can anyone give me tips on which one works better as a customer relation management? and if anyone knows of any custom written navision scripts that integrates Navision with MS CRM. thanks in advance.
Microsoft CRM is at the moment far from complete. No mailmerge with Word, no marketingcampaigns. If you wait untill the end of this year, you will be probably better of with MS CRM
Microsoft Business Solution CRM is a very good alternative to Navision CRM. We use it in serveral of our companies. As for marketing campaigns you can buy an add on to MSB CRM called the Marketing Machine that will give you all you need for that matter. As for when which one is better, then our keywords to decide when we use Navision CRM and when MBS CRM is:
- are the contacts already in Navision or will they be?
- are we going to handle quotes/orders with the CRM solution?
- are the users already Navision users?
And the answers has been that when we don’t require the contacts to be in Navision, i.e. with departments/subsidiary contacting/supporting end users (we don’t sell directly), and then MBS CRM has been selected. With departments/companies/subsidiaries handling our existing customer base with campaigns, quotes/orders and service we have selected Navision CRM. The integration to MBS CRM from Navision will not be available until spring 2005.
i recently heard some gossip over the credibility of Microsofts CRM. does anyone know about it. to be more specific i heard that it has lots of bugs and causes problems for the server and computers.
Their first version (1.0) was really bad. The new version (1.2) works pretty good. Version 2.0 (to be released spring next) should be really good (this is the version MBS will make an integration for Navision for).
Microsoft CRM is easy to use and has the Outlook client. On the service side, it gives you a searchable knowledgebase for support. Navision RM is integrated with the financials in Navision so you can register quotes and invoices as interactions. In the interaction log you can view all contact with the customer–emails, phone calls, meetings, tasks, invoices, quotes, etc. If you are using Commerce Portal it becomes even more powerful. The downside we have found with Navision CRM is that users have more difficulty adopting it.
With Navision 4.0 integrated with CRM 2.0 I think we can say MS CRM for sales people and Navision RM for Backoffice.
Erik Do you have any dtails of “Marketing Machine” - perhaps a URL? We are considering MS CRM and the only downside at the moment are the Marketing campaigns. Thanks Bob
Please consider the option to wait till december: you would have to purchase an add-on now, and in december a marketing module will be there, which will probably cheaper also…
December past. and i am still waiting… Do you have any more information about what you mentioned above?