Microsoft Dynamics vs. SugarCRM

Your customer relationship management (CRM) software is supposed to help you effectively promote the products or services of your business. It should show you who the right prospects are, the matching products for their needs, and how to keep them coming back. If your current CRM software is not doing any of these to your satisfaction, the good news is that you can choose another product from almost 200 other vendors. 

We can help by providing you with a custom list of the right CRM software for your needs. Use our Product Selection Tool to enter your requirements, and we’ll send you a free list of up to 5 CRMs that meet your needs.

In this Microsoft Dynamics vs. SugarCRM comparison article, we put 2 top-notch solutions side-by-side according to some of the most commonly searched CRM capabilities:

• Help marketers run effective campaigns that promote brand awareness
• Identify the right prospects with seamless handover to sales
• Use modern tools to streamline tasks and give teams more time for selling
• Manage the sales pipeline and win more deals
• Keep customers by building excellent relationships
• Use advanced technology like AI and analytics to turn data into valuable information.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics is a combination of Microsoft’s ERP and CRM products into a single enterprise-grade offering that was announced in 2016. Today, it is made up of several applications where you can start with just a few and then add others later. Artificial/business intelligence is embedded in the system, such that the more you enter data through the different applications, the smarter the recommendations and information the tool can provide. The applications cover most business processes, like sales, marketing, customer service, field service, human resources, and more.

Businesses of all sizes in a wide array of industries use Microsoft Dynamics for their CRM requirements. Whether Toyota in the automotive industry, Duke University in education, the Australian Department of Health, or Macy’s Department Stores, customers trust the software to unify their data and understand it better, and help them figure out the next best actions.

SugarCRM

SugarCRM is a privately held CRM software company based in Cupertino, California and has other offices in the US, Europe, Mexico and Australia. It was founded in 2004, has continued to attract funding from investors, and now claims to have over 2M users in 120 countries. It has been recognized in the industry over the years, receiving awards from online publications, and has also made several company acquisitions in 2019.

SugarCRM is composed of several solutions that can be used individually or in combination. It has marketing automation features in Sugar Market where you can build campaigns using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Sugar Sell has built-in collaboration tools and automated data capturing tools that minimizes manual data entry. It allows you to retrieve data quickly, automate repeated tasks, and monitor sales activities. You can also attend to your customers efficiently with tools like reports, data visualizations, and alerts that help you respond quickly to their issues, and monitor their experience through different channels.

Feature comparison of Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs. SugarCRM

Insight

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales helps you sell smarter by providing intelligence-based scores and suggestions. Your leads and opportunities get scores based on advanced data models, so you can concentrate your activities and efforts on buyers who are ready to make decisions. It lets you understand customer interactions, so you can be proactive in your email communications. It even recommends talking points to personalize the interactions. You have access to tools and data across Microsoft’s data platform, such as embedded Office 365 tools and LinkedIn’s comprehensive database, to help identify and reach the right prospects.

SugarCRM sales CRM solution named Sugar Sell focuses on creating the best customer experience. Its ‘no-touch’ feature automatically gathers information from different social and business sources to build your customer’s profile, so you can spend less time on manual data entry. It then provides you with actionable insights and updates using Hint with push notification and alerts. To help you keep customers and maintain relationships, tools and views allow you to map and track each customer’s journey from the first contact up to sending a satisfaction survey.

Marketing automation 

You can easily run targeted campaigns on different channels with Dynamics 365 Marketing. With a variety of tools like configurable templates, reusable content blocks, and web portals, you can create campaigns and events quickly. Take advantage of pre-built dashboards and marketing analyzers, or customize your own to measure internal metrics and improve ROI. Visual editing tools allow you to easily build and deploy processes for your web and mobile apps. Data is shared and AI is applied across the platform, so you can align sales and marketing, improve coordination, and increase productivity.

Also read: SugarCRM vs. SuiteCRM: Choosing Between A Proprietary And Open Source CRM

By combining search engine marketing, SEO, and social media management tools, Sugar Market increases the visibility of your website to attract more traffic and visitors. You can use drag-and-drop builders or preset templates to create landing pages, emails, and forms in minutes. It helps identify prospects, so you can send personalized communications and set up profiles that you can then forward to sales. The Advanced Analytics reporting module will provide you a bird’s eye view of your metrics and help understand the data, so you know which strategies work, and which ones do not.

Customer service modules 

Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service provides your support team streamlined data and unified technology, so they can deliver tailored service to your customers. The powerful search tool presents the most relevant articles quickly, so they can offer to customers the most useful resources. AI can anticipate customer needs based on complete customer data, and agents can engage on the customer’s preferred channel, from chat and email to Facebook Messenger. Other features include agent-facing bots, collaboration through Teams, surveys using Forms Pro, and seamless case resolution and routing.

SugarCRM includes a console for agents that automatically prioritizes cases and inquiries according to SLA and severity. Sugar Serve also includes self-service portals that can minimize service calls when customers are allowed to help themselves. The time-aware and tracking functionality of the system is presented in reports and dashboards. It uncovers cases that need more attention, so your team can be responsive in resolving or escalating cases.

Takeaways of Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs. SugarCRM 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 can be an important part of your strategy for growing your business. It is flexible and scalable, with different plans per application. It integrates easily with other Microsoft products such as Sales Insight for more accurate sales forecasting. It also works with other ready-to-use solutions available in AppSource.

SugarCRM solutions are designed to help you give customers the best experience in every stage of their interaction with you. It has affordable plans with a limited free trial of their software. The company also has integrations available through Sugar Exchange, but focuses more on its core competencies. So, instead of building another product, it enhances the functionality of their solution through integration, such as with G Suite and Office 365.

Of course, there are other CRM products available aside from these two. If you want more CRM software options? Use our Product Selection Tool.