Cloud based CRMs (Dynamics CRM v.s. Salesforce) -Part 2

As promised in my last article (Part-1) here is the next version. You can find part-1 down below this page.

Reports and Dashboards

Microsoft had a pre-developed reporting engine within SQL Server called SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Therefore, they made an understandable decision to use SSRS as the CRM reporting engine rather than creating CRM-specific. To utilize SQL and SSRS with in CRM, Microsoft built the integration between the CRM application and the SSRS. On the other hand, in absence of its own reporting engine Salesforce built its reporting engine from scratch and then leveraged this creation.  Salesforce reports don’t offer One-Click drill down. Salesforce reports has a lag of 30-60 minutes

There were 25 types of pre-build reports are provided by Dynamics CRM. Simple to normal reports can be created by native report Wizard provided with in CRM. The complex reports can be created using SSRS and then it can be imported with in CRM. Microsoft CRM claims almost real time dashboard data and Microsoft CRM Online reports and dashboards offer One-Click drill down. 

Microsoft CRM allows for unlimited dashboard data refreshes. On the other hand Salesforce doesn’t allow unlimited data refreshes and it has a limit of 200 refreshes.

Microsoft doesn’t offer scheduled reports or dashboards and if this feature is required it needs to be implemented from scratch or using a third party integration.

Microsoft CRM offers Inline Analytics with dashboards and report whereas Salesforce does not have a parallel offering.

Salesforce users can click on a static image of a chart to pull up the full report. From the full report they can drill down with multiple clicks where as in 4 clicks user gets the insight in Microsoft CRM

Browser User Experience  

Microsoft Dynamics CRM older version were having a lot of pop-ups (A new browser window each time a record was selected within the current browser window) however Microsoft reduced the number of new browser windows or tabs that open during navigation and with new version i.e. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 new browser windows are almost not there when a user navigates from record to record. The Administrative section still has the old ribbon interface & that still opens the new browsers. Hopefully we will get them off too in next major release (Expected in 2015).

On the other hand Salesforce is design is based on single window & it doesn’t open any pop-up/new window. On selection of a record or link, application replaces the same page in the same window irrespective the current browser window with whichever view or record is selected within that window. If a user wants to open a new browser window or tab, he needed for any specific action, should be opened in new tab using “Open link in a new tab” feature of browser.

Outlook User Experience

Microsoft Dynamics CRM works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and users need not to open the CRM instance in browser separately. It works well inside the outlook as native application. Users can work of line in outlook client and later data can be synced when connectivity resumes. To read more bout

On the other hand as Outlook is third party application for Salesforce and they have done a lot of effort integrating with outlook. Salesforce for outlook doesn’t work in offline mode.

The integration is not as smooth as MSCRM-Outlook. It is very challenging for Salesforce to reach the level of usability provided by MS CRM.

Upgrades and Updates

Microsoft’s traditional approach is to release major versions after every few years & the new release again requires new purchases with new licensing terms and conditions. One example is that of Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010 and Office 2013. Microsoft CRM originally inherited this company-wide approach, with a version progression of 1.0 to 3.0 to 4.0 to 2011and now 2013. With all major releases customers needed to go through a significant upgrade process to move to the next version with new purchases. The recent version release of Dynamics CRM 2013 has been an exception where users doesn’t have to pay anything extra for new version but again it was a forceful upgrade to its online customers with some time frame. Organizations have to take help of CRM implementers and to pay some handsome amount for this upgrade. Microsoft has not yet reached the point where no action is required by customers/organization and this creates a big concern while taking decision to go Dynamics CRM.

Salesforce.com releases 3 times in a year that is based on season’s also known as seasonal releases (winter, spring, and summer). Each seasonal release of Salesforce adds bunch of new features and functionality. Yet with rare exceptions, new releases do not require any preparation on the part of customers. It is a big relief for customers as well as to the organizations. Change is not easy to customers & this mantra gives an edge to SFDC.

Uptime guarantee

Microsoft offers a guaranteed uptime with a 99.9% financially backed service level agreement for its online CRM solution. This is a great way to provide peace of mind for customers, especially larger organizations that rely more heavily on their CRM software.

On the other hand there is no SLA from Salesforce about uptime even they claim it about 99%. Historical server status can be checked at http://trust.salesforce.com/trust/status  This delivers both uptime/downtime visibility as well as transparency

With the same promise I am leaving now that I will be publishing the next part of it soon with more insights. I hope you liked the information. Please feel free to send me the feedback.

Happy Learning :)

Thanks,
Javed Nehal Jamali