Microsoft Office 365 has a lot of services out of the box, but does Office 365 have a CRM?
Short answer is yes – The recently released Outlook Customer Manager is a great product for startups and SOHO environments and is marketed at small business by Microsoft.
Microsoft have also released Dynamics 365 for Sales – a more sophisticated and extensible CRM solution that is the flagship Customer Relationship Management application released by Microsoft.
Outlook Customer Manager – The Office 365 CRM
Let’s take a closer look at the features, licensing requirements and cost.
Features
Outlook Customer Manager does a good job in automatically organising information.
It tracks the following information:
- Emails
- Meetings
- Calls
- Notes
- Tasks
- Deals
- Deadlines
All the information for a contact is shown in a pane next to each email allowing for quick access to information.
Software Requirements and Installation
Requirements are light and the installation procedure is easy.
Outlook Customer Manager is accessed via a button on the Outlook ribbon or via an icon when using Outlook via the web.
Cost
An Office 365 Business Premium license is required for each user that requires to run Outlook Customer Manager.
Once the license is applied, the feature will become available for the user within 24 hours.
Dynamics 365 for Sales
There is a lot more in regards to features and cost options for Dynamics 365.
Features
Dynamics 365 for Sales is extremely feature rich as it caters for small business all the way to the largest enterprise organisation.
Some of its widely used features are:
- Works on both desktop and mobile devices with any screen size and device (phone, tablet, PC, or Mac)
- Guided business processes for your sales team to help them close deals faster
- Tight integration with Office 365 apps such as Outlook, SharePoint, Teams and Excel
- Real-time analytics based on historical data and predictive information
- Dashboards and Reports for sales and performance metrics
It also has the capability to track the following:
- Leads
- Opportunities
- Competitors
- Quotes
- Orders
- Products
- Sales Literature
- Simple Marketing Lists
- Performance Goals
Software Requirements and Installation
Dynamics 365 for Sales requires a current web browser for most of its features.
There is a email tracking feature that works with the latest version of Outlook.
Out of the box functionality is ok, though it will need to customise it.
You have all the access do it yourself if you have the time and patience, or you can have it customised via certified Dynamics 365 Consultants.
Cost
Dynamics 365 for Sales comes in 3 different versions:
- Dynamics 365 Sales Professional
- Core sales force features and automation, Office 365 integration, dashboards and reporting, desktop and mobile ready
- $89.20
Per user/month
- Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
- Dynamics 365 Sales Professional, Sales force automation, contextual insights and advanced customisation
- $130.40
Per user/month
- Customer Engagement Plan
- Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Service Automation
- $157.90
Per user/month
Conclusion
Organisations of all sizes have options for CRM functionality with Microsoft.
If you organisation has less than 20 staff members or you require a CRM on a budget, then Outlook Customer Manager is reasonable.
Organisations that have a sales team, or have maturity and are after a CRM that delivers automation, intelligent insights, dashboards and advanced reporting should look no further than Dynamics 365 for Sales.
