Around a user-friendly interface, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides excellent reporting tools and innovative automation functions. It will address the best complex management needs of customer relations for large companies. The customer relationship management software (CRM, Customer Relationship Management) helps commercial, marketers and customer service professionals to track their interactions with customers and prospects, keeping careful track of all the discussed topics. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (from € 54.78 per month) is a powerful CRM service with offline access, excellent automatic reports and tight integration with Microsoft Office 365. As Salesforce.com Sales Cloud, including you will find the test in this issue, Microsoft Dynamics CRM target large companies, its price and its interface testify widely. Admit as much before diving in more detail in the analysis of the Microsoft tool: We found Salesforce.com easier to customize, with simpler rules to create automatic. If your company already relies heavily on Microsoft technologies like SharePoint and Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics Online DRM, however, give you a better experience. But if this is not your case, already hold that Salesforce.com seems more robust.
The licenses of Microsoft Dynamics
The licenses of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are the least complex, with different editions targeting primarily business or marketing experts. The Professional Edition (€ 54.78 per user per month, this is the version we tested here) is suitable primarily for sales teams and those of customer support. It includes in particular the social media analysis tools, automation, customer service and commercial activities, a unified service center and personal relationships. Social Engagement Professional edition (€ 63.28 per user per month) offers social monitoring tools, a social center, corporate and alerts indicating trends. It also includes 10 000 publications per month for your business. Publishing Sales Effectiveness (€ 57.61 per user per month) combines Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 Power BI (Microsoft business intelligence service), to enhance team collaboration. Editing Marketing (€ 105.38 per user per month) offers campaign management and brands, supervision and evaluation of leads as well as social marketing tools and marketing analysis. Microsoft Enterprise Social Commitment (€ 105.38 per user per month) includes unlimited stream you can share, and the allocation of publications and full integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Enterprise version of 360 (€ 168.63 per user per month, with a current promotion € 126.47) is recommended for marketing professionals and customer support; it includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the center of unified service, account management, opportunity management and prospects, social engagement tools, pipeline management and forecasting as well as the enrichment and analysis data.
You will find all of these issues and their exact characteristics at http://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/dynamics/acheter-crm-online.aspx . The purchase of the licenses is done elsewhere through this website. If you already have Office 365 Enterprise E3, you can add Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional and Power BI to your subscription for € 37.91 per user per month.
To qualify for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, know that you have to subscribe to five users to a minimum. Smaller companies need under five accounts or wish to deploy on-premise version through their own infrastructure must approach a Microsoft partner ( https://mspartner.microsoft.com/fr/fr/ Pages / aspx ) to access the service. For basic CRM, so the minimum subscription is € 273.90 per month for five users, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional. The solution is much more affordable than Sugar CRM, the cost of an individual license is essentially the same, but that requires you to subscribe to ten users for a year at a minimum, for a ticket of around 4400 euros . The license of the on-premise version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM can however be 1 800 euros per user, and even if it is a purchase to driving once and for all, it remains higher the SugarCRM solution. Test the service before subscribing is unfortunately more complex than necessary. Microsoft offers a guided tour, trade by trade, and thus you visualize how a commercial, a customer service manager, a business manager, mobile business or a customer service employee using the application ( http://www.microsoft. com / en-us / dynamics / START-version-test-crm.aspx ). The only solution to enjoy the 30-day evaluation version is to click on a microscopic link at the bottom of this page or locate the "Start Free Trial" during one of the sessions TestDrive. We were surprised that the business partner with whom we met through chat, never mentions the ability to access the trial version.
By clicking on the link or button, you create an Office 365 trial account then you associate her Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. You choose your language and you are then redirected to your CRM account, where you can find a video tutorial for the initial setup. As with Sugar CRM, there is a demo version that you can handle, and not a blank canvas that you enrich freely: Data examples already punctuate the interface. If you followed the tour earlier, the interface of the application depending on the different roles should already be familiar to you, you finally have the opportunity to click your turn on options.
The interface of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online contrasts sharply with that of other popular CRM services. The upper bar has three options: the main menu (the icon with three horizontal lines), and Sales Dashboard. Top left, you find icons to the last elements through the creation of a new item, research, profile options, settings (the cog icon) and aid. You also get a wide field of research, you run a query across all record types. It is possible to switch from one role to another in the main menu and so change the interface adapting to sales, marketing services and customer service. By adopting the latter profile, for example, the top of the screen menu in sales is seen replaced by a service menu. You will need some time to get used to, but the principle is handy in everyday life and you avoid unduly burdening the interface.
You will find the options to set the rules for workflow in the general settings. This sets the process, such as the type of tasks to be performed after assigning a prospect for commercial or after creating a new opportunity. If the prospect does not convert, other tasks can thus be triggered automatically, for example planning a revival. Through these automation tools, you significantly increase your conversion rate.
