probably the way to go.

Here are the key differentiators that make Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 the better investment:

1) Value Matters

• Microsoft CRM 2011 Online – $34/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• Salesforce Professional – $65/user/mo. (Very LIMITED functionality)
• Salesforce Enterprise – $125/user/mo. (Salesforce most popular, and the only version that Compares to MS CRM 2011)
• Salesforce Unlimited – $250/user/mo.

2) Hidden Costs – aka, the Salesforce Tax

• Microsoft CRM 2011 Online – $44/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• Salesforce – Data Storage (5GB) – $1,000/year
• Salesforce – Mobile $50/user/mo.
• Salesforce– Knowledge Base – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – Customer Portal – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – Partner Portal – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – They have no SLA available. Microsoft CRM 2011 has a 99.9% uptime, financially backed SLA.

3) Office Experience

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a true Microsoft Outlook application, not just a plugin
• Salesforce is repealing Outlook features; for example, users can’t manage opportunities and leads anymore
• Salesforce doesn’t have a concept of a fluid user interface

4) Dashboards

• Microsoft CRM 2011 inherits security and data privileges…Salesforce does not.
• Microsoft CRM 2011 allows charts, lists, iFrames to be displayed…Salesforce only reports
• Microsoft CRM 2011 dashboard data is real time…Salesforce has a lag of 30-60 minutes
• Microsoft CRM 2011 allows for unlimited data refreshes. Salesforce limits refreshes

  

5) Inline Analytics

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers Inline Analytics…Salesforce does not have a parallel offering
• Salesforce users must leave their task or process…open reports or dashboards..and hope that they don’t get distracted

6) One-Click Drill Down

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers One-Click drill down…Salesfoce does not have a parallel offering
• Salesforce users can click on a static image of a chart to pull up the full report. From the full report they can drill down…7-15 clicks vs. 4 clicks with Microsoft CRM 2011

7) User Interface Customizations

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers a new drag and drop capability for end users that is easy to user
• Salesforce offers User Interface personalization…but users can’t revert changes
• Salesforce personalization features are for power users and administrators only

Need to decrease the number of users? Salesforce does not allow the number of user subscriptions purchased to be decreased during the subscription term.

Now this does not mean that Salesforce is not a good solution but consider the above we do believe that Microsoft CRM 2011 is a much better investment, at a much lower cost for pretty much the same functionality.

Microsoft CRM 2011 Review Webinars

Join us for our webinar series as we explore the points outlined below – and hope to provide you valuable insight about this top-rated CRM solution. We hope that our comparison with Salesforce.com will help you on in your CRM evaluation. We will be hosting this series every Wednesday at 11:00 am December – February.

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