Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reviews

I have been working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for five or six years for various customers.

I work with CRM and some amount of Microsoft communication server to integrate it. I focus on the area of contact center digital conversations and integration.

The ability to integrate with different systems in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is good, as we can create a decent customer 360 view, though the same capability is available from Salesforce, so that's not a big differentiator. When we work with Microsoft technologies and use the full stack, it is quite seamless to integrate various Microsoft components with Dynamics.

I do some configurations for sales processes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but mostly for Sales Cloud, as most of our customers prefer Salesforce over Microsoft's stack.

We have done some analytics from the perspective of the customer experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, including sentiment analytics and other areas such as quality of service and operational KPIs.

The integration with the Microsoft suite, such as Office 365 and SharePoint, offers significant benefits for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, as ninety percent of organizations are already on the Microsoft suite, leading to quick integration and system setup. It's pretty easy to integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Office 365 and Power BI.

With the Microsoft suite of products, they work together logically and well, but when we have extra systems or technologies that are not Microsoft, a lot of engineering or architectural effort is required to achieve integration.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM doesn't provide solutions that allow you to transform easily if you have a heterogeneous mix of technologies or if your contact center is on analog and you try to digitize it. A lot of custom work is needed if you have to integrate heterogeneous technologies with the Microsoft suite, but if you are using the Microsoft suite, then it's quite seamless.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM should add commercial models that allow smaller companies to use it because it can get pretty expensive. Better commercial options for smaller implementations may be helpful.

There should be commercial options for smaller companies, as the overheads and costs of Dynamics can be quite high.

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for five or six years.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is pretty stable overall, though there have been instances where issues with Microsoft Azure have affected Dynamics due to the infrastructure layer. Other than that, it is as stable as competing solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is scalable; it's easy to scale, but when customizations become extensive, maintainability can become challenging. However, if you follow best practices, it's fine.

I'm not from the operations team and haven't been in touch with Microsoft support regarding Dynamics CRM, but my customers say Microsoft is supportive of any problems they encounter.

Neutral

We use Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot, but not Microsoft.

I'm not a technology implementer, so for an expert, it's easy to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but I'm not the right person to answer that question.

It's a mixed bag regarding ROI for Microsoft Dynamics CRM; some customers want to use out-of-the-box solutions and are willing to pay extra for Microsoft assurance of high-quality technology. However, many customers feel the overheads of cost and ROI are not present, prompting them to consider migrating out of Microsoft Dynamics CRM or minimizing their footprint to manage costs effectively, especially in sectors such as banking and airline.

I recommend that those considering Microsoft Dynamics CRM conduct an ROI exercise to determine scalability and complex business needs because it is indeed a fantastic tool, especially if Microsoft can provide a better commercial model, which can significantly impact cost-effectiveness—there can literally be a 10x to 15x cost difference.

It can literally be a 10 times or 15 times cost difference, and the benefits are there if your business is complex enough.

As a tool, Microsoft Dynamics CRM's analytics feature is comparable to other tools in the market, but it depends on the domain experience and business experience of the team working on it to leverage it correctly for the customer's needs. Although it is a good tool, it is costly, and there are open-source technologies available unless it's an enterprise large use case in which we can leverage that.

We will use either CRM Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM, leveraging Microsoft communication server to integrate digital communications, sentiment analytics, voice analytics, and intelligent chatbots, focusing on creating a customer experience solution that encompasses conversational AI as well as back-office solutions.

If you have a heterogeneous mix of technologies or if your contact center is on analog and you try to digitize it, Microsoft Dynamics CRM doesn't provide solutions that allow you to transform easily. A lot of custom work is needed if you have to integrate heterogeneous technologies with the Microsoft suite, but if you are using the Microsoft suite, then it's quite seamless.

On a scale from one to ten, I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM an eight.

Before, I was working on the on-premises version, and then when it shifted to the cloud-based version, I transitioned to working on the cloud-based version with multiple clients.

I have worked on Microsoft Dynamics CRM with multiple clients and multiple use cases. Recently I am working with a UAE company on a UAE government project where we are creating an HR-based solution for their company. We are also working on their customer engagement implementation in a different scenario where they need to do booking for yards. We have implemented that as well, implemented chatbots, implemented Kiosk apps, and integrated multiple mobile applications with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I am mostly working on marketing and customer engagement modules, with some side work on chatbots and Omni-channel as well. These are smaller projects that I have been working on in parallel.

