The Battle Between Microsoft CRM and Salesforce: Part 1

Posted on: August 26, 2015 | By: Craig Thompson | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

 

Coke vs. Pepsi, Android vs. iOS, even Wile E. Coyote vs. the Roadrunner – if a product (or character) is good there is a big chance someone is following close behind to compete. If all good products have rivalries, what makes customer relationship management (CRM) systems any different? And so the battle between Microsoft CRM and Salesforce ensues. Which product is best for you?

In this series I will be discussing various pain and sell points that come with these two competing systems. For part one we’ll review the basics and talk about what is first on everyone’s mind- cost.

Salesforce and Microsoft at their core used to be very different products – one could only be accessed through the cloud (Salesforce) and one could only be accessed through a host or server (Microsoft CRM). This made decisions for consumers easy, where do you want your product to be held? Yet in 2003 Microsoft CRM made the decision to offer their product as a software-as-a-service making these two systems very similar.

Basic features in both products are very much alike. As competitors, each company attempts to mimic the other in terms of features and strengths. This means that both products can easily handle contact and account management, sales forecasting, territory management and social aspects.                                  

The first major difference we see begins with the inception of both products. Salesforce began as a small startup while Microsoft has been around for ages. Because of this, Salesforce had to build their product from the ground up, meanwhile Microsoft had systems and processes already in place that could be easily leveraged with their CRM system. Now there are definitely positives and negatives associated with each inception which is something that you may want to consider when choosing either CRM system.

Next I’ll present you with another major difference – cost.  People commonly save cost for last, yet for any company looking to implement a new CRM system I know how important cost differences can be.  I’ll make it as simple as I can – when looking at purely cost alone, Microsoft CRM is the better choice.  Breaking it down a bit further; when it comes to add-on functionality, Microsoft CRM ranks lower in cost, and when it comes to storage cost, Microsoft CRM is half that of Salesforce.  When looking at cost in general, prices always vary, but by looking at each competitors website you can see the following: Salesforce offers their professional CRM for $65 per user/month, enterprise CRM (their most popular) for $125 user/month and their unlimited CRM for $250 user/month. Meanwhile Microsoft offers their CRM professional system for $65 user/month, their sales productivity for $65 user/month and their enterprise 360 system for $150 user/month.

Inception and cost aren’t everything, but they are very important in any CRM decision process. Yet, you don't have to make up your mind just yet! Stay tuned for future blog posts to see who will win the battle between Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.

Want even more information? Please contact us at info@loganconsulting.com or (312) 345-8800 . 

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