Comparative Analysis of CRM Solutions: Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), discussing its benefits and different categories such as operational, analytical, and collaborative CRM. The report then delves into a comparative analysis of three major CRM vendors: Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Digital Assistant, and Salesforce Sales Cloud. It examines their features, advantages, and disadvantages, providing insights into their suitability for various business needs. The analysis includes a detailed comparison of functionalities like account management, lead management, and customer communication. The report concludes by highlighting Sales Cloud as a top CRM solution based on its comprehensive features and scalability, making it a strong choice for businesses of all sizes. The report is well-referenced, drawing on multiple academic sources to support its findings. This report is designed to help students learn more about the fundamentals of CRM and to compare available options.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a solution or business strategy of
managing the needs and creating values for the potential customers of the organization.
(Nyadzayo & Khajehzadeh, 2016, PP. 263-265, P. 1- 10). The benefits of CRM is shown
below:

DIFFERENT CATEGORIES of CRM
• OPERATIONAL CRM: The Operational CRM drives the service and sales
representatives by making more effective and efficient methods to simplify the
work process. It allows an organization to visualise specifically on the automation
and improvement of business process by customer touching and customers
facing.
• ANALYTICAL CRM: The analysis is based on the electronic data of customer
information over broad range of purposes.
• COLLABORATIVE CRM: Without the involvement of any service and sales
representative the focus made over the direct communication with the customer.
• SALES INTELLIGENCE CRM: It has been designed as a more direct CRM
sales tool
CRM are of four types (Hadi,2015, P. 246, P 2.3 CRM
Architecture). The categories are listed below:

DIFFERENT VENDORS of CRM
VENDORS of CRM REVIEW over DEVELOPMENT
Salesforce MuleSoft is utilized as a Cloud integration tool.
Microsoft In order to cover team collaboration, Enterprise
Resource Planning for back office integration and
other content related to Office 365 it has extended
over Dynamic 365
Oracle To provide a better customer experience The Oracle
Digital Assistant engaging the merchants with them
by using voice command based conversational
artificial intelligence.
Genesys Telecommunication Laboratories More 500 customers services were provided in the
beginning of 2018
Adobe Took over Magneto for e-commerce and
Marketo for automation marketing
SAP Qualtrics is acquired for management experience and
survey

CRM SOLUTIONS
• Microsoft Dynamic 365 by Microsoft
• Oracle Digital Assistant by Oracle
• Sales Cloud by Salesforce

Microsoft Dynamic 365 by Microsoft
FEATURES
• Helps to manage accounts and contacts of
the customer database
• Manages Partner Relationship
• Lead Management
• Pipeline and Opportunity management
• Analysis of ROI based marketing
• Desktop based integration
• Case Management
• Customer Communication Management
• Customer support unit

ADVANTAGES
• Interface is user-friendly
• Supports 100% storage in cloud or locally for on-premise
data (Critchley, 2018, P. 269, Chapter 6)
• Additional infrastructure is not required
• Offers individual CRM application purchase
• Delivers advance configured portal templates
• Suitable for technically inexperience users
• Offers access option individually

DISADVANTAGES
• Designed for on-premise use
• Requires to know personal stuffs
• Make the most effective use of other
products by Microsoft
• Server code adjustment is restricted

Oracle Digital Assistant by Oracle
FEATURES
• Growth is simpler
• Multiple backend systems can be connected
• Large number of customers can be reached
• Based on analysis

ADVANTAGES
• Implant refined lead management automation and marketing
• Provides digitalized tracking record
• Offers dashboard configuration (Hotz et al., 2015, P. 8, P. 5.3)
• Advance profiling
• On demand products are offered by Hosting CRM
• Flexible maintenance plan is offered to the customer

DISADVANTAGES
• With respect to the SaaS CRM the UI is incompetent
• On demand products lacks Business Process
Management
• Offers basic workflow management by on demand
products
• Incompatible with most of the web browsers
• Compatibility with the mobile devices are limited
• Gmail synchronization is unavailable
• From the perspective and capabilities of social CRM
the on demand products lag behinds the competitors

Sales Cloud by SALESFORCE
FEATURES
• Opportunity and Pipeline Management
• Partner Relationship Management
• Territory and Quota Management
• Product and Pricelist Management
• Customer Communication Management
• Desktop integration
• Task Management
• Account and contact management

ADVANTAGES
• As an organizational tool it provides low acquiring cost and low risk
management
• The database management system helps in establishing and digitizing the
organization to track the sales record
• Individual customers are facilitated with profile customization (Garg &
Kumari,2017, P. 12, P. 7. Advantages of Salesforce CRM)
• No additional hardware and software is required to run the application
• The users can work efficiently with integrated software
• Automatic application update

DISADVANTAGES
• Maintenance schedules are organised by
Salesforce
• Transition difficulties between transaction
• The UI is occupied with monotonous and
cumbrous tools
• Chances of losing personal touch during
automation
• Adoption barriers

COMPARISON AMONG THE FEATURS OF 3 CMRS
Oracle Digital Assistant Sales Cloud Microsoft Dynamic 365
Offers digital assistant for empowering
business from power transformation Task and activity management is done
along with deadline management Task and activity management is done
along with deadline management
To initiate interaction from the updated
data the customer interaction is simplified
Hosted CRM helps to store and recover
customer information
On-Premise CRM helps to store and
recover customer information
Multiple client conversation support Customer contract management Customer contract management
Real time data analysis on the basis of
performance
Analysis is based on Return On Investment Analysis is based on the efficiency of the
organization
The subscription price US $1000 per
month for 100,000 requests
The subscription price for Lightning
unlimited is US $ 300 per month
The Microsoft Dynamic 365 costs between
US $40 to $ 190 per month depending
upon the module
Oracle holds 13% of the total ERP Market
share Sales Cloud holds 19% of the total ERP
Market share
Dynamics 365 holds 16% of the total ERP
Market share

Best CRM Solution
According to the research it has been observed that best CRM
solution is provided by Sales Cloud (Janakova, 2018, PP. 5-6, P.
1-4). The following criteria's will be met if Sales Cloud is
introduced on the business:
• It is an fully featured and developed CRM
• Provides functionality and power at an organizational level for
small businesses
• CMR for small businesses
• Excellent option in terms of scalability
• The Salesforce application provides massive marketplace
access to the client
• Meets the requirements of large business

Best CRM Solution

References
Critchley, S. (2018). Microsoft Flow. In Dynamics 365 CE Essentials (pp. 513-555). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Garg, H., & Kumari, U. (2017). An Introduction to World Leading CRM: SalesForce. com. i-manager's Journal on
Cloud Computing, 4(2), 9.
Hadi, W. E. (2015). The relationship between CRM strategies stage on competitive advantage: An analytical
perspective. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(8), 245.
Hotz, L., Cristea, D., Pietrzak, J., Povazay, M., Rauter, B., & Buleandra, D. (2015). DAICA-Digital Assistant
Investigating Cultural Assets. In IESD@ ISWC.
Janakova, M. (2018). Crm & social networks. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 17(5), 1-15.
Nyadzayo, M. W., & Khajehzadeh, S. (2016). The antecedents of customer loyalty: A moderated mediation model
of customer relationship management quality and brand image. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 30, 262-270.