Gustavo  Leo - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Helpbi
Real User
Top 10
Flexible with good pricing but not ideal for smaller companies
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a good solution for enterprise-level companies."
  • "It could be less complicated for smaller organizations."

What is our primary use case?

We implemented the CRM for clients. We had 80 or 85 agents on it. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is offered at a good price. They offered a good cost reduction.

The flexibility is very good. 

It's a good solution for enterprise-level companies.

What needs improvement?

We'd like to see more pre-built models for small companies. It could be less complicated for smaller organizations. You spend so much time configuring it that it doesn't make sense for smaller companies. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution scales very well. It's excellent for enterprise-level companies. The more you have on it, the better it is. 

How was the initial setup?

There can be a lot of initial configurations that need to be done in the beginning. It can be a bit complex in that regard. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It's been a good solution overall. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 10
Stable enough and has a good pipeline management feature
Pros and Cons
  • "My access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is limited, so I can only access the feature of registering the pipeline and activities. That feature is enough for me to do the job, and is what I find most valuable in the solution."
  • "Microsoft Dynamics CRM is operational enough, in terms of frequency, but an area for improvement would be its dashboard. Currently, it's widget-like, so hopefully, it could be improved, particularly to allow you to create a custom dashboard using a query. A custom dashboard would make the solution better and is an additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM because right now, it only has a default dashboard, but maybe my account has limited access, so I can only see the default version of the dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to record the pipeline and activities.

What is most valuable?

My access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is limited, so I can only access the feature of registering the pipeline and activities. That feature is enough for me to do the job, and is what I find most valuable in the solution.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is operational enough, in terms of frequency, but an area for improvement would be its dashboard. Currently, it's widget-like, so hopefully, it could be improved, particularly to allow you to create a custom dashboard using a query. A custom dashboard would make the solution better and is an additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM because right now, it only has a default dashboard, but maybe my account has limited access, so I can only see the default version of the dashboard.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM since I joined the company. I've been using it for around two years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a stable solution. The stability of the solution is enough for me, and I haven't seen the server being down. So far, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is okay in terms of stability.

How are customer service and support?

My company has a dedicated IT team, specifically an internal MIT team that takes care of issues with Microsoft, so the MIT team is responsible for contacting the Microsoft Dynamics CRM support team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before I joined my current company, I used Salesforce CRM.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not aware of the pricing for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not an implementer. My role here in the company is presales.

Over a hundred people use Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the company, and it's a solution that's used every day. Users are product managers and people from the channel and delivery teams. I have no information if the company plans to increase usage of the solution.

My advice to people looking into using Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it's a good solution because if you're in a Microsoft environment, the solution has compatibility with different Microsoft products and features such as Office, Outlook, etc.

My rating for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is eight out of ten.

My company is a customer or user of the solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sr. Enterprise Account Executive at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Integrates well, stable, but could be easier to use
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Dynamics CRM has good integration with the Microsoft Stack of solutions. However, the Salesforce ecosystem is stronger."
  • "There are more people using Salesforce. Therefore, there are more partners, and applications for it, and is easier to use."

What is our primary use case?

I was using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for customer relations and sales.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has good integration with the Microsoft Stack of solutions. However, the Salesforce ecosystem is stronger.

What needs improvement?

There are more people using Salesforce. Therefore, there are more partners, and applications for it, and is easier to use. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a stable solution. We never had any problems, it was always running well.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is good.

How are customer service and support?

The support from Microsoft would improve. Most of the time of the day is terrible. We use a third-party vendor to handle issues we have.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used Salesforce. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a little bit different than Salesforce, but they're competing well. Microsoft Dynamics CRM was not a bad solution.

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM's initial setup was simple.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Office Administrator at a transportation company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Reliable, easy to use, but more built-in reports needed
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its ease of use."
  • "Microsoft Dynamics CRM could improve the built-in reports. The ones that are included are pretty generic unless you subscribe to Microsoft BI, which is an extra fee. They should offer the reports without having to purchase a separate subscription for Microsoft BI. However, the reports in Microsoft BI are fantastic."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for our day-to-day operations in our organization.

