Sugar CRM vs. Dynamics 365: Who Has The Best CRM?

There’s no shortage of CRM systems today. As demand for such business solutions keeps increasing, we’re seeing IT companies of all sizes getting into that market with very competitive offerings. Today we’ll talk about Dynamics 365 and Sugar CRM, two very capable CRM systems going head to head. Let’s see how they compare.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is the result of Microsoft’s effort to combine all their business solutions (CRM – Dynamics CRM, ERP – Dynamics AX, and Dynamics NAV) under one big umbrella.

For today’s comparison, we will focus more on the Customer Engagement side of Dynamics 365 as it is what was previously known as Dynamics CRM. It currently contains several apps:

• Sales: This app includes all the entities and processes used by the sales team (Lead, Opportunity, Quotes, Order, etc.). It helps automate the sales process for the organization.
• Customer Service: As the name suggests, this app is where all the case management happens along with SLAs and Entitlements.
• Marketing: The newest app in the bunch, a marketing-automation application helping turn potential leads into customers.
• Project Service Automation: The ultimate tool for project planning and resource management all within your Dynamics 365 organization.
• Field Service: This app helps you manage your resources working on-site with an out of the box scheduling engine to maximize productivity and minimize costs and expenses.

Learn more on how to manage your business with Dynamics 365

Sugar CRM

Sugar CRM, founded in 2004, is a much smaller company than Microsoft. Their idea was to create a CRM system simple enough to use without sacrificing any of the main functionalities or features.

Just like Dynamics 365 CE, Sugar CRM contains many modules:

• Sales: Includes all the power process automation tools to maximize your sales team productivity.
• Service: Provides all the tools needed to help you manage incidents and other issues reported in one place.
• Marketing: The marketing module helps attract more prospects and create more opportunities with less effort.

How do they compare?

Dynamics 365 Advantages

• The company is behind it: No disrespect to Sugar company, but Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world, and that alone gives it much credibility. When you’re getting a business solution to manage all of your sensitive company data, you need a provider you can trust, and Microsoft has rightfully earned that trust in the enterprise world.
• More time in the market: Microsoft has been there since 1975. It has been in the CRM business since 2001. With a huge team dedicated specifically to R&D, they have the edge when it comes to market trends and customer needs.
• Support community: Nowadays if you have an issue with configuring your software, Google is your best friend. Since Microsoft has the bigger market share of the two, it is easier to find solutions for your problems in Dynamics 365 than it is for SugarCRM.
• More languages Supported
• Integration with other Microsoft Products: Microsoft has a plethora of products on the market. Since their primary focus is the enterprise market, a big chunk of these products are enterprise-oriented whether they’re productivity tools (Office 365), email clients, document management tools (SharePoint), business solutions (Dynamics 365 FO for example). All of them integrate seamlessly with Dynamics 365 CE to give the best all-around experience.
• PowerBI reporting: Dashboards are cool and all, but PowerBI provides high-end analytics at your fingertips.
• More licensing options: With Dynamics 365, you can buy the sales app on its own, or purchase team member licenses for people that just need access to data and reporting. So all-in-all, you get more options depending on your employees’ usage patterns.

Looking for a Good Reason to Resell Dynamics 365 with Sherweb? ↗

SugarCRM Advantages

• Price: Probably one of the main factors for anyone purchasing anything. SugarCRM provides basic needs for a lower price. It can be a critical factor, especially for smaller size companies that just need something that works.
• Ease of use: “CRM Has Become Too Damn Complicated. SugarCRM is the cure for overblown, oversold CRM.” That’s the sentence you’ll see when you go to the “Why Sugar” tab on their website. The main purpose of their CRM software is to keep things simple. While Dynamics 365 packs more features, it can get overwhelming for new users to pick it up, but SugarCRM works hard to keep it nice and simple.

Conclusion

The demand for Customer Relationship Management software is on the rise and proves to be essential for any company dealing directly with customers. Both large and small companies are doing their best to give the best CRM systems possible at the most reasonable price. As in most comparisons, there is no good or bad; It all depends on the needs and the size of the consumers.

Dynamics 365 is a polished solution combining ERP and CRM answers to give businesses an ultimate all-around solution. SugarCRM focuses on clutter-free CRM software that promises to deliver all the needed features in an easy-to-use package.

Given the advantages of Dynamics 365, if a company has the budget or is already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem (Office 365 or other Microsoft products), it makes sense to go to Dynamics 365 as it’s the more “feature-rich” solution of the two. If a company just needs a decent CRM solution to manage all their customer needs, SugarCRM is a pretty solid option to look into.