Analytics features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are also good. When we are implementing chatbot and Co-pilot with Microsoft Dynamics CRM on their Omni-channels where we have to analyze all the incoming data from different multiple social media platforms, WhatsApp, Facebook, or anything else, and then create proper reporting on the dashboard with proper analytical reports using analytics. It is good, but sometimes it is laggy or crashy or just hangs. Sometimes it does lag and is a little bit buggy. But it works most of the time very fine, but sometimes it gets laggy. I think that might be an issue of the API link being down or something like that, but sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get the graphs ready. However, it is a very good option where I personally design dashboards using mostly pie charts and bar charts for the client side. I can give a proper generic report to the clients and for pre-sales, which I have done in multiple projects. So it is a very good selling point for the clients. We can know how many clients we are having and how much data flow we are having. We can explain to them from which channel and where they are getting the higher footsteps into their business, whether it is their social media accounts, their website, or their walk-in customers. The analytics part is a very good helpful part as well because this is the main thing that interests mostly the top tier management of any company.

The management can see the complete sales, profit, quarterly profit, investment, stock left, and all those things that we can manage here. Specifically we were working on a Telco project for Malaysia for a Telco company. We created them a complete product catalog on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The product catalog was handling it very well as we were creating multiple small configurations of the business rules such as this promotion going on for the airtime and this promotion going on for products. The management was able to see that a certain age group of people were interested and what age group wanted what type of cellular products. So it is a very helpful tool as well.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there are areas that can be improved or enhanced. A little bit of an issue that we face is the layout or implementation and a little bit of improvement that needs to be done is similar to what Sitecore offers. In Sitecore when we create, we can just create a UI in the HTML and then implement Sitecore on that. There should be a feature like that on Microsoft Dynamics CRM as well because there are a few clients in the Middle East region or African region that I have encountered who required a specific graphically intense UI for their Microsoft Dynamics CRM or the CRM portal. We have to tell them that this is a limitation and we cannot do that. There should be something similar to what we do for Sitecore as an improvement. Because it is too basic of a UI as a user experience for that, and mostly the clients have to go for those basic color schemes that are provided and play along with the theme of the client's color palette so that we can do the color coding. There should be a little bit of a UI element attached so that we can create either a UI UX environment on HTML or something like that or CSS and then employ it on the UI.

Marketing automation and the marketing module in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is viable. For me personally working on that, I have not done much, only a couple of projects on the marketing module, but mostly I have been working on customer engagement, sales, and Omni-channels. The marketing module is a good option as well. We can have all those multiple threads working on and those are attached to the whole business flow that is working on.

The most valuable thing about Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the integration and the applicability. It is much easier to adopt, and configuration is also much easier. It does not need a lot of technicality. Being a person with a software engineer background, if I am going to give a normal walkthrough of the product and how they can do the configuration, the configuration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, customer engagement or any other module that we are implementing on the client side, is easier. We can guide them easily and they can adopt it and they can create small business rules or specific rules for use case scenarios or business rules that need to run hourly or fortnightly or something like that. They can do that as well without needing to create a specific change request for that if they are attentive during the training when we are providing it.

The sales process tools in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are good as well because when we are implementing the customer engagement or any other module there, sales have also been implemented because when the order journey is created, it always starts with the customer engagement or something like that and ends up in the sales module. It is a good module, and prior to this, we had to go with Finance and Operations. But now Microsoft Dynamics CRM is also capable enough that it can create all those calculations on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM side. Before that, it was handled in Finance and Operations. The options and capability that we have on the front end side of Microsoft Dynamics CRM allow us to create a proper invoicing channel, a proper invoice, and a proper receipt with proper taxation. It is a very good initiative that it has done. Before that, around five to six years back when it was not handled in Microsoft Dynamics CRM side, it was handled in Finance and Operations, the ERP module.