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has improved our organization by being allowing us to be more organized.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its ease of use.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM could improve the built-in reports. The ones that are included are pretty generic unless you subscribe to Microsoft BI, which is an extra fee. They should offer the reports without having to purchase a separate subscription for Microsoft BI. However, the reports in Microsoft BI are fantastic.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a fairly reliable solution. There's been the odd issue here and there, where for some reason it just doesn't want to load, but our IT department managed to fix it. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't think we've used Microsoft Dynamics CRM long enough to know how well it will work as the company scales in size.

We have approximately five people using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously QuickBooks and Microsoft Office suite. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial installation is complex. It was a while before we had the solution up and running.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant to do the implementation of the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not a quick solution. It takes a long time and you have to make sure a lot of your technology is up-to-date, such as recent servers that are capable of running it with enough memory. They need to prepare themselves that it isn't a quick process to get working.

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM a seven out of ten.

My rating is based on the technical issues we had getting the solution up and running and the lackluster features, such as reporting. However, everything else is good.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Assistant Director at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Effective low code platform, responsive support, and high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it is a low-code platform and we can perform business process management."
  • "Microsoft Dynamics CRM can improve the integration with the other system. If they have more flexibility to connect with another system it will be more effective."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Dynamics CRM with our chain management and internal project team to identify the areas to improve our workflow.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it is a low-code platform and we can perform business process management.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM can improve the integration with the other system. If they have more flexibility to connect with another system it will be more effective.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 200 users using the solution.

I rate the scalability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The support has been responsive and helpful.

I rate the support of Microsoft Dynamics CRM a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used Oracle CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM operates more smoothly than Oracle does because we are using Microsoft SaaS.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive.

I rate the price of Microsoft Dynamics CRM a four out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

We have approximately three people for the maintenance of the solution.

I rate We are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
MirziyodMirsaatov - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Top-IT Solutions Ltd
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Flexible, simple installation, but expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the flexibility with Microsoft Office 365."
  • "The overall price of Microsoft Dynamics CRM could improve."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is used for planning.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the flexibility with Microsoft Office 365.

What needs improvement?

The overall price of Microsoft Dynamics CRM could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Microsoft Dynamics CRM to be scalable.

We have more than 10 people in our organization using this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not difficult.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The annual license for Microsoft Dynamics CRM could be reduced, it is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
We are able to effectively follow up on requests, ensuring all customer issues are resolved in a timely manner
Pros and Cons
  • "We are able to effectively follow up on requests, ensuring all customer issues are resolved in a timely manner. This solution provides a platform where there is visibility of all customer interactions, with efficient follow-up."

    What is our primary use case?

    It is used for customer relationships. It is performing well.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The customer is the bedrock of every organization, and it is important the customers are always happy. Because all issues relating to customers are visible in the system, they are ultimately happy. When they are happier, they become our company's advocates. The solution is about ensuring an improved customer experience.

    What is most valuable?

    Since we started using this platform, we have been able to ensure all communications trials with our customers are documented. We are able to effectively follow up on requests, ensuring all customer issues are resolved in a timely manner. This solution provides a platform where there is visibility of all customer interactions, with efficient follow-up.

    What needs improvement?

    There is a feature called Social Listening. It enables the system to sniff out social interactions between our customers. With it, we are able to make informed decisions about the types of products and services to provide to customers.

    The social listening feature is not embedded in the current version. We have to buy a separate license in order for it to be implemented. This feature should be embedded in the next release.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Less than one year.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is quite stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is very scalable once you understand the process. Though, there are limited applications that can be integrated with it.

    We have been able to accommodate some of our legacy applications into the CRM software, which were not defaults in the functionality of the software by extending the software's functionality.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We have local support. They are good partners with Microsoft. They have been providing adequate technical support. Our interactions with them have been fantastic.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We had an existing solution, but it was locally implemented and did not have all the report features of a full-blown CRM software. We were not able to adequately track all interactions with our customers from all of the different channels. Therefore, we started searching for a new solution.

    We chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM, because of the vendors, it was able to demonstrate its solution would fulfill our requirements. Also, integrations are easier with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Ultimately, the vendor was able to demonstrate proficiency in being able to ensure that the solution would adequately meet our requirements.

