Why is Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM becoming more popular?

All the top CRMs provide high-end reporting, lead tracking, sales tracking forecasting, and more. But why are more companies choosing Dynamics CRM for their sales and marketing?

When choosing a new CRM for your business, you are truly spoilt for choice when looking at all the off-the-shelf (OTS) options available.

Data captured in 2015 suggested as many as 40,000 companies with 4.4 million users used Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With Microsoft Dynamics growing year-on-year since that time, it can be assumed that the figure is much greater.

Some of the main selling points of Dynamics 365 are its ease of customisation and its integration with other Microsoft products which most teams are already familiar with.

Image Source: Microsoft

Dynamics 365 CRM Alternatives

There are many off-the-shelf CRMs on the market. With a global market share of 22%, Salesforce is the leading vendor in CRM systems, with Dynamics (5.9%), Oracle (3.5%) and Adobe (3.4%) making up the rest of the top five. (source: Statista)

There are thousands of other Microsoft 365 CRM alternatives, such as Zoho, HubSpot, monday.com and Pipedrive. 

One of the most important processes before committing to any CRM software is to map out the needs and requirements of the sales and marketing teams. You can then evaluate each application based on its relevance to the job. 

Why Dynamics? Unique Features

All the top CRMs provide high-end reporting, lead tracking, sales tracking forecasting, and more. But why are more companies choosing Dynamics CRM for their sales and marketing?

1. Forms Part of Microsoft Ecosystem

Dynamics 365 CRM is part of the overall Dynamics 365 suite and integrates with all the other Microsoft products. The ability to integrate with apps such as Office 365, Azure and Power BI is a particular advantage to businesses already using these tools because it leads to improved productivity, better data sharing and streamlined workflows.

User-friendliness is vital for any IT system, so your teams' familiarity with the tried-and-tested Microsoft look and feel will drastically improve their user experience.

2. AI-Assisted

Dynamics 365 CRM comes with the smart AI assistant Copilot embedded within the CRM application. With all the talk of AI over the past 18 months, businesses are still trying to get to grips with how to use the technology effectively to better their organisation.

Copilot does just that. Think of it as an AI chat that can interpret all your sales and customer data and translate them into actionable insights and even customer scoring models. You can also use it to craft marketing messages and filter customers.

Copilot can also be used across the full mix of Microsoft products too. This means it can craft emails in Outlook and write copy for Word and PowerPoint, minimising your manual workload and improving efficiency.

Image source: Microsoft

3. Easy Customisation With No-Code Development

While most CRMs can be customised, it can be complicated. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM makes it easier to customise the system to suit your needs better and requires minimal coding expertise. This means anyone can tailor workflows and processes quickly and doesn’t require additional staff to develop or maintain the system.

Image source: Microsoft

4. Standardised Data (Common Data Model)

IT systems have different data structures and integration capabilities, creating siloed departments and data. If you’ve ever tried to bring data from multiple systems and applications together, you will know how time-consuming and complicated it can be.

Dynamics 365 comes with Common Data Model, a set of standardised data structures and integration capabilities. Making it possible to share across other applications in the Microsoft suite. This reduces the risk of data inaccuracies, cuts the cost of manual data integrations and removes the need for multiple data entry.

5. Unified CRM & ERP

Having disparate CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems takes up time due to duplicate data entry and constantly switching between different applications to perform different tasks.

Dynamics 365 provides an all-in-one ERP and CRM application, allowing businesses to bring customers and business management together under one application.

In the same application you use to manage customers and track sales, you can manage projects and resource allocation, reinvent products and other ERP activities. Sounds a lot easier doesn’t it

Image source: Microsoft

Cradle To The Grave Solution

PSP is a Microsoft Partner with 15 years of experience developing bespoke software solutions for businesses and education providers on their digital transformation journeys.

An integral part of our Dynamics 365 projects is our team of Business Analysts. We analyse all business processes and create company-wide mind maps to give organisations a holistic view of their entire operations and where each part of their processes touches a business system.

We take our findings and provide recommendations for process improvements, mapping out how these will be configured with Dynamics 365 applications.

These recommendations are translated into system requirements, which our Developers and System Integrators carefully follow to fine-tune and customise the Dynamics application. Meanwhile, our software testers check the final system against the initial set of requirements to ensure it does everything it needs to do without any faults.

Overseeing the project, the IT Project Manager is responsible for planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing the project. They are accountable for avoiding scope creep, overspending and a failed project.

If you’re exploring the benefits of Dynamics 365, speak to a member of our award-winning customer service team for a free, no-obligation IT discussion. Fill in this short contact form, or phone 01775 722377.