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Is microsoft dynamics crm 4.0 a good crm system?
How's the user interface? Does it integrate with Outlook? Is it easy to use?
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12 Answers
Negatives of Dynamics
compared to the other major players, it's a relatively immature product (There was no version 2.0 and version 1.0 was generally noted as insufficient to merit consideration as a true CRM), but, it is now a true CRM system, just still a bit early in the product lifecycle
Lots of screens - the classic example that is often referenced is a task to call somebody.. ...the number you need to call is not on the Task and requires additional windows. This may have been fixed but it suggests that the Windows-Based UI model can get a bit convoluted
CRM from an Xbox Maker - Microsoft is a lot of great things but, unlike their main competitors, they will never be a "CRM Publisher". So, you will have to accept being a part of one of their lesser revenue streams (and working with a CRM Manufacturer that's learning as they go)
The Stack - Dynamics CRM is not just Dynamics CRM. It's Dynamics, VB, Sharepoint, etc. Just be sure you know what else you have to have to have Dynamics (This may not be true of their cloud model but I'm not sure, you'd have to check.
The positives
It's microsoft - Same people will say that this is actually bad but there's a certain amount of comfort in knowing your CRM publisher can drop 50 mill on a product and not care if they are turning a profit.
They care about it - Given the HUGE marketing push they put out a few years ago, it's pretty clear Microsoft is committed to making something out of Dynamics.
They're improving it - how much, I can't say, but they are definitely pushing out enhancements (I think the update cycle is 12 months, not 100% sure though)
The inbetweens
Don't base your purchase of Dynamics on it's integration with the Office Suite. I can rattle off a dozen CRM applications that integrate well with the office suite. That should be your multi-thousand dollar purchasing criteria.
Be clear on your data model and measure that against the out-of-box system design and customization abilities of your canidates
Carrying costs - This is isn't just financial. Find out what you care to manage, what you care to pay somebody else to manage and how much you're willing to pay for both. That will allow you to walk backwards to determine what you can realistically get from the various CRM candidates you are choosing between.
Good luck and know that CRM as a whole has come a LONG way in the last 5 years. Also, do yourself a favor and consider 3-5 applications and take your time to make sure you make an informed decision. Don't lock in and get trapped in the long term.
I worked with Microsoft Dynamix CRM few years ago and recently tested it Online. As all features is easy to find due to unbelievable MS pushing, let me discribe some of negative opinion.
1. UI. It really distracts with fragmented information. I would say Dynamix CRM is useless for general purposes. Really!
2. Integration with Outlook virtually ends with possibility to see a common tree of folders. Not very usefull feature indeed. Design of windows, forms etc., workplace and style of work are completelly different. In my opinion SugarCRM is more familiar to work with Outlook than Dynamix in terms of clearer task-separation.
3. Well, it depends. It is useless to start with from scratch. First you have to set your CRM strategy, very carefully go throw design of business processess, prepare good implementing project, implement and test. Then you might expect really great easy to use tool. In case of any mistake (yours or implementer's) I don't think you will see easy of use product ;)
Most of the top small business CRM systems, Act, Goldmine, Microsoft, are all good systems that integrate with Outlook and are easy to use. All have good Contact Management at appointment features, but today you should look for your CRM system to be more then an appoinment book. It should integrate with your back office data to give your sales team real time access to customer and item information. It should also provide you wilth the abilty to work with Internet Marketing sites such as Vertical Response, to help you grow your business through email campaigns and web marketing.
I've been implementing Dynamics CRM since it launched in 2003. It is now on V4.0 and is a very mature product. In answer to your questions:
The user interface is excellent - pure Microsoft and easy to use in both Web and Outlook modes.
Yes it is 100% Microsoft Outlook compliant - it adds a set of folders to your traditional inbox that focus and open forms on Accounts, contacts, Opportunities etc.
Is it easy to use. Yes very.
Hi Dan, I would say that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 can be a good CRM system depending upon your requirements. (I'd be rash to say that it's the best CRM system for your business without knowing anything about your business). I'd say that if you have less than 10 users, it's generally difficult to justify the expense and complexity.
The user interface involves a lot of pop-up forms. Some users like this because they can have many records open at once. Others find out they have 15 windows open and get a little lost. A lot of users comment that it takes a lot of clicks to achieve a task. But the look and feel is OK, much better than most traditional CRM systems, but not very Web 2.0 either.
The Outlook integration is definitely the best available on the market today. You would expect that from Microsoft, and you won't be disappointed. It might not integrate exactly how your business needs it to, but 90% of customers buy Microsoft Dynamics CRM because of it's strong Outlook integration.
However, I'd say that overall, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not that easy to use. There are many ways to achieve the same task which can be confusing. It's not very intuitive, so a training course is usually recommended. The complete user training course covering the entire suite of features is four days long, but a custom basic user training session is a couple of hours. It's a powerful, complex system. It's got lots of features. There are lots of good books, videos, white papers, guides, partners, add-ons, online forums and user groups so you'll be supported by a vibrant community.
Long-term customers keep asking for more features, but new customers find it overwhelming (sending an invoice to a customer, for example, is amazingly complicated). While Microsoft has to balance these competing requirements there is plenty of business for consultants (like me) to earn a living helping companies implement and adopt Microsoft Dynamics CRM. If you want a system that you can implement and adopt without getting some consulting assistance, stick to a simple, hosted contact management or CRM system instead.