Regarding scalability, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has good high potential. I can rate it around 7.5 or 8 out of 10 because it is all about the technical knowledge and being a functional consultant and techno-functional consultant of a product. But from a layman's perspective, it might be different because for a layman, it might seem to be limited software unless any professional consultant is with them and explaining how the modules are working and who has the professional capabilities to tell them what the capability of that specific module is and how scalable it is and how we can implement it. There was a client I had to handle and I had to tell him to opt for multiple modules, for which he was very hesitant and he was very upset. I had to tell him that the marketing module is going to affect him in a different way, the sales module is going to affect him in a different way, and other modules are going to affect him in a different way, so they will be more profitable for him in the longer term. But it is very difficult to explain these things to Middle Eastern people. They are too furious. That is a very hectic situation. At the end, what my team and I are doing is we have them opt for customer engagement, for example, if the main business relies on the customer engagement module, then we just focus on customer engagement. We build the things for the client for the customer engagement. We have to write multiple custom codes and different things on JavaScript and all to do those specific tasks that can be done easily on the other modules because the client is not willing to go for multiple licenses sometimes. These are the things we have to cater, but having a good team with heavy skill set, it is easy to achieve the deadlines. Sometimes there are times that it is a really hectic situation to achieve those deadlines, especially when there are many public holidays going on or some religious holidays going on because my team consists of multiple people with different religious backgrounds and multiple nationalities. Especially during this time of the year from November till June, I have multiple challenges.

Analytics features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are good. When we are implementing chatbot and Co-pilot with Microsoft Dynamics CRM on their Omni-channels where we have to analyze all the incoming data coming from different multiple social media platforms, WhatsApp, Facebook, or anything else, and then create proper reporting on the dashboard with proper analytical reports using analytics. It is good, but sometimes it is laggy or crashy or just hangs. Sometimes it does lag and is a little bit buggy. But it works most of the time very fine, but sometimes it gets laggy. I think that might be an issue of the API link being down or something like that, but sometimes it takes time to get the graphs ready. However, it is a very good option where I personally design dashboards using mostly pie charts and bar charts for the client side. I can give a proper generic report to the clients and for pre-sales in multiple projects that I have done. It is a very good selling point for the clients. We can know how many clients we are having and how much data flow we are having. We can explain to them from which channel and where they are getting the higher footsteps into their business, whether it is their social media accounts, their website, or their walk-in customers. The analytics part is a very good helpful part as well because this is the main thing that interests mostly the top tier management of any company.

The management can see the complete sales, what the profit is, what the quarterly profit is, what the investment is, what the stock left is, and all those things that we can manage here. Specifically we were working on a Telco project for Malaysia for a Telco company. We created them a complete product catalog on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The product catalog was handling it very well as we were creating multiple small configurations of the business rules such as this promotion going on for the airtime and this promotion going on for products. The management was able to see that a certain age group of people were interested and what age group wanted what type of cellular products. It is a very helpful tool as well.

I have been working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM for around five to six years.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is quite stable. I can rate it easily at eight or 7.5. However, I have encountered multiple issues over my past six to seven years. Once there was an issue where our whole database was corrupted. We talked earlier about how Microsoft is handling all the database. We were having some issues and I notified my Microsoft spokesperson who was aligning with me for the licenses and all. Unfortunately, we got a hit and the Microsoft servers were compromised by some sort of a hack attack. We got a penalty from our client side as well because the data was breached, but thankfully it was saved and all the data loss was prevented. However, approximately two sprints of work was lost in that incident. We were pushed back with that, but it was working fine. It is more stable now. The thing I am talking about is around two or three years back. But in the last two or three years, I have not seen anything or heard of that occurring with someone else anywhere in our organization because in our Microsoft Dynamics CRM team, we have approximately 500 people including multiple consultants and techno-consultants. I have not heard from any other project managers beside me who have seen or shared anything like that occurring.

The technical support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is very good. When we create a technical ticket for Microsoft, mostly the ETA is two to three days, but we mostly get responded to in 24 hours. I can rate it on eight.

Positive

Initially there was no setup required. But prior to this, when we had to set up our own database, it was a hectic situation. Now on Microsoft Dynamics CRM we do not need to set up the database as it is provided by Microsoft. Before that, it was a hectic situation to maintain all and have the responsibility of a database of a client side and we had to replicate it. Now that hectic or that tough responsibility of a data breach is no longer on our side. It has been taken by Microsoft because whenever we need to do the migration process, Microsoft is involved in that and does it because we do not handle it. We have to go for that as well. Microsoft is now handling all these data migrations and we just have to see the tables. Before, it was handled by us as we were creating and editing all those things and then sending them to the client. It is a different scenario now, but it is a helpful solution as well.

