CRM Comparison Report: Act! & Microsoft Dynamics

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1 CRM Comparison Report: & Microsoft Dynamics is a leading contact management system used by small businesses and sales teams to manage their customers, prospects, opportunities and activities. But as organisations grow and requirements change might struggle to adapt, and in some areas it may even detract from your growth targets. That's because is entry level application so it only offers limited scalability where there are requirements to change how the database works and what type of data it manages. As a result, some users, especially those who've worked with the application for several years, might find it proves restrictive in preventing them from working how they want. You might regard as a comfortable pair of shoes that s rather outdated but feels safe and familiar. In contrast, moving to a new solution seems a risky path fraught with pain. Have You Outgrown Act? Since Swiftpage acquired from Sage UK Plc in 2013 we've seen a greater investment in the application's development and vastly improved communication with the community. Recent releases have featured numerous user requested improvements but these haven't significantly expanded the breadth of the application, nor are there any plans from Swiftpage to do so. For many years Preact has worked with both and as we believe they represent the best solutions in their respective markets. continues to deliver what it has for over 25 years - an intuitive application to keep users organised, provide insight into business relationships and help drive sales. But is that still good enough for what your business needs today? If you look critically at your database, consider what problems you are working around and are there any areas where the application falling short? In this document we've highlighted seven defining requirements that demonstrate how exceeds the functionality that can realistically offer to deliver a significantly more scalable solution which supports business growth.

2 Managing Every Process in a Single Interface The application has inbuilt support for standard entities including companies, contacts, sales opportunities and activities. But what about the other relationships and processes that you need to manage? It's not uncommon for users to attempt to use opportunity module to manage other processes like projects or applications because there is no other solution for managing these workflows in the application. With Dynamics CRM there is no need resort to these compromises as the application supports hundreds of bespoke entities using native functions. It also includes many more inbuilt record types in comparison to, this includes service cases, products, marketing campaigns, contracts and leads. Preact regularly implement to manage a diverse range of entities for organisations, here are just a small selection that demonstrates its versatility: Courses for training providers Events for a digital marketing company Projects for management consultancies Venues for a wedding management business Puppies for a hearing dogs charity Subscriptions for a membership organisation Applications for a college Lending records for a bank None of these examples can be adequately managed using on a comparable basis.

3 Do Business Anywhere with Mobile CRM Several third party mobile add-on solutions are available for Pro and Premium. The Premium edition also includes Premium Mobile for real time access to data in a mobile optimized interface via multiple HTML5 compatible devices. This requires the application to be configured on an in-house or a hosted web server. Mobile access is also available for Premium hosted and cloud services. Every CRM licence includes free mobile and tablet apps for access to CRM whenever you need it. Most CRM record types, processes and dashboards are immediately available in real-time via mobiles and tablets running ios, Android and Windows. Check the current status on sales opportunities & other processes via the CRM mobile or tablet app Pin important records to your CRM mobile homepage Monitor the metrics that matter most using CRM mobile dashboards Search for CRM records using Cortana voice commands Take notes and photos in OneNote and sync these to CRM using mobile apps Track s in CRM from your mobile devices by dragging messages to a shared folder Offline CRM mobile access arrives in 2016!

4 Automating Tasks & Business Workflows Basic automation can be configured for some processes using smart tasks but the functionality and reliability of these processes often disappoints. For a lot of users is an effective system that improves efficiency and organises their day but crucially it doesn t reduce the reliance of repetitive manual tasks or lower the hidden cost of these inefficient processes. By contrast, Microsoft Dynamics has an extensive range of solutions that help organisations improve process efficiency through workflows that remove the duplication of effort to complete routine tasks. Implementing Dynamics CRM is an excellent opportunity to review existing business processes and leverage its capabilities to make everyone more productive. Here is just a small selection of how we've implemented Microsoft Dynamics involving automated processes for our customers: Sending confirmations when service cases are logged Triggering alerts if sales opportunities are neglected Scheduling CRM activities automatically when a important events occurs, for example, when contact click a specific URL Scoring leads automatically based defined criteria Creating sales lead records from imported web lead registrations Sending a sequence of reminder s to registrants about an upcoming event Updating the contents of CRM fields when actions occur

