Top 25 #Fallacies by Salesforce.com
about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
This document is a response to Salesforce.com’s “Top 25 #Advantages of Salesforce.com Over Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011.” Again, Salesforce.com has demonstrated its preference to “cloud the truth” through
deceptive marketing tactics against Microsoft.
Salesforce.com’s document contains several inaccuracies, misleading statements, and half-truths. It does not
give Microsoft credit for initiatives that have been announced, nor appropriate credit for products that
Microsoft already has in market.
All of this raises the question: why is Salesforce.com so worried about Microsoft?
Well, it’s simple. It’s because Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the fastest-growing CRM products in the
industry. It’s because we took just six years to get our first 1 million users, while it took Salesforce.com more
than nine years to get there. It’s because we have unique advantages over Salesforce.com, like allowing our
customers to run Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the public cloud (in our data centers), in our partners’ data
centers, or in our customers’ data centers – all from a single, multi-tenant codebase that allows you to
embrace the cloud on your terms. It’s because we just launched our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service
in 40 markets around the world, and in 41 languages. It’s because leading research firms like Gartner and
Forrester have rated us as a leader in CRM suites, in sales automation, and in customer service and
support. And it’s because we do all this while working with a wide range of that products you already know
and use today, including Microsoft Office, Outlook, and SharePoint.
Salesforce.com is expensive, with long-term contracts to lock you in and lots of extra charges as well. At
Microsoft, we think about this business differently. We give you flexible contract terms, a broad technology
solution for the public and private cloud, and a great experience for your end users … all at a much more
affordable price.
So as you look for a CRM solution for the long term that aligns with your business strategy and your budget –
don’t get forced, get what fits. At Microsoft, we’re investing for the future – your future.
The remainder of this document provides Microsoft’s response to Salesforce.com fallacious claims.
Claim #1: Half Truth
Salesforce.com wants the market to believe that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 does not have global search. The
reality is that today Microsoft has a range of partners that offer this functionality at a reasonable price. For example,
Akvelon offers global search (including documents) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at a price of $6/user/ month,
and it deploys in less than two minutes. In contrast, Salesforce.com does offer some “global search” functionality, but
its capabilities are also limited: it cannot find cases by case numbers, or search by tags. It returns unwieldy quantities
of results. And it returns results that are not in context with users’ needs. Is it fair to accuse Microsoft of insufficient
functionality when Salesforce.com’s own product functionality is incomplete?
Claim #2: Refuses to Give Microsoft Credit
Salesforce.com mentioned that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 only works with Internet Explorer. Today,
Salesforce.com is correct… but Microsoft has already indicated that it will provide support across multiple browsers in
future releases.
Claim #3: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Online and on-premise) offer native light access to CRM via ANY mobile browser. The
Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution, Mobile Express, is free and more accessible than an application in many instances.
Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics CRM partners like CWR Mobility provide a mobile client for $22.50/user/month–less
than half the cost of Salesforce.com’s Mobile Edition. Other partners like TenDigits (MobileAccess) and Resco
(MobileCRM) also provide Microsoft customers with more choice and flexibility to find a solution that meets specific
business needs.
Claim #4: Refuses to Give Microsoft Credit
Salesforce.com would like to believe that all companies automatically default to their CRM solution for their content
management needs. Microsoft believes that most organizations contain different kinds of technologies and tools to
address different workloads, and as a result builds its products to adapt to a wide variety of customer environments.
Contrary to Salesforce.com’s claims, a strength of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is that it enables connections to
existing content management systems, whatever that system may be. Microsoft also provides enhanced content
management interoperability with existing SharePoint Online or on-premise investments. As you will find with
Salesforce.com Content Management, a CRM database with lower limits of storage is not the proper place to store
unstructured content. SharePoint, or even a networked file system, is more advanced than Salesforce.com’s content
management capabilities and provide a better location for such document storage. Lastly, Microsoft Dynamics CRM
works with Microsoft SharePoint better than Salesforce.com does – something that matters to Microsoft SharePoint
customers.
Claim #5: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has millions of happy users who use Outlook every day to run their businesses. The Outlook
client for Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers much more functionality to allow users to work with their CRM information
just as they do with their email, calendar, and tasks. Salesforce.com offers a simple synchronization engine that does not
provide a familiar Microsoft Outlook user experience, and it removed functionality from its Outlook client in its last
release. Additionally, a quick search on Salesforce.com's community site shows that many users are unable to install and
run Salesforce.com’s Connector for Outlook. Given the option of selecting Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft
Outlook, or Salesforce.com with Microsoft Outlook, which company do you think has better interoperability?