However, sometimes creating a demo account should have a little bit more access time because sometimes taking feedback from the client and going back to the client for that takes a lot of time, during which we were not able to move forward. It takes about two to three months of a process to do a pre-sales and sales process for us to get to the client and show the demo so that we can tell them that this module can be applicable for your business and should be looking like that. The duration period is short, and that is one problem. The second problem is I cannot use my ID repeatedly for the demo account because it is not allowing me to do so. I have to ask my company to purchase me another ID or do something about it. It takes a lot of time and is a hectic situation. But when we talk about easy and feasible things for approaching the client and creating that, I think there should be a little bit more time available so that we can create a demo for the client and pitch to them easily.

I have done that process as well. The implementation from scratch to go live, as well as the part where we were transforming the old system and importing it to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I have done multiple projects in UAE where we were transforming it from the on-premises to the cloud version. It is a very hectic situation because we have data of around millions and trillions of users' data because in the UAE, there are many footsteps and many people, as many tourists are coming and going out of the UAE. If we talk about any database that is related to the government, that is a hectic situation and we have to migrate it to the cloud. Even though I remember that there are still some projects going on in which we are transforming and still migrating the data from on-premises to cloud. We cannot do it in one single shot where we can transform all to the cloud in one go. I have also done multiple projects in which we transformed it from the Oracle-based solution to Microsoft Dynamics CRM as well, and some local-based solutions also that were transformed to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The pricing modules of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are always different. It always differs depending on the amount of users that are being used on that. We are working on the client's side mostly. I am a little bit familiar with what the estimation price is, but to be accurate for every organization or every project, it is a different scenario.

When we compare it to SAP or something like that, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a very affordable solution. If we are talking about mid-scale or large-scale companies or enterprises, they can adopt Microsoft Dynamics CRM easily. But if we are talking about a company whose revenue is under a million dollars per annum, then those companies might not go for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Other than that, those companies who are going for it are working on it. If I talk about Pakistan, multiple companies are working and have Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Most of the UAE is working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Their government companies are working, their government sector has mostly Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployed in which I was a part of. When we talk about Qatar or other Middle Eastern countries, everywhere Microsoft Dynamics CRM is opted and is working perfectly fine there. If we talk about Egypt or Africa, we are implementing it there. In New Zealand we are implementing it, in Australia we are implementing it. The adoption is good because I think the pricing is competitive enough. When the business deal is going on, Microsoft also gives them an extra type of some sort of a discount as well. I am not really part of that pricing process, so I do not know much about what pricing is quoted. I only came to know that a certain amount has to be paid annually or quarterly for the licenses and we have got a certain amount of licenses. I know at the end what is finalized, but I do not know the part where the bargain is going on or where the discussion is going on between Microsoft and the client, or whether we are handling that part regarding what the negotiations are going on. But I know at the end that amount of a license is being allocated and all. This is what the responsibility I have to go through for my project. I am handling this, but not specifically the part where the licensing is going on because there are different contracts with different clients. Some places we are renewing the license for the clients and in some scenarios, the client is directly purchasing the licenses. It all depends on the scenario and the contract which is being done with the client.

I am using SharePoint, Power BI, and Power Automate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for a very long time, I guess around three or four years. I have been working on all these integrations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because in the analytics part or in marketing module or in customer engagement module, we have to store the data files somewhere. The SharePoint integration is working there for that part where the whole data sets are being created and all the data are being saved. There are some clients that need to add and upload some photos, videos or something like that depending on the business of the client. The integration of SharePoint is working there. Regarding Office and all, we have integration of Office as well. Sometimes we need to have some documents or some contracts that need to be downloaded to the client or something like that, or if it needs signature from the client side. The integration of Microsoft Office has also been done and we have worked on that as well. As well as Outlook integration because sometimes we have to trigger specific emails with the client and all internally. All those integrations have been working on.

