10-second breakdown:
A powerhouse of all things software, Microsoft Dynamics is a great CRM solution for companies of all sizes. It comes with plenty of built-in automation tools and a solid integration with Microsoft’s other products, keeping it competitive with all of the other heavy hitters in the industry.
Microsoft Dynamics is used in small (0-50 employees), medium (51-1,000 employees) and enterprise companies (1000+ employees).
The good:
A bucket load of versatile options with both the dashboard and automation with customers. Create multiple interfaces, automate emails based on the behaviors of your contacts, and heavy segmentation are just a few of the kudos going for Dynamics.
Obviously, it’s the best tool to integrate with the Microsoft Office suite of tools. If that’s you, you may already be using it.
Not so obvious are the third-party integrations that are available with the platform. Microsoft has really stepped up their game to make it easy to use the tools you love.
The bad:
The support crew can seem to be a bit impersonal, but that can come with the territory of being such a giant company (sorry, Bill).
The updates that come down are welcomed by users, but tend to be buggy during the first iteration.
How it works:
If you already use some of Microsoft’s other products you have a head start on Dynamics. It’s laid out similarly to the current Office lineup, with a toolbar up top and ribbon menu you can use. Microsoft Dynamic’s core functionality is split up among different modules. Let’s say you just ran a marketing report and now want to run a report on customer service satisfaction. You won’t see any customer service reports until you go to the main menu and switch over to the customer service module.
The bulk of the program falls under the Sales module. From there you can look up leads, view current customers, run some reports or view goals. There’s also a dashboard you can customize to your liking with any kind of charts you can think of. Starting to fill it up with a little too much? No problem, you can create as many dashboards as you like and customize each to your liking.
Reporting is one notable strength of Microsoft Dynamics, the sheer number of options could be daunting but Microsoft built in a ‘Report Wizard’ that does all of the heavy lifting for you. It’ll take you through choosing records, making filters and selecting the columns for the report. If you’re a heavy Excel user, this process might feel familiar to making pivot tables. If you run a lot of the same reports, rejoice, at the start of the wizard you can select an existing report to use as a template!
Since it’s Microsoft we’re talking about, I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear Dynamics seamlessly integrates with all of their other products like Office365, Cortana, Skype, Yammer and more. If you’re already invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise when Dynamics taps the other programs for added functionality. For instance, need to give a client a follow-up call? You have the option to open up Skype and give them a ring!
Microsoft isn’t known for giving clear prices to their products and unfortunately, Dynamics lives up to the family reputation. They offer cloud solutions and on-premises installations, the latter is completely in-house so you don’t need an internet connection for it. If you decide to go the local route, you won’t be able to find any prices online, you’re going to have to give Microsoft a call. They do offer a free trial of the cloud version, but in order to find the page skip the website, you won’t find any links, and google ‘Microsoft Dynamics Trial,’ it should be the first result. Once you find the signup form, you’re treated to a full 30-day no credit card trial that doesn’t’ cut out any features.
Things don’t get any clearer if you decide to go with the cloud version of Microsoft Dynamics, they offer a whopping 10 online packages you can choose from. All 10 are pretty different from each other, but they all fall under one of four categories, depending on how you intend to use the suite: Sales, Service, Marketing and Social.
The Sales packages are focused towards sales professionals looking to track leads and opportunities. The packages range from $50 per user per month up to $85 but the cheapest package is only available if you are already an Office 365 customer. All of these packages require 5 users minimum; they come bundled with sales tools like sales campaigns, sales automation and workflows.
Next up, the Service packages are intended for customer support specialists. They range from $65 per user per month all the way up to $200. These also require the 5 user minimum but none of the bundles come with the requirement you’re already a Microsoft 365 customer. They come packaged with useful customer service tools like a self-service portal for clients, call scripting and care surveys.
Microsoft’s marketing packages are a little more pricey, ranging from $125 per user per month up to $200 and beyond if you add extras. Not all of the plans require the 5 user minimum though so if your marketing team is small this could be the right option for you. These packages come bundled with handy marketing tools like lead management, marketing resource management and marketing intelligence.
The Social package is probably the closest to a ‘normal’ CRM package that you’re going to get. There’s only one package at $65 per user per month and while not exceptional, it’s a well-rounded plan including workflows and approvals, customer service automation, sales campaigns and more.
It might not be the cheapest option out there, but Microsoft Dynamics gives you bang for your buck with a great interface, tons of reporting tools and loads of automation features. It can scale with you as you grow, making it one of the best CRM systems out there regardless of your company size!
For complete rankings of all CRM software, go here.
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