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CRM Reviews : Microsoft Dynamics CRM Review

Because of its increasing popularity we decided to review Microsoft Dynamics CRM as part of our CRM Reviews series.

Microsoft Dynamics is a business suite providing support for core processes such as supply chain processes, financials and customer relationship management. Basically, it offers both ERP (Enterprise Ressource Planning) and CRM functionality. On a more detailed level, it features the following functionality: supply chain management, retail point of sale, manufacturing, HR, collaborative workspaces, business intelligence and reporting, CRM and financial management.

Microsoft Dynamics can be used either on-premise, hosted by partners or hosted by Microsoft itself. Concerning the customer relationship management part, Microsoft also offers a web based CRM solution as a Software as a service (SaaS) offering which doesn’t require any upfront investments in hardware. Typically, also the project implementation costs of online business software are lower because the application is preconfigured.

The main capabilities of the package are sales, marketing and customer service. It also supports analytics and workflow. The web CRM software definitely has a lot of benefits and advantages over other internet based solutions, but the software is definitely not as evolved as the Salesforce CRM On Demand solution. However, Microsoft is typically a slow starter in the business software market. Remember when Redmond launched SQL Server. It received really bad reviews. Actually, it was an awful solution (functionality and performance wise). But in the meantime, a few years later, MS SQL Server has established itself as a viable database platform - even for large corporations.

Same thing will probably happen for the MS ERP and Customer relationship management software. Their software started at the SMB segment (small & medium businesses), and for the next coming years the business CRM small segment is an important market for Microsoft. And with its marketing dollars it will definitely continue to enhance and market the application until it becomes accepted at the large enterprises.

Competing products for the offering come from web CRM software vendors such as SalesForce, Netsuite, Sage, Entellium and SAP.

Microsoft offers a free thirty day trial for its Dynamics online service. So you can perform a software review and compare options during your package selection phase. After that, you really need to check pricing with your account representative. Microsoft is quite unclear about the prices of its web based CRM software. Prices of subscriptions per user vary from about $20 per month to $65 per month, depending on the number of licenses.

Come and check back often for more CRM software reviews.

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One Response to “CRM Reviews : Microsoft Dynamics CRM Review”

  1. [...] Microsoft small business CRM is also a product which is popular for SMB’s. Microsoft is very aggressive with the pricing of its business software in order to gain market share (it know there is a lot of market potential in CRM). Microsoft also offers a hosted version of its Dynamics CRM software which is called Micorosft Dyamics Online CRM. This software is hosted by Microsoft and you can subscrive to a free trial for thirty days. The cost of the web based solution is a bit of a secret. The company does not publicly disclose the subscription price of the web software. The price of business software is always a well guarded sectret with the large software vendors because they like to have a lot of flexibility in the sales process. [...]

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