I'm working with a competitor of Microsoft, and I would recommend you to have a look at SuperOffice.
SuperOffice CRM is one of the leading CRM vendors in Europe, and we've won several prizes competing against Microsoft. The last prize we won, we actually scored higher than Microsoft CRM when it came to integration with MS Office. We also achieved the highest score on user friendliness among our competitors.
See the full test here: http://www.superoffice.com/Settings/Content/Best-in-test/
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.
Hello Trevor,
Not only is Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 a good CRM system but it goes far beyond that with its xRM capabilities. The user interface is very easy to use and it has seemless integration with Microsoft Outlook. Dynamics CRM can be deployed On-premise or with CRM Online and is therefore quite flexible.
For a "cute" xRM definition video, go here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yru5CkANOKA.
Many xRM Extensions/Accelorators are also available for Dynamics CRM including the world's 1st web content management system for Dynamics CRM - http://www.adxstudio.com/news/web-cms-for-dynamics-crm. Here is some information on a few additional Extensions - http://www.adxstudio.com/xrm-extensions.
A web portal built on Dynamics CRM provides you with the ability to track and store your many client interactions that take place via the web. Here is a short video that demonstrates how easy it is to publish web content using CRM as your platform - http://www.adxstudio.com/demonstrations/xrm-cms-video.
All the best!
Rod
http://www.adxstudio.com/corporate/contact-us
Hi,
I am working as functional consultant on MS CRM 4.0 from past 2 years.
Advantages:
Apart from integration with Outlook it can also be integrated very easily with other microsoft products like Bizztalk Server,Share point etc.
Workflows are very robust and any non developer can also create a efficient business logic through workflows
Plug ins can be used for both synchronous and asynchronous behaviour
Micorsoft keep on releasing accelerators which can be downloaded free of cost and can be integrated in your system. For e.g Portal,Social networking etc.The code can be modified according to bussiness units
Disadvantages:
There are no separate modules like pharma , Retail management e.t.c.But as it is termed xcrm with the knowledge of .Net it can be made like that
For any details you can contact me on
garg.rohit1982@gmail.com
Hi Dan,
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be easily integrated with Outlook and the interface is also very familiar for Microsoft users.
Now coming to the ease of use- it can be judged on two criteria
- 1st and the most important for any business application software- How the - process flow of the business application matches with your own organization's process flow?
- and 2nd how the interface it? (already I have given the answer)
Now coming to the 1st and the most important criteria, If you are talking about going ahead with similar process flow of provided CRM with few changed fields and workflows where you are also not expecting your team size to increase more in the future (will be expensive with per user charges) then MS CRM is really one of the good options.
But if you are searching for an business application which will adapt itself with your business process rather than asking your organization to change your best practices, then I will say that this would be a very expensive venture for you to go ahead with the suggested application. In that case I would suggest you to go ahead with more flexible as well as cost effective application like SugarCRM. In addition of this adaptability, it also provides you the flexibility on the vendor side where there is no vendor locking as such. There are various plugins for Outlook integration with SugarCRM and this application comes with very attractive interface too.
If you need more details about it you can reach me @
chandan@penguincrm.com
Follow us on
Twitter: http://twitter.com/penguincrm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PenguinCRM
Hi Dan,
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be easily integrated with Outlook and the interface is also very familiar for Microsoft users.
Now coming to the ease of use- it can be judged on two criteria
- 1st and the most important for any business application software- How the - process flow of the business application matches with your own organization's process flow?
- and 2nd how the interface it? (already I have given the answer)
Now coming to the 1st and the most important criteria, If you are talking about going ahead with similar process flow of provided CRM with few changed fields and workflows where you are also not expecting your team size to increase more in the future (will be expensive with per user charges) then MS CRM is really one of the good options.
But if you are searching for an business application which will adapt itself with your business process rather than asking your organization to change your best practices, then I will say that this would be a very expensive venture for you to go ahead with the suggested application. In that case I would suggest you to go ahead with more flexible as well as cost effective application like SugarCRM. In addition of this adaptability, it also provides you the flexibility on the vendor side where there is no vendor locking as such. There are various plugins for Outlook integration with SugarCRM and this application comes with very attractive interface too.
If you need more details about it you can reach me @
chandan@penguincrm.com
Follow us on
Twitter: http://twitter.com/penguincrm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PenguinCRM
MS CRM is a good system. But integration to Outlook is different then being built inside of Outlook. You should take a quick look at SalesOutlook for a 100% built inside of Outlook CRM with lower cost. http://www.salesoutlook.com
Hi Dan,
Kindly requested by Trevor, here I tranferred my ansver from http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=143...
Thanx to Donna's link I just tested the tool. Here my short opinion from experienced user point of view:
1. Completelly inconvenient interface. It is quite elegant for implementator but terribly waisting sales&marketing rep's concentration. Higher-valued workers from S&M worth significantly more ergonomic tool. Might be OK for back-office.
2. No way for quick start. Do to very complicated and interconnected set of features it neads long lasting and carefull analysis of business-processes inside the company, projecting, implementing, testing, etc. before use. Othervice it would just suck time and energy of your Sales Forces.
3. If you own quite big company and want to re-design your internal CRM strategy, Microsoft Dynamix CRM might be an option with huge possibilities and flexibility. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it due to big risk of project failure.
May be this tool is more suitable for back-office, but I am not strong in that area and see significantly lower demand in a market. Sorry for being kind of too strict in opinion :)
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