CRM 2011 – Comparing the costs of CRM Online to Partner hosted

I have seen a few posts wondering about what will happen to the current CRM hosting providers now that Microsoft has invested billions of pounds creating a massive computer farm to beef up CRM 2011 online.  It has also improved the development environment from CRM 4 and you can now add some extending code into the sandpit.

The other big bonus regarding CRM 2011 online is that Microsoft are currently offering big discounts and the new version of CRM 2011 has nice crowd pleasing features like charts adn dashboards etc.

The difficulty people have is it’s very difficult to compare prices and weigh up the benefits and disadvantages of the various CRM deployment types (online, hosted and on premise)

CRM 4 had a good article which showed you what development you could do on the different options, which you can see here

 

This article below compares the options and costs of Partner hosted Vs Online.  Hopefully Microsoft or someone else will write more things like this to help people decide.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Partner hosted vs. Online

LOGIC POINT is offering partner hosted CRM, we have prepared a comparison of the main differences between Microsoft hosted (Microsoft CRM Online) and our Partner hosted Solution. We are hosting version 4.0 now, but when 2011 is realeased, we are going to upgrade. Main advantage of partner hosted CRM is that the partner can adjust some key stuff about the CRM. For example payments. You can talk with the partner about how the payment is done. Microsoft accepts cradit card only. Also the storage limit for CRM online might be an issue. We offer unlimited storage.

	Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online	LOGIC POINT Hosted
Robust marketing, sales, and customer service features	Yes	Yes
Integration with MS Office	Yes	Yes
Customizations	Yes	Yes
Storage limit	5 GB (more for surcharge, not announced yet??)	Unlimited
Database restore to certain date	Not available	Possible
Full Database export	No	Yes
Offline synchronization with Outlook	Yes	Yes
Full database import	Special tools needed	Partner offers
Mobile device GUI support	Yes	Yes
Maximum amount of custom entities	200	Unlimited
Maximum amount of custom workflows	200	Unlimited
Possible to use custom workflow assembly?	No	Yes
Custom reports based on RDL files?	No	Yes
Login	Must use Windows LiveID	Domain Login (no need to register for Windows Live ID)
Country specific localization	Language supported	Yes, partner offers local customizations
ARES link	Must develop	Yes
Hot line in local language	No	Yes, we offer Czech and English support
On-site support	No	Yes (also remote support possible)
CRM Training	Online webcasts only	1 free training, other provided onsite or remotely
E-mail routeru	No (must use own server)	Yes, included in price
Minimal commitment	12 months	No
Payment method	Monthly by credit card	Based on agreement
Deactivation fee	175 EUR /user	0 Kč
Price	31 EUR (promotion)	1 290 Kč

 

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Top 10 Reasons to Choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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I think I saw this link on twitter.  It’s Microsoft’s 10 reasons to choose CRM 2011 instead of it’s competitors.  Looking at the list I think Microsoft’s tactics of under cutting it’s rivals to gain market share is a pretty shrewd move, especially when you also factor in that a lot of people will already be using microsoft products (office, email) so they won’t need lots of new software and the users won’t have much of a learning curve.

I would also say the ability of CRM 2011 to quickly provide solutions is also a big benefit

The list puts Extending CRM at the bottom but I think it’s actually quite an important point, you can easily extend CRM 2011 and you need .NET and ASP developers, there are a lot of these about so this should not be too difficult.  Although it would help if you could get some with CRM experience, which there are less of.

Here is the article, I found it quite interesting.

World-class customer experiences begin with your people. By giving your people the right tools to boost their productivity and amplify their impact, they can drive your organization to achieve your goals and generate maximum return.

The top reasons organizations choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM to create world-class customer experiences include:

• Value

  When considering costs—including licensing, services, training, deployment, administration, and maintenance—customers, press, and industry analysts regard Microsoft Dynamics CRM as one of the best values in the industry.

• Productivity

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps increase productivity and create a connected organization that is equipped to please your customers. The result is a compelling and engaging experience for customers that sets your business apart.

• Familiarity

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides you with a powerful set of CRM capabilities right within the familiar Microsoft Outlook application.

• Innovation

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM is recognized for category-leading capabilities by:

  • The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, July 2010.
  • The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Midsized Organizations, June 2010.
  • The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Large Organizations, June 2010.
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, April 2010.
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (SFA), July 2010.

• The Cloud

  Microsoft invests over $2 billion dollars in cloud infrastructure every year. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the quickest and easiest ways for your business to take advantage of the cloud and cloud economies, including reducing systems management and maintenance costs as well as paying only for the capacity you need. Additionally, to ensure your CRM system is always available, Microsoft provides a financially backed service agreement to give you piece of mind.

• Partner Network

  Microsoft helps you get your solutions up and running quickly with one of the world’s largest network of professional services and third-party applications to complement your Microsoft Dynamics CRM investment.

• Global Availability

  With Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you can provide your teams around the world with integrated yet localized tools to help them to communicate, collaborate, and drive global results.

• Microsoft Office

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office productivity tools so your CRM professionals do not have to learn new applications and can be instantly productive.

• Business Insights

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides your users with a multitude of business intelligence and data visualization capabilities that they can use to instantly get accurate, up-to-date information— sales forecasts, targets, quotas, customer buying patterns, and promotions—to drive sales growth.

• Extended CRM

  In addition to their relationship with customers, organizations need to manage and maximize other critical relationships—with partners, suppliers, and contractors, to name a few. Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be easily customized to support these extended CRM scenarios—at no additional fee.

Microsoft voted top CRM provider

I saw on this site that Microsoft were voted the top CRM provider in 2011.  The article attributes Microsoft status as number 1 because it is offering CRM solutions and at lower prices and people can deliver projects at a quicker rate.  It doesn’t sound like it gets much better than that.

 

Van Delden: It’s interesting to see Microsoft move to the top of the list ahead of the leading enterprise providers. I believe this is due to several industry dynamics. First, despite the fragile state of the economy, the small to mid-sized enterprise market has been very active and Microsoft’s latest offerings are gaining quite a lot of acceptance. Secondly, the economy has forced IT budget reductions. Microsoft, along with some of the other players on the list, has probably benefited from being able to deliver projects at much lower cost versus other vendors.