CRM and Salesforce Product

Question: Discuss about the CRM and Salesforce Product. Answer: CRM Solution Comparison For the purpose of this study, two of the top CRM software systems are being studied and these include Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Microsoft has two versions of its CRM solution that include online solution and on-premises or private cloud solution. Microsoft Dynamic online CRM solution provides multi-tenancy capability for the application instance but single tenancy on database instance. User licenses of the product are available for basic, essentials and professional versions. The base storage available is 5GB in the basic version and this capacity is scaled up by 2.5GB for with every 20 additional professional User Subscription Licenses. Salesforce CRM: Salesforce CRM is a SaaS based cloud solution that provides most of the general features provided by cloud based CRM solutions in the market including CSV format recognition, mobile application, and visualization, connectivity between users, messaging, emailing, and customized search capability. Besides these, the solution also has some additional capabilities such as real times updates on contacts, accounts, documents and opportunities, consolidation of account history with customer contacts and communications, social media insights, ability to respond to leads from mobile, multiple channel campaign tracking, deals information, forecasting, analytics, partner community development and application library. Comparison Feature Salesforce Microsoft Dynamics CRM Subscription model Hosted subscription only On-premises and hosted online subscriptions available Releases 3 per year 2 per year Editions Different Editions: Contact Manager;Group;Professional;Enterprise;Unlimited Different deployment models: On-Premise;Online;Partner Hosted Pricing $5 -$250 /user/month $44 /user/month subscription cost Storage 1 GB data and 11 GB file storage 5GB storage with additional storage at $10 /month Data Center Top-tier global infrastructure Data centers located in Washington, Illinois, Ireland and Texas SLA SLA not available publically 99.9% uptime guarantee Support for browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari (release 12) Support for devices iPhone, Blackberry Any mobile browser can be used for scaled down version of UI, 3rd party providers available Navigation Top of screen menu with tabs; recent items in left sidebar Tabbed ribbon on top; Left sidebar for workspace selection, recent items and lists can be added in sidebar Search Global search box on top Quick find box on top right for searching any entity Records display All records displayed in single window by default Records open in new tab and its different views in same tab Navigation through records Field section show current records displayed on top with section below displaying related record lists Read only fields in header and footer; Navigation links can be clicked to jump to different sections Forms Multiple screen layouts as per record types Multiple screen layouts as per user role Reporting Drag and drop, tabular, summary, matrix and groups created from different objects Report wizard allow filters, access to primary records, related records and allow grouping of columns in layout Custom reports Define objects, define relationships, cross object reporting Business Intelligence Development Studio creates highly customized reports that span across entities. Scheduling Schedules reports can be emailed in text format SQL used for server reporting and report scheduler tool for creation of custom workflow with reports to be emailed in scheduled times. Charts Chart type and data points defined for specific reports Chart editor allow customization to create multiple types Dashboards Customizable dashboards that can be arrange in tabs; default adoption dashboard giving information on how others use system Real time dashboards with all entity information having multiple formats Fields Administrators can add new fields to objects New fields can be added to existing or custom entities Objects Object can be added having relationship with parent object , master detail or many to many relationship Entities added can be related to other entities with one to one, many to one or one to many relationships or cascading Development APEX allow advanced development SDK allow advanced development and integration and .NET framework can be used for writing custom codes Advanced search Search filters for objects or ownership criteria Any field within any entity can be searched and result can be saved as a view for single time Duplicate entry detection Matches found for lead, account, contact and opportunities One entity and its sub records can be checked for duplicates Background process notify duplication and suggest action Records merging Up to 3 records can be merged into one for creating master record and remaining records go to recycle bin Only 2 records can be merged and records not needed are marked inactive Workflow Workflow rules are triggered by record creation; processes have to be approved Windows Workflow Foundation is used and workflow can be made automatic or can be run on demand; Dialogues used for guiding users through Wizard Authentication Tow factor authentication including login code and email code Windows Live ID used for authentication on any machine Data importing Data loaded is used for importing object, contact or account data into object Import Data Wizard used for importing database, accounts, and contact records Outlook integration Free plugin for Outlook 2007 and 2010 Native outlook client which is connected even offline Office integration Microsoft word and excel add ins available with support for 1000 records per merge Word mail merges can be initiated from CRM; Personal or organizational merges to single contacts for multiple records in single pages available; Static or dynamic worksheets can be imported in excel, pivot table can be linked to CRM Collaboration Salesforce chatter is a proprietary collaboration tool Collaboration with SharePoint server for document sharing, reporting, and information sharing. Yammer integration released in 2012 Lead capture HTML web forms used for lead generation Landing pages can be created within web forms 3rd Party Solutions Internal AppExchange and 3rd party solutions Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace provide solutions that can be imported to CRM(BRITE GLOBAL, INC., 2013) Information Technology Innovations Sales force CRM is ideal for organizations having large workforce. For a huge