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics logo, and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
Claim #6: Inaccurate
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is recognized as a leader in the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant on CRM Customer
Service Contact Centers and the Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, July 2010. Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011 service functionality includes case management, queue routing, custom activities, activity time
calculations, customer care dashboards, knowledge base article customization, cross-entity workflows, dialogs for
troubleshooting scripts, customer care goal capabilities, and more. Microsoft Dynamics CRM also offers a free
development framework for portal functionality and an agent console, as well as partner solutions such as CoTweet
integration to manage social networks for customer service. Your business isn't one-size-fits all… why should your
solution be the same?
Claim #7: Inaccurate
Salesforce.com would like to popularize the idea that Microsoft does not offer customer or partner portal capabilities.
In fact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a partner portal and a customer portal for no additional cost. In fact,
organizations like Sunshine Village are managing their entire website through our portal technology integrated to
Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Ironically, Salesforce.com also provides a “Partner portal & community” add-on, but for a
significant additional cost – and only for Enterprise Edition customers (list price $125/user/month!). Overall, a very
expensive proposition for a limited solution. In contrast, Microsoft’s portal solutions are very flexible and cost
effective.
Claim #8: Refuses to Give Microsoft Credit
Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers integration to popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter through partners
like Neudesic, Sonoma Partners, and Webfortis. Additionally, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Statement of Direction
indicates that Microsoft will provide social collaboration and engagement capabilities such as micro-blogging,
business activity feeds, and social intelligence in upcoming product releases.
Claim #9: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides the ability to create multiple forms, aka "record types" for an entity, aka
"object." Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 allows you to create multiple forms for all standard and custom
entities and include any standard or custom fields or other UI customization.
Claim #10: Misleading
Salesforce.com likes to claim “transparency” is the ultimate goal in business continuity. However, Salesforce.com does
not offer a service level agreement (SLA), and does not offer recourse to customers regarding business continuity.
Instead, it provides a system status dashboard indicating if its servers are up or down, and for how long.
Salesforce.com does not provide per-customer system status which means their “trust” website isn’t very trustworthy
when you are having an outage and Salesforce.com reports that the servers are running. Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Online, in contrast, does not provide a system status dashboard today. Microsoft feels it is more important to offer
customers recourse on business continuity and offers a 99.9% financially-backed SLA.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics logo, and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
Claim #11: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers the same object syncing of events, contacts, tasks and emails, but unlike
Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also syncs ALL standard and custom objects. If you have custom objects for
vendors, suppliers, delivery personnel, or vehicle assets, wouldn’t you want those synchronized as well? Microsoft
provides the ability to access CRM from within Outlook, not just sync activities. Salesforce.com, on the other hand,
requires you to toggle between Outlook and their application.
Claim #12: Misleading
Salesforce.com is accurate in claiming that Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not offer a sandbox environment today.
However, it is misleading in the sense that one would assume that Salesforce.com offers this functionality out-of-thebox, with no additional costs. Nothing could be further from the truth: a sandbox environment is not available to
Professional Edition customers ($65/user/month) – only Enterprise Edition customers ($125/user/month provides 1
sandbox user) or Unlimited Edition customers ($250/user/month for 15 sandbox users). In place of a sandbox
environment, today customers can license an additional environment for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online for
$44/user/month for one user – a significant savings over Salesforce.com.
Do the math: For a 100 person organization to get the sandbox for just one person, it would need to license 100
users on Salesforce.com Enterprise Edition, or $150,000 per year. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, this organization
could license 100 users and add one additional user for the sandbox environment = $52,800+$528 = $53,328. Any
organization would be wise to understand what additional value it receives from Salesforce.com to justify a 180%
premium.
Claim #13: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online currently supports Windows Live ID (WLID) authentication, and you can create a
WLID from any email, including corporate domains and Office 365 domains. Active Directory (AD) authentication is
on our roadmap for a future release in 2012. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premise provides an excellent
AD integration today. Ironically, Salesforce.com does not offer a supported solution for Active Directory
authentication. While Salesforce.com allows AD integration through Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for
customers that have a 3rd party identity provider, Salesforce.com failed to mention that its AD integration works for
standard AD groups and attributes only. Stated another way, Salesforce.com’s piece-part approach to AD integration
is complicated and will be difficult to maintain over time beyond simple configurations.
Claim #14: Inaccurate
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 does fully interoperate with Microsoft SharePoint Online! In fact, it automatically
creates new document libraries for each record (i.e. an account), saving users time. Additionally, Microsoft offers
standard controls to connect CRM 2011 and SharePoint Online. Salesforce.com does not offer any native integration
to SharePoint.