Everything needs a little bit of improvement. It should have more. Recently the integration of the Co-pilot is very irritating. When in any module you open, the irritating Co-pilot chatbot opens again and again without any reason and is not shutting down. Every time whenever you open a new instance or a new environment, like when I am working on the automation as well, whenever my automation is running, it is just going to be a headache for me because my automation is failing because the UI is changed and my things are not working. Whenever the new instance is opening, the Co-pilot is opening without any reason. It should not do that. I get that it is integrated, but no one wants the Co-pilot on his face every time he is opening the new instance. It is a helpful tool. I get it. It works really flawlessly fine with a lot of things. I have an enterprise license of Co-pilot. I use it daily with my project management task and creating multiple user stories and multiple QA based tasks and helping create my multiple automations and multiple codes and scripting. I am using it along with that. Even for analytical and research based things I am working on, I am using it. But sometimes I do not know why it is opening again and again. I get that every user knows that Co-pilot is integrated. But it does not need to open every time. It is integrated. If you are opening the instance or you are looking in the dashboard, you can see the button on the top right that says Co-pilot is there. But why does it need to open and take a big space and shorten my whole dashboard which is showing my complete reports and analytical reports. This feature should be something that is there and is good, but it does not need to come up on the face of the user again and again. Specifically, if you talk about Arabic people, they do not like this type of thing. They get irritated like zero to 100 in 0.1 seconds. What is this, they say. The major thing is their English is not that good. Their English is worse than my English. The pronunciation is out of the world. They say empty, and they pronounce it as MPT. If you talk to any Arabic people, they say empty in this way, MPT. I remember seven to eight years back when they were talking about things and they were saying it is MPT. I was asking my boss what is MPT. My boss says he is saying empty. He does not know how to pronounce things. So in this situation, now tell me how you are going to tell him that this Co-pilot is only a feature and you can close it. They get irritated and they say what is this, what are you doing that, it was not like that before on the prime and all. There are things that are good, but this should be, I think, something that should not be done. Co-pilot or AI is a good feature, but it should not be popping up and coming up on the user's face again and again whenever he is opening a new instance or a new environment because sometimes some people have a different temperament and adaptation. If we talk about my basic market in which I am working, the Middle East and Africa and New Zealand and Australia, mostly the people I am encountering there are not that much adaptive of those type of things. Why is it opening again. They do not like it. There is a client in New Zealand who was saying that he does not like this Co-pilot feature. I said we have not done anything. It is from Microsoft. If you want, we can disable it in the configuration there, but this cannot be removed. There are some people who do not really like it. In Middle East I have seen that there are people who are freaked out still about AI. I have gone to multiple people that they are freaked out about AI. They think that it might be taking their personal information or something like that or something like that. Whatever some people are talking about. These things we have to handle with that one. But overall, stability with it, it is 8.5 out of 10. It is good, but some features like it are implemented or something like that, but that Co-pilot thing is really a bugger if we are talking about automation and QA's perspective. We are running the automation, every time it is going to open and again and again, then we have to initially, at the end, change the script of our automation because every time it is opening and the layout is being changed again. So I just changed my script. Regarding technical support, Microsoft Team is very helpful. My overall rating for this product is 8.5 out of 10.

I use Microsoft Dynamics CRM in my day-to-day customer management tasks. Our usual use cases for Microsoft Dynamics CRM include task management and sales.

The most valuable features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are the out-of-the-box functionalities, particularly those around sales, field service, and project service, which are really good for medium customers, and the flexibility allowing users to change functionalities to fit specific business needs.

The feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM that has significantly optimized our processes is that it's an online tool and a web browser app, allowing access from anywhere, and it also comes with a mobile app, which makes it really flexible.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM needs to be improved in the visibility of add-on costs for end users, which can sometimes be tricky. On the reporting side, while there are various tools for reporting, they require some work to set up powerful reports.

I have been working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for about 10 years.

I would rate the stability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a nine since I'm not sure a ten exists in this industry; it's a stable solution.

Depending on the processes you master with this tool, it's not a cheap tool and usually not meant for small businesses. The bigger the businesses, the higher availability they need, and Microsoft guarantees 99% uptime as part of the Azure Cloud, so it is pretty stable.

I would rate the scalability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a nine. At this point, we don't have plans to increase the usage of Microsoft Dynamics CRM based on its scaling capabilities because we're fine.

