Top 5 Reasons Why Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE Is an Ideal Replacement for Salesforce

Since this article caught your eye, likely you’re already considering a replacement for Salesforce. (If you’re still evaluating the available CRM options, check out this article, 8 Reasons to Choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE Over the Competition.) If you’re a current Salesforce user contemplating a move, you’re not alone. Companies across industries are making the change after discovering that while Salesforce is a powerful CRM application, it isn’t as user-friendly, supportable, affordable, and extensible as they hoped. In our experience helping dozens of these companies looking for something better, we’ve found that Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE makes an ideal replacement for Salesforce. Here are our top five reasons why businesses are making the switch.

Superior User Experience

Switching software can be disruptive as users must learn to perform their tasks in the new application. By choosing Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE as a replacement for Salesforce, companies find they minimize much of that disruption thanks to the Microsoft solution’s familiar user interface. Employees already working in Excel, Word, or Outlook will recognize the similarities and feel right at home. Reducing the learning curve speeds user adoption rates and accelerates the solution’s return on investment.

Microsoft clearly places a solid emphasis on the user experience, with intuitive navigation that minimizes the number of clicks, automated workflows that simplify complex tasks, and notifications and reminders that prompt users with next steps. That being said, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE is a powerful, comprehensive CRM application with extensive functionality. We always recommend companies invest in user training to further speed adoption rates and create confident, productive users.

Personalized Partner Support

What’s been your experience with Salesforce customer service? We’ve heard adjectives like impersonal, time consuming, and frustrating. As a Salesforce user, you must go through Salesforce for most support services. You know the drill: call into the 800 number, wait in the queue, and get the next available technician. Then you’ll need to explain not only your current challenge but who you are, and how your company uses Salesforce. It can be frustrating, especially for busy companies who rely on their CRM to keep business moving.

Contrast that experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE where you’ll work closely with an authorized partner (like Velosio), who  understands your business, your goals, and how your system is configured. Our clients that have chosen Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE as a replacement for Salesforce tell us that this is one of the most tangible benefits of the switch. A partner familiar with your implementation can help you more quickly with less back and forth. In addition, a partner will take the time to explain to your users why the issue happened and how to resolve it — and avoid it on their own going forward. Finally, a partner understands how to optimize the processes you currently have in place to make your system even better and your people more productive.

Predictable Ongoing Costs

There are few things as aggravating as thinking you know what you’ll pay for product licensing only to have the costs jump up unpredictably after only a year or two. Perhaps this is the main reason your company is considering a replacement for Salesforce. Or perhaps the vendor led you to believe that certain functionality was included in your fees only to discover you’d have to pay for a more expensive plan in order to get that functionality. If so, you’ll appreciate Microsoft’s transparent approach to licensing and product functionality. Microsoft’s predictable, stable pricing shields you from erratic cost fluctuations and helps you budget ongoing expenses more accurately.

It’s not only the initial licensing costs and confusing promises that can cause Salesforce users to jump ship. Another common gripe from customers switching from Salesforce is that the vendor charges a premium to integrate with many third-party applications. In contrast, Microsoft is transparent about fees and functionality for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE. You’ll know upfront what you’ll pay and what functionality you’ll get for that price.

Agility, Scalability and Customizability

If the past two-and-a-half years have taught businesses anything, it’s that agility is a superpower. It may be that your company was forced to furlough employees, or perhaps you had to increase staff to meet the swelling demand for your products and services. Maybe your business model changed as a result of the pandemic, changes that required you to capture additional data in your CRM, adjust your workflows, or integrate with a third-party application. Unfortunately for Salesforce users, achieving this agility can be costly and convoluted enough to cause some to look for a replacement for Salesforce.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE is much friendlier to customers that need to true-up (increase) or true-down (decrease) their user license count. As we mention in #3, above, licensing is transparent and flexible, and the core solution includes functionality that Salesforce charges extra for. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE is a fully customizable CRM solution that allows you to tailor the core solution to ensure it continues to meet the needs of a dynamic operation. Finally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE uses universal web standards such as HTML, .Net, and Java — familiar tools to most developers. Things aren’t so simple with Salesforce, which uses a proprietary programming language that can make customizations for expensive and time consuming.

The Microsoft Power Platform

Salesforce has (for the moment) a larger share of the CRM market than does Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE, but Dynamics’ market share is growing rapidly. Based on our conversations with companies looking to use Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE as an ideal replacement for Salesforce, the Power Platform is a big motivating factor behind the switch.

It’s hard to overestimate the value of the Microsoft Power Platform. It’s a complete end-to-end ecosystem of business productivity tools that combine to provide unequaled impact. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE easily integrates with the Microsoft Office 365 suite, Dynamics 365 Finance, Teams, Power BI, SharePoint, and more. Other popular integrations out of the hundreds available include Google Calendar, Dropbox, and Slack.

Take the Next Step

For many companies, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE is an ideal replacement for Salesforce. We understand that making the decision to switch is an important one that requires research and careful consideration. If you are looking for a deeper comparison of Salesforce to Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE to help in your decision making, check out this article, CRM Software Solutions Throwdown — Salesforce Versus Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE Features and Price. If you’d like to speak with one of our CRM transition specialists, please reach out, we’re here to help.