CRM Platform Selection, Microsoft vs Salesforce

If you’re reading this, you are most likely in the final stages of selecting a CRM platform for your organization. If on the other hand you are in the early stages, feel free to read my other articles on What to expect from your CRM software, The importance of finding the right CRM solution and Selecting a CRM business solution.

At the time of writing this article, there are over 650 CRM platforms on the market. The goal of this article is to cut strait to the top two CRM platforms on the market today, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce. At the end of this article, you should have the fundamentals to help you make an educated decision on which platform to investigate further.

Having invested over twenty years implementing hundreds of CRM platforms, the top ten criteria I use to help my clients select the right CRM platform include:

1.   Business Fit

Both platforms have highly comparable features. Each vendor invests millions of dollars every year enhancing their platforms capabilities, so any significant gaps in the solutions have or will most likely be filled quickly. When it comes to business fit, you will need to consider your overall business ecosystem and CRM needs to determine which platform will work best for you. This is where a technology partner or consultant such as my self can help.

In general, if you’re looking for a solution that can be plugged in and turned on with minimal setup, Salesforce has the advantage. If you have specific needs and custom processes or you have an existing Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the way to go.

2.   Deployment Options

One significant distinction between the two platforms is their approach to deployment. Salesforce operates exclusively as a SaaS solution, meaning it runs and stores data entirely in the cloud. This setup is advantageous for those comfortable with their data and applications being hosted on remote servers without the need for an on-premises solution.

Conversely, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers greater flexibility by providing both on-premises and cloud SaaS options. It is worth noting that various features including Field Service scheduling, Customer Service routing and Sales or Marketing AI and advanced Insights features are only available in the SaaS cloud offering. But if you are a government, healthcare or financial services organization with strict data localization rules; Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides greater flexibility.

3.   Implementation Considerations

As outlined above in business fit, Salesforce leans heavily towards out of the box processes, features and data models that have been built against various industry standards. As a result, an implementation can be more rapid with an approach that aligns to a plug-it-in and turn-it-on methodology.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation approaches will typically involve enhancing the platform to meet your organizations specific needs, processes and data models. While this results in a highly tailored solution and increased adoption, it typically takes a little longer and increased business involvement.

4.     Key Features

Both CRM platforms offer robust features for managing Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Cases. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud is superior to Microsoft’s Marketing Journey solution. While Microsoft’s Field Service solution is superior to the Salesforce Field Service Lightning solution.

The decision will typically come down to how your users leverage these key features and if they want to harness AI to help them with their day-to-day operations. For example, if your sales users live in Outlook and would leverage AI to help them craft or respond to emails. Microsoft’s built in Outlook to CRM and CoPilot client is the way to go.

5.   Add-on Ecosystem

Each platform has its own “App Store”, for Salesforce it’s the appexchange.salesforce.com and for Microsoft it’s the appsource.microsoft.com. These sites have various solutions that are certified by each platform vendor and provide enhanced features and industry solutions that seamlessly embed themselves into your CRM platform. Naturally there is an associated cost and some may require an external party to set it up for you. Salesforce’s AppExchange has been around longer and has a wider variety of options.

6.   Integration Capabilities

When comparing Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, one of the key distinctions lies in integration approaches. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers seamless native integration with all Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, Power Bi and SharePoint. This native integration simplifies workflow, especially for users accustomed to Microsoft interfaces.

While Salesforce can connect with some Microsoft products, users won’t experience the same level of seamless integration. However, Salesforce does tie into some Google products including Gmail. If your organization relies heavily on the Microsoft product suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the way to go.

Broader advanced integration can be accomplished with many 3rd party tools. Salesforce platforms will typically leverage MuleSoft (at an extra cost) while Microsoft Dynamics 365 platforms can tie into each other via the included Power Automate solution. Many other 3rd party integration tools exist and must be evaluated against your data volume, complexity, existing organizational skills and budgets.

7.   End User Adoption

End user training and system adoption is critical to your CRM mandate, if users hate the solution and don’t use it, there is no point in even having a CRM platform.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 features a navigation menu on the left, allowing users to quickly locate customer accounts, leads, contacts, and opportunities. They can also utilize a search bar at the top and create a worklist displaying tasks to be completed. This coupled with the integration to Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams will typically aid organizational adoption goals.

Salesforce, on the other hand, has a navigation bar at the top, making it easy for users to find leads, accounts, contacts, and opportunities. This menu allows users to dive deep into any record they choose, providing a user-friendly interface.

Both platforms boast a contemporary look and feel and are intuitive to use, with a minimal learning curve. However, its worth noting that the more you customize a CRM system, the more users will struggle to use it. Use caution when identifying everyone's requirements.

8.   Customization and Configuration

When selecting a CRM platform, its important to understand how much customization will be required to meet your organizational needs and how much of this will be configuration vs customization (development).

Salesforce allows users to modify workflows, fields, and objects as needed. If customization is required a specific development code “Apex” needs to be mastered. Apex is a strongly typed, object-oriented programming language that allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Lightning platform server in conjunction with calls to the Lightning Platform API. It allows for advanced customizations or custom pages and functions within the CRM. But is a skill that can be challenging to find.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 also allows users to modify workflows, fields, processes and objects as needed. Users can customize views, and add, modify, or delete records, fields, and forms, all using the native Power Platform configuration tools. When it comes to custom development, users with .net skills can quickly ramp up and customize the platform.

Extend the CRM platform only when absolutely necessary. Excessive customization increases the risks and the amount of testing required during upgrades. If your organization has an existing team of .net developers, Microsoft Dynamics 365 may be the way to go.

9.   AI Capabilities

The CRM AI race started a couple of years ago and is very much ongoing. Much of the aforementioned significant annual investments revolve around leading in this AI race.

When comparing Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, both platforms offer impressive artificial intelligence capabilities. In addition to their existing AI tools, Microsoft and Salesforce have enterprise-grade resources and infrastructure to build and enhance custom AI solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 users can leverage Copilot to automate tasks, create content, generate new ideas end enrich data. Salesforce is playing catchup and their AI solution known as Einstein helps automate common tasks like invoice processing or form filling and enables users to create custom responses for customers and employees.

Both Copilot and Einstein leverage machine learning to analyze customer behavior and provide recommendations for optimal actions and next steps to help users achieve their goals. At this moment in time Microsoft’s Copilot is leading the race and is becoming more extensible as time goes on. However, Salesforce is doubling down to catch up.

10.   Licensing

Licensing for both platforms is a constantly shifting topic that you need a PhD in astrophysics to understand.  However, to put it simply Microsoft license top down i.e. a flat monthly fee where users get the key features they need and maybe a little more are all included. Salesforce license bottom up, where users get the basics and then add-ons are applied. Lower tier licensing by Salesforce can look appealing, but it will undoubtedly increase due to add-on features.

The key difference in costs will come down to key factors including, customizations, integrations, data usage, advanced analytics, backup and storage, environments and external consulting. SMB sized companies will experience a similar price range for both platforms, where enterprise organizations will find Microsoft cheaper by up to 25%.