The power of the application stems from the Sales menu (or its replacement depending on your role). In the drop-down will bring up options for customers, sales, joint roles, marketing, objectives and tools. You can create multiple dashboards, personalizing them to display charts, graphs or specific widgets. You find them all under the entrance edge of the top menu tables. Salesforce.com , Sugar CRM and Zoho CRM (free on https://www.zoho.com/crm ) all offer essentially identical options with the possibility of create multiple custom tables edge, which is particularly useful to avoid overloading the interface.
Users, contacts and lead management
Although Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is the same target as Salesforce.com , its user interface more reminiscent of that of SugarCRM. In this area, Microsoft shows its incomparable expertise. The accounts page lists all your system companies. You can browse the entire list or refer to filter down the screen to quickly sort the entries.
To view a specific record, click the corresponding link. If you click elsewhere on the entry, you select; it is thus possible to make multiple selections to compare records or dealt with together. By clicking on a phone number in the contacts page, and if you have integrated Skype (from € 1.50 per month per user, http://www.skype.com/fr/business/skype-for -business ) to your account, you'll be able to directly make phone calls from CRM Online.
Each page has its own assortment of options. When browsing an individual contact, you have the option to create a new record, disable, to associate it with another contact to add to a marketing list or assign a manager. In the global list of contacts, accounts or leads, you can create a new record, delete an account, view a report, export the data to Excel, import data sources or view details as graphs. Going through the records, you can in an instant search for duplicates, delete or modify batch. You'll understand: it would have been easier to preserve the same options from one screen to another, particularly to facilitate learning and navigation software, but once this range of stored functions, you will gain a valuable time.
A specific section of the application stores all the sales materials, namely brochures, product guides and promotional materials, as well as all documents related to the activity, such as quotations, invoices and control. This is your company's document library. Like most CRM tools, Microsoft Dynamics CRM distinguishes opportunities leads. These are accompanied by a frieze timeline at the top of the screen, allowing you to monitor their condition throughout the process: qualified, developing, established or completed proposal. The Summary tab provides details about marketing lists assigned to the user logged in and the latest activities. You can also assign a lead to an opportunity from this view.
The section on opportunities closely resembles that leads, with the same timeline at the top of the screen and a summary section below. You will find tons of information and lots of features, but they are not arranged in the same way as other CRM services, the learning time is rather long. If Salesforce.com , Zoho CRM or Apptivo you are already familiar, you will need some time to get rid of your reflexes and acquire new ones. If this is however your first experience with CRM, you have every chance of joining this more intuitive presentation.
The reports and integration
Whatever your opinion on this interface, you can only appreciate the quality of reports from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The wizard reports needle you throughout their preparation, asking you to select the records of interest, and set filters to select the columns of the report. If you have already created pivot tables and graphs in Excel, you will be on familiar ground. The wizard can also be based on existing reports as templates. SugarCRM merely a tool for creating reports where you select modules and define queries. The Microsoft Wizard is more easy to use and above all more effective.
While many CRM tools support Office 365 and Outlook, some of them, like Zoho CRM, are better able to integrate Google Apps ecosystem. If you primarily use Microsoft tools, CRM obviously favors interaction with other applications of the editor like no other solution. With a click of a button, you activate including integration with a SharePoint server. You can also configure Skype to directly manage telephone calls from the CRM. Dynamics Marketplace is the app store for Salesforce.com and allows you to expand the solution with tools developed by third-party publishers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM remains tight contrast to some popular software, like Quickbooks (from € 14 per month on http://quickbooks.intuit.fr ) or Zendesk. To use them, you need to install third-connectors that you find in the store, like DBSync or provide your API key in Zapier, a connector of this very popular type.
When you log in for the first time in the trial version, you are prompted to follow a video tutorial and browse help pages. These are particularly elaborate and you easily find the information you are looking for. The cat carrier is easy to access and interlocutors referrals you very correctly in the interface, always showing ready to help you. We filed a ticket for an event and were recalled in time by an assistant, who then guided us through the interface.
An excellent CRM to Microsoft ecosystem
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides excellent reporting tools and has many powerful features. The interface is clear and user-friendly, after some learning time. If you are looking for more customization possibilities, Salesforce.com Sales Cloud remains a better solution. For companies looking for a less complex system, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can also seem oversized, especially against one of the references of the genre, Zoho CRM. And Microsoft's interface remains less accessible or qu'Insightly Apptivo. But if you already have massively adopted the other tools in the Microsoft galaxy, or if you would prefer a self-hosted CRM service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is emerging as a solution of choice.
PLUS: Access off-line, tight integration with other Microsoft products, multiple dashboards, marketing tools and integrated automation
MINUS: high price, learning curve
PRICE: From € 54.78 per user per month