Nowadays, a CRM software is one of the must-have tools in a business, no matter the nature of the business, the industry, the environment (traditional or digital) or the age and number of employees. Any business that has a Sales and Marketing department should acquire a Customer Relationship Management software. Among the clear benefits of the tools, the most common are related to the automation and time saving processes in handling customer data, customer requirements and support, marketing from lead to order and of course, everything you need in one place. Since Microsoft Dynamics CRM is in the top 3 leaders, along with SalesForce and Nimble, it deserves an extended review, based on 43 corporate companies that use the CRM software. Recommended reading: How Microsoft Dynamics CRM can boost your business.

Why Companies Love It

Users have rated Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a powerful software with core integration of Outlook, SharePoint and Office. This enables the companies to track emails, appointments, contacts, tasks and more inside the system. The information is shareable with other users. UI design looks user-friendly, and it is easy to install and run.

Downside of the CRM software

UX (user experience) still needs improvement. Not 100% compatibility with Vista and IE7, however improvements were spotted in the upgrade to Win7 and Win8, as well as IE9 and more.

Purpose for Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Most users use the software due to its compatibility with other Microsoft products, and for the Customer Relationship Management features. CRM and HelpDesk CRM Suites are the most frequently used tools.

Requirements Met by Microsoft Dynamics CRM

43 companies have rated that the CRM software meets 76% of their requirements, with more than 50% saying they are satisfied.

Usability of CRM Software

42 companies rated the Usability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as being mostly Okay to Delightful (67%), with an average of 6.7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Setup and Maintenance

Setup scored 6.3 out of 10, with 32 companies rating the software as somewhat easy to extremely easy to setup (51%). Maintenance scored 7.2 out of 10, based on 30 answers. 73% of clients find maintenance to be easy.

Support

33 companies rated Support in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to be great (65%). The software scored 7.1 out of 10.

Ease of Business

The software scored 7.6, based on 27 answers, with the majority of companies finding it improved to pleasurable (82%).

Pricing

Pricing varies depending on the package, but on average the software can be purchased for a monthly fee of $65 (less or more).

Marketing Automation

The software scored 7.4, based on 87 answers.

Salesforce Automation

The tool scored 7.6 out, based on 193 answers.

Customer Support

Customer Support scored 8, based on 80 answers.

Reporting and Analytics

Microsoft Dynamics CRM software scored 7.5 out of 10, based on 55 reviews.

Integration

The software scored 7.3 on Integration features, based on 50 reviews.

Ticket and Case Management

Scored 8.8 based on 7 reviews.

Communication Channels

The tool scored 9.7 based on 4 answers.

Call Center

Highest score, 9.7 was for Call Center, based on 5 reviews.

Self Service and Community

The tool scored 9, from 4 reviews.

Help Desk Reporting and Analytics

31 companies rated the Microsoft Dynamics CRM as extremely good, with a score of 8.6%.

Scores above 7.4 proved to be the better scores compared to main competitors’ CRM tools (SalesForce and Nimble). Bottom line is that every business that uses a CRM software is a winner, really. If you’re curious who the winners are for 2014, check out this article on ZDNet.

Author Bio:

Simon Hopes is a Professional writer. Responses for this review were collected through case studies and market reports carried out by the CRM team at UXC Eclipse. More case studies and reviews are available on their website.