We don't use technical support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM very much, and while I think it's good, I wouldn't say it's great.

Sometimes the technical support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not qualified enough, and in some situations, we know the tool better than they do. This might be because we ask hard questions or because there are many tools in the Dynamics CRM area, and we're not always dealing with specialists in the field.

I would rate the support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a seven.

Positive

I did not use a different solution for these use cases before Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

I participated in the initial setup and deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM as an app is really simple because it's provided as a service, so there's no actual installation per se. You create your account, buy the account, and have it online and working, but the complexity depends on the add-ons you want to install and how they fit with existing processes.

You need to have a certain set of skills to go further with the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and that's usually not something that customers can do by themselves.

We don't use the help of a third-party consultant, integrator, or reseller because we are a third party.

I participated in the decision-making process before choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM about 10 years ago when there were not very many options on the table since the decision was for our future business, and we intended to use this tool for internal jobs as well.

I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Dynamics CRM around a six, but that's not easy to determine because licensing is not simple, and I'm not part of that team. I think it's rather expensive, and I don't know much about prices from similar tools from different providers.

We had challenges around time reports and how our colleagues should log time, and with this tool, we definitely got a grip on it.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM does integrate AI to enhance our customer management processes. We use the AI capabilities with the sales team. The AI capabilities change every six months, and what's available now is different from last year, so they are constantly evolving. While we're happy with the tools we have now, I can't predict what the future holds for us in that area.

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM an eight out of ten.

The primary use case for Microsoft Dynamics CRM was in a banking scenario. I used it to house end-to-end customer data and to harness its features to provide customer support and enhanced sales tracking and forecasting.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM allowed us to house end-to-end customer data and use its features to provide customer support.

One of the valuable features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its intuitive interface that allows customizations, enabling me to tailor views and menus according to my day-to-day needs. Additionally, the collaboration features, backend storage integration with OneDrive, and the security features, including Azure integration, 2FA, and reporting audit trails, are also notable. Its ability to offer a customizable experience by allowing me to define what I see and interact with daily is beneficial, particularly in comparison to more rigid systems. The backend storage integrates seamlessly with OneDrive, and the solution offers robust security features, including Azure integration, two-factor authentication (2FA), and comprehensive audit trails.

One area that could be improved is the training side. More use-case-oriented material should be provided to help users and implementers learn how to do more, faster. The existing material on the Learn portal is often generic, which may not be as effective. Also, simplifying backend scripting could enhance usability, although this is not a significant complaint.

I have used Microsoft Dynamics CRM on and off over a couple of years, with approximately three to five years of experience.

The stability of the solution is high. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is highly scalable, rated at ten, even fifteen out of ten. However, it's important to be mindful of licensing costs.

I would rate customer support as ten out of ten. There is significant local support, and partners are readily available to assist.

Positive

Before Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we used an in-house built solution, which was retired in favor of Microsoft’s offering.

The initial setup was straightforward, especially since we used the SaaS version. It was seamless because our organization was already on Azure plus Office 365, making adding Microsoft Dynamics CRM a no-brainer.

The pricing of Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be complex due to Microsoft's complicated licensing model. Although it remains competitive, improper deployment can lead to significant cost increases.

Based on my experience, I would rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM at 7.5 out of ten. While there are excellent competing solutions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has caught up well in the market and taken over a substantial market share. I recommend it for small, medium, large, and even extremely large organizations due to its easy integration with almost anything.

Neutral

The use cases are for HR management, resource management, project insight, and timesheet management. It is mostly connected with people and resource management.

The deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easy because it's a software as a service, which eliminates the need to deploy anything in our data center. It has improved the verification of value streams by mapping projects to products and demonstrating the total cost of ownership. This automation significantly impacts daily operations by reducing the time spent on manual tasks and improving the quality and delivery time.

The features that have significantly improved effectiveness are the verification of value streams, mapping to products, total cost of ownership, and automation, which improves time delivery and quality.

The UI/UX needs improvement as it is not intuitive from day one. It becomes intuitive once learned, however, it should be less complex initially.

I've been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for about one year in the current organization.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a stable solution, with reliability rated at nine out of ten.

The scalability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is rated at eight out of ten, indicating it could be more scalable but is generally satisfactory.