    How was the initial setup?

    I was involved in the initial setup. It was pretty straightforward. We needed to provide the environment and basic server requirements. First, we set up the servers, next we test the environment, then we did the development.

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate it as an eight out of 10. It has been able to incorporate most of our processes. However, there is room for improvement. 

    I would tell a colleague searching for this type of solution that it is important to ensure that whatever solution you are trying to find, it is able to adequately fulfill at least most of your requirements. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a software which is very scalable and technical. It should fit into the processes of most companies. It is a good choice.

    One of the most important criteria is that we have referrals. We want to know if the vendor has previously implemented for a company similar to ours, e.g., in the same industry, because processes are industry specific. If this is the case, we want to get feedback from these referrals to know how long the implementation took, if they implemented it within their scope and in adequate time, and if they are gaining the expected value from the solution. We also want to know if the vendor has technical support.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user8937 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Owner with 51-200 employees
    Vendor
    Salesforce versus Dynamics… the death match

    We reviewed Salesforce and MS Dynamics in November last year. Clearly we chose one provider over the other but I’ll save that information for later. For now I thought I’d share the decision making process we went through to get to a “winner”. The key things for us were as follows:

    User experience – Salesforce wins

    Salesforce is the winner here and the user interface for Salesforce is really slick and easy to use. It’s also really quick which is a big thing although there is a different interface (not just different configuration) for service users (service cloud) compared to sales users (sales cloud) which we found to be a bit weird.

    The Dynamics interface is fine but a bit uninspiring and misses some of the UX ‘tricks’ that Salesforce has got. The release that Microsoft did late last year didn’t do a lot to improve things despite the hype.

    Feature richness – Salesforce wins

    So basically both systems do the core CRM thing really well as you’d expect from the market leaders. Case management, sales process management, activity logging are all catered for really well. When you step out of that things get a bit more complex though with a few highlights:

    Social communication is dealt with through Chatter in Salesforce and Yammer in Dynamics – both essentially paid for add-ons although Salesforce will give it away… maybe (more on that later);

    Online marketing – unbelievably Dynamics is rubbish at this out of the box although a plugin called Click Dimensions is available and our marketing guys really liked this, albeit at an extra cost;

    Customer support (Chat) – again this is a plugin you have to pay for in both systems.

    Ease of implementation – Salesforce wins

    I think its fair to say that Salesforce is a lot more polished and therefore implementation looks to be a lot easier than with Dynamics which is very much a framework that needs to be customised and adapted. The Salesforce partner we met promised an initial implementation within 2 weeks and their references said they could achieve that – impressive no doubt and not something that Dynamics can compete with.

    Implementing Dynamics is always going to be harder and therefore more expensive. The requirement for training is also more of an issue in Dynamics I think.

    Ability to customise – Salesforce wins

    Both platforms come with substantial customisation capability. Salesforce is written in a native scripting language with an SDK and Dynamics is written in .NET so can also be customised. That said, both companies are pushing customers to use plugins and extensions through their App Exchange (Salesforce) and Marketplace (Dynamics). The App exchange is packed full of plugins and extensions to fulfil a range of requirements. The Microsoft equivalent is less packed and therefore less useful at this stage – you’d think Microsoft would just pay some companies to build apps for this to take the bad look of it but apparently not!

    Ability to extend and integrate – Tie

    One of our key requirements was to integrate with our email solution which at the time was Gmail. Although both providers claimed that this was ‘no bother’ at the time my experience has been that in fact, neither of them do this, or at least not very well. If you have Outlook users this is a real pain point and my advice is to be very careful – for us, we ended up moving to Office 365 (over a snowy weekend in January.. perhaps another blog) to overcome this showstopper issue.

    The move to Office 365 did though open up some interesting possibilities for us in terms of integrating with Sharepoint for document management and so on.

    Customer portal – Tie

    So these are both CRM systems right? So you’d think the interface with the customer would be fantastic and a key selling point right?

    Wrong!