Claim #15: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not offer statistics on user log-ins and time within the application at this time.
However, user logins and application time are not the sole measures of successful deployment and adoption of a
CRM solution. Another critical indicator of CRM solution adoption is the creation of key records (opportunities, cases,
leads) created by each user given their specific role. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides full tracking and auditing
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics logo, and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
of record creation as well as record modification by user and by date. This set of capabilities provides managers and
sponsors with insight into CRM solution adoption.
Claim #16: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers need to either run the Outlook client or install the email router to work with
another email provider like Gmail. But whether users primarily send emails through Outlook or Gmail, why would
they need a separate email engine through Salesforce.com? Emails and communication streams can fall through the
cracks this way and potentially violate record retention and compliance policies with regards to electronic
communications.
Claim #17: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can track email from a mobile device or web mail client with our mobility partner solutions.
Additionally, if you configure your email tracking settings to track all inbound emails from CRM Contacts, Leads, and
Accounts, these emails will automatically get tracked via Outlook. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 email tracking,
you can convert emails to cases, leads, and opportunities. Additionally, you can also create an Outlook email and
automatically format it using a CRM template, sales literature document, or knowledge base article.
Claim #18: Inaccurate
In addition to the fact that one of Microsoft's greatest strengths is its Dynamics Certified Partner Network, we also
have Microsoft Consulting Services and Microsoft Premier Field Engineering to provide 24/7 support.
Claim #19: Inaccurate
Salesforce.com misses the entire point of Web 2.0! Using web services, different platforms and applications can work
together seamlessly. Today, Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses web services for integration with the Azure Service Bus for
Azure-based add-ons and with Azure web portals and advanced applications. Dynamics CRM also provides
organizations with a choice: they can choose to be fully cloud-based, or integrate cloud-based Dynamics CRM with
existing web application running elsewhere.
Also, Force.com is not a standardized platform – far from it! Force.com is a proprietary environment that prevents
portability and requires custom tools and data formats. Additionally, it is more difficult and expensive to find
expertise for Force.com than it is for .NET, C+, or other standard Microsoft technologies.
Claim #20: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can track any email sent or received to facilitate the 360-degree view of customer
interactions. Additionally, users have the ability to create rich content HTML emails through standard Microsoft Office
functionality. These emails can contain rich text, images, attachments and hyperlinks. For advanced marketing
automation we have a number of partner solutions that provide HTML email creation, receipt tracking, attachment
opening, URL click-throughs, web analytics, and more.
Claim #21: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides a large range of form configurations that require NO coding. Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011 supports all standard data types such as Numbers, Dates, Currency, Picklists and Booleans.
Customers can configure mandatory, recommended and optional fields for a form. Additionally, the user can
configure fields to be email addresses and URLs. For all other types of custom user interface rules Microsoft Dynamics
CRM 2011 provides the ability to apply industry-standard JavaScript to enforce complex form rules and logic.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics logo, and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
Claim #22: Half-truth
Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides data quality solutions through partners like InsideView and Hoovers which can be
found on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. While Salesforce.com attempts to point out Microsoft data quality
weaknesses, it is ironic that Salesforce.com itself does not provide duplicate detection today, creating redundant
records, manual tasks, and productivity losses for its users.
Claim #23: Misleading
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online upgrades are simple for our customers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premise
deployments require more upfront planning and migration time, as one would expect. Interestingly, Salesforce.com
does not allow its customers to schedule service upgrades, which creates more work for system administrators as they
must implement change management plans with every Salesforce.com release. A good example of the simplicity in
which Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online upgrades occur: all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers have been
upgraded to Dynamics CRM 2011 with ease, and at no expense. All they needed to do was pick the date that worked
best for their business – a consideration that Salesforce.com fails to provide.
Claim #24: Misleading
Although this claim is highly subjective and dependent on each customer’s deployment strategy and training,
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has beaten Salesforce.com in a head-to-head usability and user satisfaction study. Most
importantly, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has thousands of satisfied customers across all geographies and industries,
worldwide.
Claim #25: Petty
Confused by this claim? Salesforce.com is referring to their internal use of Chatter as an enterprise collaboration tool.
They also draw a false conclusion that they've compiled the hashtags it referenced by asking external people like
customers and partners, who do not have access to Chatter. Microsoft employees use a tool called OfficeTalk; other
organizations use other tools such as Yammer. The question is whether or not an organization's chosen internal
collaboration tool integrates with their CRM system. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 provides you with the ability to
choose amongst a number of enterprise collaboration vendors to integrate with CRM.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics logo, and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.