Microsoft provides very helpful support from the beginning. They are responsive and offer good assistance with problems.

Positive

We previously used different ERP systems. Now we mainly use Microsoft Dynamics 365. Existing Microsoft products facilitate better integration.

For deployment and operation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a software as a service, everything was up and running in about four days, including testing for disaster recovery. It required integrating and migrating data, which went smoothly.

The deployment involved around five people, including two analysts, two engineers, and one architect.

Better time to market and better visibility into cost has been a financial benefit for the company.

Pricing could be improved, as I rated it a six out of ten for affordability. There are no extra expenses post-purchase.

We also considered SAP, yet chose Microsoft for its integrated ecosystem and better talent availability.

I would recommend Microsoft Dynamics CRM due to its good ecosystem and ease of onboarding employees, which are supported by the known Microsoft environment.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use the solution as a policy management system. 

For me, the most helpful functionalities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are customer engagement, contact management, opportunity management, and order management. The service management features, including ticket management and handling complaints from the call center, are also very useful. One of the key benefits is the faster time to market, as it allows for quicker product delivery and better customer management. The tool also improves customer interaction through the service center, leading to better adherence to KPIs.

The tool should be micro-services-based. If it's not already implemented, the architecture could be enhanced by transitioning to a microservices-based model. This would allow each module to be managed independently, reducing downtime and enabling teams to work autonomously on specific services.

Additionally, incorporating AI capabilities would be beneficial, particularly for predicting customer churn and enhancing customer analytics. AI could provide deeper insights into customer behavior and improve decision-making processes.

I suggest implementing customer satisfaction management with sentiment analysis to capture customer satisfaction and ratings. This would help predict whether a customer will stay or leave and if they are happy or unhappy. Adding AI-driven customer segmentation and marketing would enable more effective targeting of specific customer segments. Incorporating predictive analytics could forecast customer behavior and market trends. Additionally, making the product catalog AI-driven would assist in suggesting and building better products based on market activity and customer analysis.

I have been working with the product for over two years. 

Moving to the cloud offers advantages for stability and reliability. The cloud provides high availability, meaning if one part of the system fails, another can take over. This ensures better scalability, reliability, and resiliency.

The tool is scalable. Cloud architecture supports unlimited vertical and horizontal scalability, which is a significant advantage. However, if it is run on a standalone data center without cloud support, scalability might be limited, requiring additional servers and infrastructure.

In my experience, they are quite responsive if you opt for premium support from Microsoft. They typically respond within twenty-four hours. There are different levels of support, and for large enterprises, premium support is usually the best choice. This option provides 24/7 support and is highly rated in the industry. 

The tool's deployment is simple. I’m more of an architect and focus on designing solutions rather than implementing them. It should be, if it’s not already microservices-based for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Also, making it cloud-based and containerized would simplify deployment and speed up the process. Deploying the product shouldn’t take ages; a serverless architecture would be beneficial.

The solution is expensive. 

Integrating the tool with other systems is generally not a problem because many integration platforms are now API-driven. It should be API-based and expose a lot of APIs for integration with other systems. Some API platforms today, like API gateways, can aggregate systems that expose APIs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM does expose some APIs, but this needs to be analyzed in more detail. Ideally, it should be completely API-driven, with no custom coding needed unless necessary. It should be out-of-the-box functionality that allows for plug-and-play integration.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is best suited for large enterprises. Big companies use it in the insurance, financial, and sometimes telecom sectors. Due to its high pricing, small and medium-sized businesses may find it less suitable. 

The main competitors vary by industry. The tool is not a top choice for telecommunications because domain knowledge is crucial, and a CRM like Siebel might be a better fit. However, in the finance, insurance, and manufacturing sectors, Microsoft Dynamics CRM performs well and is competitive. When it comes to cost, it is often more competitive compared to Siebel or other CRM solutions. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. 

The good thing is that the solution integrates with most of the Microsoft tools, and it becomes easier for us to navigate through. It's quite an easy solution, and the business people can easily understand it. Since the CRM itself is integrated with emails, WhatsApp, and SMS gateways, it has multiple channels. Since it's all integrated, it becomes easier. Microsoft Teams meetings are integrated into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the campaign feature. The solution's campaign feature allows you to collate a group of customers and the frequency of email notifications sent to them. You can put an advertising budget for a series of customers, whereby high net-worth individuals will be marketed for high-end products.