    Both systems are spectacularly poor at this for different reasons:

    In Salesforce land this is an additional extra and comes at a premium cost. I couldn’t actually get a firm price from Salesforce on this but the numbers quoted were mind boggling. The functionality offered was also pretty uninspiring to be honest.

    Microsoft’s version of this is truly one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen. Although it is ‘free’ it’s also completely unusable so you’ve really got 2 options – you can either pay through the nose for a partner who’ll licence one (because you can’t buy it in the marketplace because it doesn’t exist) or you can ‘roll your own’ and take the cost of developing and maintaining this yourself.

    Seriously guys… one of you should sort this out!

    Mobile – Salesforce wins

    As a remote and growing team we decided early on that having a good mobile solution was a key requirement. We probably softened our stance on this during the process when we thought through the actual use case for apps for our remote team. Ultimately though this decision was easy – Salesforce do this very very well and Microsoft do it very very badly!

    Despite a lot of fluff and bluster in the last 6 months, Microsoft are no further on with this right now.

    Cost – Microsoft wins

    So both solutions cost a fortune and this is a really big strategic business decision for a company like ours with around 40 -60 users. Both offer subscription pricing on a per seat basis and the list price is around £1,000 per year for Salesforce and Dynamics costs around £350 per year. For Learning Pool this meant a spend of either £50K or £17,500 per year.

    Regrettably it’s not nearly as straightforward as all that because:

    Salesforce will offer significant discounts depending on the number of licences you buy, the time of the year you buy them and the length of time you’ll commit contractually;

    Microsoft is more straightforward on subscription licencing but you get stung on things like Click Dimensions (an additional subscription that isn’t per head but needs to be worked into your calculation), Yammer licences (which are optional) and so on;

    Depending on the time of year (or time of day as I’ll come onto) Salesforce may or may not charge you extra for things like Chatter (social communication) or Mobile apps which makes it difficult to pin down the actual cost of ownership in any way;

    It seems from what I’ve seen that both companies hit you for extra storage space because the initial allocation is so small… go figure…;

    Sales approach – Microsoft wins

    The sales approach is different for both companies. Salesforce sell direct but introduce a partner as part of the process while Microsoft sell straight through the partner from the get go.

    We found the Microsoft approach more straightforward. Although the consultancy quote was a lot higher we at least had certainty on the price of the software and there were no hidden surprises really. Also Microsoft wanted a straightforward 12 month subscription which was attractive.

    The Salesforce approach to sales was tremendously annoying. I think we spoke to about 10 people during the process and each of them was more confusing (and sometimes confused) than the last. While Salesforce do this whole thing about how ‘we don’t sell software’ the truth is the complete opposite and so the pricing conversation is all about discounts and free stuff. Salesforce use every trick in the book including the pathetic “big reveal” on price and tell you over and over again that they’ve never given discount like this to anyone before… total bullshit! The most irritating thing we found was that each quote looked completely different to the last. Sometimes Chatter was free, sometimes not, sometimes you paid for mobile, sometimes you were getting a ‘great deal’ on this so in the end it was very difficult to determine what the total cost of ownership was going to be. Pretty scary, especially when they want you to commit for 3 years!

    Roadmap – Microsoft wins

    Both companies make a lot of claims about upcoming features but I think the reality is;

    Salesforce are pretty comfortable at the moment. They know they have dominance in the market and that their product works. Their roadmap is more evolutionary because they’ve done their innovating already. They’ll innovate with acquisitions but these new features come at a price;

    Microsoft know they have ground to make up and they are working hard to do this, especially around integrating with the rest of the Office 365 platform and working across browsers and devices.

    Both companies roll out a lot of updates as part of the service.

    And the winner is? – Microsoft

    If it had been Christmas morning and money was no object we would have gone for Salesforce every time. But back in the real world we were scared of the lack of certainty around pricing and the likely huge hidden costs we’d heard about and had experienced. We also knew that software implementations are always harder than the sales guys will admit and that we’d overrun on consultancy costs so we needed to keep some budget for that eventuality. For those reasons we decided that Dynamics would do enough of what we wanted in the medium term and so we went with that.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Dynamics CRM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: April 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Dynamics CRM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.