5 Make Every Business Process Efficient The sales manager tracks opportunities through each stage in your own unique selling cycle to support pipeline forecasting. Regular activities can be scheduled to remind users when actions need to occur but these don't provide an at a glance timeline of recent events. Furthermore, because activities don't enforce rules these processes are susceptible to inconsistency and data entry errors. Guided business processes in Dynamics CRM work across all business teams, not just sales. These share prescriptive information enabling users to check the current status of each process at a glance. From this interface everyone can assess what has happened, and what actions need to be completed to reach a defined goal. CRM guided processes help users qualify new sales leads, handle service issues, progress applications, handle new customer onboarding and manage numerous other workflows. Use CRM guided processes to reach positive outcome in converting opportunities, resolving service issues or to complete other workflows Each guided process consists of defined stages that must be completed with each consisting of a series of steps that users must follow in line with an organisation's rules and best practice. Through guided CRM processes Microsoft Dynamics improves accuracy and data consistency by enforcing rules and directing users to follow you own proven methodology. This includes: Branching logic that dynamically channels users through a processes based on the data they enter Stage gating that prevents users from progressing a process if defined conditions aren't met Business rules that conditionally show or hide record field values Real-time workflows that are triggered when processes are completed

6 Connecting Your Data The application can store a diverse range of data but you may have other data sources that need to be held in a specialist application. This might include transaction information, billing details, order history, web data and usage statistics. Much of the database is locked down which significantly restricts its integration with other data sources. As a result, has limited scope to reduce the duplication of effort in completing workflows across multiple applications. This also prevents users from seeing all the information that is needed in a single interface. A number of third party add-on's are available for limited integration requirements. In comparison, Microsoft Dynamics integrates with numerous data sources to help businesses connect with their customers by relying on a single view of each relationship in CRM. Integrating relationship, transactional, behaviour and other data sources with Dynamics CRM creates a series of advantages: Use complete client information to respond efficiently to customer requests and improve service delivery Execute highly personalised marketing campaigns Trigger automated CRM workflows using imported data, for example trigger s and follow up activities when web forms are completed Make processes more efficient by removing manual data entry and delivering faster access to customer data including latest orders Preact utilise leading integration tools including Scribe Software that connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM with external data sources.

7 Improving Customer Service and Support The contact history tab tracks all communications whch can include service requests and customer issues. These items can be tracked using a custom activity type which can be used to filter histories and task lists. These activities remain linked to contact records only as doesn't have a separate entity to manage cases or support issues. Dynamics CRM includes native case management functions enabling service and support teams to log issues, report actions and use this insight to improve service delivery. Compared to, Microsoft Dynamics offers dedicated service desk tools that empower everyone to handle customer requests and quickly resolve issues. In this document we've already highlighted how the Dynamics CRM process guided interface directs users towards successful case resolutions. Further benefits of Dynamics CRM to improve customer service delivery include: Automated s to notify customers when cases are logged, updated and closed quoting a unique case reference. Case routing that allocates issues to individuals and teams based on conditional rules Service level agreements that ensure the most profitable customers receive a priority service CRM Apps for tablets and mobile device to manage customer service issues anywhere Self-service portals enabling customers to make CRM service requests online at any time CRM dashboards that track and measure performance enabling informed decisions to be made to improve service delivery Capture feedback from CRM service s to understand what customers liked, and what needs to improve Integrate with Parature knowledge to quick find answers to frequently encountered issues

8 Integrating with Outlook Connects with Outlook to send s and automatically attach messages to contact record histories. Using the plug-in activities including tasks can be created within Outlook and received s can be saved in the database. Personal calendars can be synchronised between and Outlook. The integration between and Dynamics CRM hasn't significantly changed for over 6 years and it continues to provide only a basic connection for filing s and synchronising activities. With the clear advantage of connecting two Microsoft applications, Outlook in combination with Dynamics CRM will enable you to: Access CRM functions directly within the Outlook interface Automatically save any received Outlook in CRM Save an Outlook to any type of CRM record including cases and opportunities Open a CRM record directly from a tracked Outlook Experts This report demonstrates just 7 examples how Microsoft Dynamics exceeds the capabilities of but there are many other ways in which the application is a platform for growth. Contact the CRM experts at Preact to learn about the benefits that you ll gain by implementing. We are a Microsoft CRM Gold Partner and a Platinum accredited Partner so you can be sure that we ll support you in making a smooth transition by migrating all of your data at a fixed price and we ll help you achieve early success with Dynamics CRM. Tel: or +44(0)