Low-end customers will be in a different campaign. So, we run campaigns on different sectors of customers.

One of the solution's good features is integration because it directly integrates with Microsoft tools. Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams are built into it. The solution gives a varied network of text and email gateways, which are already integrated and come with the package.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM would be far superior if it had an analytical dashboard and AI-based systems. The solution doesn't have a lot of AI-based systems, like automatically scanning through the network and giving feedback. The solution does not have an analytics dashboard. It has a dashboard, but that's not highly analytical.

The solution’s stability could be improved.

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for eight months.

The solution is not very, very stable because sometimes it has to be rebooted or restarted. Stability issues happen when there's a peak load or when too many users start bombarding the system.

I rate the solution a six out of ten for stability.

The solution's scalability is good for small and mid sized sectors. People don't use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for large enterprises. Around 28 to 30 users are using the solution in our organization.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for scalability.

The solution's technical support is quite good. We get answers from the technical support team within 12 to 24 hours.

Positive

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup seven and a half to eight out of ten.

The solution's deployment takes somewhere between 15 to 45 days.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a little expensive solution. The solution is not very economical for small-scale and mid-scale businesses. Microsoft should lower the per-user cost for the solution. My customers pay approximately $3,000 a month for the solution.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing from seven and a half to eight out of ten.

We also evaluated HubSpot, which is a better AI tool, but it's quite expensive. I loved HubSpot because it's AI-driven, far more advanced, and has a good user interface. However, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the tool that fits our bill.

The marketing automation feature within Microsoft Dynamics CRM is very standard. It does nothing great because most other CRMs also do the same thing.

The solution is good and versatile for simple workflows, but we face problems with complicated workflows. We prefer using very simple workflows, and we have to manually manage the solution for complicated workflows.

The initial configuration, which involves collecting data and putting up the master data, takes most of the time. The solution is very easy to install. Gathering company-wide and business data from different departments and putting them in takes a lot of time.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a very good tool for small-scale organizations with around 50 users using a lot of Microsoft tools and not using too much analytics or artificial intelligence. The solution integrates very well and is easier to use. Within the limitations, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a good tool. The moment you start scaling above 40 to 50 users, you need to consider other solutions like Salesforce or HubSpot.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use the solution to manage the lead sales pipeline and enable the marketing department to maintain customer data.

The CRM is very fast, which is the most important aspect, and it's very handy. I have implemented some good automation. The cost should be more flexible for smaller organizations. I can add multiple custom fields. I can also create fields and customize them according to my needs.

Costing might be a reason for concern. It could be an issue for the organization, or maybe not. It's uncertain.

Currently, I am not using it, but in the past, I used it for about a year.

I didn't face any issues. There were no downtimes, and I don't think I encountered any problems.

I would rate scalability around seven.

I haven't contacted customer service, but as I mentioned, I am already a gold partner of Microsoft. If there are any problems, I manage without their support.

Neutral

Previously, I used Dynamics, but it did not suit me, so I changed the CRM last year. I am a Microsoft Gold Partner, which is why I used Microsoft Dynamics. However, it wasn't feasible, so I switched to a local provider.

The migration was not easy. I wouldn't say that everything was simple.

I was not the one responsible for the migration. It was handled by upper management.

I changed it to a local provider.

The decisions will be made by management. I recommend using Microsoft Dynamics if the budget allows. The CRM is very fast, with customization and integration options, and easy migration. Everyone should try it if it is feasible for the organization. Overall, I would give this solution a rating of eight out of ten.

We use the solution for sales productivity and marketing.

The solution is easy to use and stable. It offers a 360-degree view of your customers. It allows you to track interactions, giving you full visibility into customer habits and behavior

Microsoft Dynamics CRM needs to improve its integrations. 

The tool is stable. 

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM's scalability a ten out of ten. My company has 100 users. 

I haven't contacted the solution's support yet. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM's deployment is easy. 

The solution is not expensive. 

I rate Microsoft Dynamics CRM a nine out of ten. It is integrated with Microsoft tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and the AI feature also improves productivity.