If your business is looking for the right tool to keep you in the competition or to take your organization to the next level, this week is a great time to score a Microsoft Dynamics business solution.  On Friday, some of the most aggressive promotional offers that Microsoft has ever released on their ERP and CRM solutions expire. 

Line up the best shot for your organizations’ success by taking advantage of one of the following offers today:

3 for a $1 – With the initial purchase of Microsoft Dynamics GP, buy up to your first three (3) users (foundation pack user and two additional users) for $1. Offer applies to both the Advanced Management and Business Essentials editions.

Stimulate Your Business– Trade Up to Microsoft Dynamics ERP (GP & SL) from NetSuite, QuickBooks, or Peachtree for less with a special trade-up offer.

Business Ready Flexible Pay – Reduce your upfront investment through three predictable and affordable annual payments which can help optimize you cash flow and improve IT budget management.

A Better Together Offer – Save 20% on Microsoft Dynamics SL users when you purchase them with Microsoft Project user licenses.

There are also some fantastic offers available to existing users of Microsoft Dynamics solutions. 

Contact Socius to take advantage of these great savings opportunities and win big against your competition. 

Today we want to focus on answering the question:  Why would anyone ever leave Oracle CRM On Demand for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online? 

If you have been comparing CRM software packages to make a first-time purchase, or if you are a current Oracle CRM customer, then you’re probably aware that Oracle is a key player in both the hosted and on-premise CRM markets.    However, what you may not know is how well Microsoft Dynamics CRM competes with Oracle.  According to a comparison done by InsideCRM, the hosted versions of Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are extremely comparable when looked at side-by-side. 

Sales Force Automation:

Both solutions include similar sales-force management and tracking tools, including lead management, analytics, and offline and mobile access.  The only notable differences between the sales force automation tools is the presence of forecast management functionality in Oracle CRM that the Microsoft product lacks out of the box while the ability to create sales literature from within Microsoft CRM which Oracle does not contain.

Service and Support:

While both products contain many similarities in their case management and knowledgebase capabilities, when it comes to service and support they each approach it a bit differently.  Microsoft CRM Online features email management and automatic response tools, while Oracle On Demand relies more on integrated voice tools for service and support call response. 

Marketing:

The one area where Oracle outshines Microsoft in terms of Marketing automation and tracking is their real-time budget tracking capability.  On the flip side, Microsoft’s marketing automation capabilities include integrated reporting using other Microsoft applications that Oracle can’t duplicate. 

So, with such similar feature sets, it truly becomes a question of what works best for YOUR business.  Oracle’s attempt to respond to that question is their industry specific CRM solutions.  While an industry specific CRM system may seem attractive, it is important to keep in mind that Oracle only offers 5 different industry solutions.  If you are not in one of the 5 specialized industries they focus on, you are left with their generic solution anyway.  On the other hand, Microsoft Dynamics CRM was designed to adapt easily to the users processes and unique business needs, not to force the user to adapt to the software’s processes like Oracle does. 

 Today, more than ever, pricing often plays a major role in the software decision making process.  If you are having trouble deciding between Oracle and Microsoft for your online CRM solution, you should know that Microsoft has simplified their pricing so that it is a flat rate of $44 per user per month.  Compared to Oracle’s $70 per user per month pricing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online presents a tremendous cost savings for a high quality and competitive product. 

Try Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Free for 30-Days!

Still not sure?  Read our Top 10 Reasons Why Your CRM Should Be Microsoft Dynamics CRM! 

• Fast online access – Get started in less than five minutes with either a complimentary trial or paid subscription.  Access your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data via the web, through a Microsoft Outlook interface, or from a wide range of mobile devices.
• Simple contact management – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offers easy data migration from other systems, a single unified view of customer data, and a new Get Started Pane which delivers guidance, training, and access to Microsoft communities and resources.
• Better sales performance – A new home page dashboard provides real-time views into key metrics that help all members of the sales team prioritize daily tasks.  Ohio Microsoft Dynamics CRM also provides workflow capabilities that ensure customer interaction happens quickly and consistently.
• Better economics – Microsoft has simplified its pricing structure to offer Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for one price of $44 per user per month.  This price includes offline support, 200 custom entities, 200 workflows, and 5 GB of storage.

See these enhancements first hand:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Service Update: November 2009

Along with this update, Microsoft is offering Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at no cost for 6 months to existing Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand customers.  Contact your Ohio Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner, Socius, to learn more about this offer. 

You can also try Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for 30-Days at no cost

Find out how Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online stacks up against Salesforce.com, read our comparison post.

Here are 6 signs that your business is outgrowing QuickBooks and should consider another solution:

1. You experience unacceptable delays in menus or screens
2. Reports take an unacceptable amount of time to print
3. Your customer, vendor, employee or other lists exceed 10,000 items
4. You exceed 32,000 transactions or the file size reaches 30MB
5. You find yourself wishing for additional functionality to accomplish more
6. You require more robust reporting to gain business insight

Once you’ve begun to see these signs in your business, it’s time to start looking for a new solution that will address these concerns and continue to grow with your business.

Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) is one of the best migration paths for QuickBooks users.  The Microsoft Dynamics pricing is competitive, the support is comprehensive, and the conversion tools and products make stepping up from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP pain-free and benefit heavy.

The benefits of migrating from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP include:

• Additional features – Microsoft Dynamics GP includes twice the built in functionality of QuickBooks Enterprise.
• Better reporting – Microsoft Dynamics GP not only includes 5 times as many standard reports as QuickBooks, it also includes 200 standard Excel reports, 70 standard SRS reports based on SQL Server Query techonology, the ability to view reports in real-time through an integrated intranet business portal, and additional advanced reporting automation capabilities through FRx.
• Solid technology foundation – Microsoft Dynamics GP is designed to handle the workload, user counts, and security requirements of growing organizations.
• Enhanced Office integration – Microsoft Dynamics GP takes integration with Microsoft Office further than QuickBooks by including SmartTags and Workflow.

Learn more about migrating from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP from Ohio Microsoft Dynamics GP partner, Socius, at www.asmartmoveohio.com.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online vs. SalesForce.com Enterprise Edition

Sales Force Automation:

• Both have the typical sales-force management tools and opportunity tracking, analytics and forecasting tools.
• SalesForce focuses on the strength of their built-in mobility features, while Microsoft Dynamics enables mobility as an add-on where needed.
• Microsoft also boasts a complex quote generation tool as well as sales literature generation from within the system and direct email marketing.
• While SalesForce is integrated with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is built directly into Outlook for expedited email management.

Service and Support:

• SalesForce and Microsoft CRM Online are very similar in this area with automated email management, customer access to knowledge bases, case management and resolution analytics.
• SalesForce also Computerized Telephony Integration and a self-service customer portal, both of which can be integrated into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, but aren’t readily available.

Marketing Automation: These products are almost identical in their marketing automation features.  They both include:

• Campaign planning, automation, and management
• List management
• Email marketing management and automation
• Workflow customization
• Reporting, Analytics and Dashboards

Price:  When it comes to price, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is the clear winner.  The Microsoft Dynamics Pricing is almost 1/3rd that of SalesForce.com.

Microsoft = $44 to $59 per user per month
SalesForce = $125 per user per month

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM offered the functionality we were looking for and the familiar Outlook-style interface, for about one-third the cost of SalesForce.com.” – Clint Brown, President and CEO of the Florence Freedom baseball team, a client of Socius, an Ohio CRM Online provider and Ohio Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner.  Read more about the Florence Freedom’s success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM !

Try Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with a Free Software Trial for 30 Days!