database of organization, the solution provides improved forecasting accuracy with consolidated view of all the account activities over cloud. A peek into account and transaction history can increase visibility of the system performance and same customers can be reached by the cloud user for cross-selling. Salesforce solution allows complete phase out of legacy system such that entire CRM capabilities are built into Sales force CRM(Wipro, 2015). Some of the business benefits that Salesforce CRM can provide to an organization include: With online capabilities, people working on salesforce CRM can collaborate in new ways that is not possible with the on premise CRM With social media incorporated in marketing technology of solution, a 360 degree view of customer can be obtained Business case could be studied with hypothesis testing for obtaining agility of SaaS model With reduced redundancies, maintenance costs are reduced(Raj, Garlotte, Taylor, 2014) Microsoft CRM has its own business benefits. First, the solution is backed with finance which is used for providing assurance of 99.9% uptime which makes them accountable to customers. Cost of Microsoft CRM has al-functions included at one price making it a cost effective solution and thus, can be used by large as well as smaller corporations. The solution allows more storage capabilities of over 5GB as compared to Salesforce with its online and on-premise versions combined. Outlook users can keep CRM information saved locally as Outlook is a proprietary software of Microsoft. However, in case of Salesforce, a company would have to pay extra to gain offline access which increases overall costs(Microsoft, 2015). Security Risks Security of data is the biggest concern in the cloud computing as it works on a data sharing model and thus, associated risks have to be addressed carefully by the cloud service provider in order to remain effective and protect information assets of the organization using CRM solution over cloud. The maintenance of security of the systems over cloud is a joint responsibility of the cloud service provider and the organization using the solution. Clarity is thus required on what security related areas have to be managed by the cloud service provider(Merrill, 2014). In case of CRM, the cloud platform faces certain risks very prominently as suggested by Cloud Service Alliance (CSA) such as hacking, illegal access to networks, information stealing, data loss, data segregation, and privacy encroachments. Data faces a risk of loss or theft while in transit and thus, encryption and authentication are required to be established while transferring a data over cloud. This can be done through the use of IPSec (Internet Protocol Security). For prevention from the hackers, anti-virus software may be used over the cloud by the service provider(Ahmat, 2013). Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses anti-virus and anti-spam technologies to protect their cloud platform. The security features are built into the online CRM solution itself at no additional costs for implementation. Administrators can use these features for performing couple of tasks such as controlling permissions, defining security policies, and set compliance requirements. A procedure called Governance, Risk and Compliance is used for analysis and mitigation planning for security risks faced by the cloud platform. Governance concerns with policies, employee training on security aspects, and monitoring of employee activities to check if their actions adhere to policy requirements. Risk management process used by Microsoft for its CRM involves a systematic flow of activities including identification of risks, their analysis, evaluation of potential impact, and identification of remedy and mitigation of identified risks. Risk mitigation plan prioritizes risks based on their organizational impact levels. The objectives of GRC program include assurance of data privacy, compliance, confidentiality, and provision of data for appropriate decision making to arrive at security specific solutions in case of issues. The risk management process used by Microsoft is designed considering certain privacy and confidentiality principles including honoring of policies, minimization of unauthorized access, minimization of data loss impact, application of document controls, use of data classification for critical and sensitive data, deployment of data stewards who can ensure control of data assets, development of a secure infrastructure, identity and access control measures, information protection, establishing of auditing and reporting procedures(Microsoft Corporation, 2013). In case of Salesforce, the security governance is based on ISO 27002 framework that takes into consideration certain components for maintenance of security and these include employees, security staff, counsel, assessments, and policies. Employees receive security and privacy training as per the demand of their roles. Further, to support clients, Salesforce has a dedicated staff of Certified Information Systems Security professionals that are available to guide organizations into security aspects. It also has a Global Privacy counsel that helps organizations with compliance issues. Regular vulnerability assessments on internal and external usage of cloud are conducted by Salesforce for identifying and resolving vulnerabilities. In each phase of solution development, Salesforce has certain guiding principles for maintaining security including designing, coding, testing, and stage prior to release. The company makes its own systems secure by deploying certain major security measures such as Stateful Packet Inspection, Bastion Hosts, Two-factor authentication, End to End TLS/SSL and so on. Case Studies Figure 1: Laudon Case Study Diagram (Laudon Laudon, 2014) As per the Laudon case study diagram, when adopting an information technology solution like CRM, four key areas of company are affected and thus, decisions are based on the impact this technology is likely have on these areas. These include management of the organization, organization, its information system, arising business challenges that are currently faced by the organization and solutions that can be arrived at with the use of technology. This case study approach can be used to make a comparison between two available CRM technologies such that a decision may be taken for choosing the more suitable solution for organizational need. How each of the Laudon case study aspects are affected in case of CRM solution for each option is illustrated in the table below: Laudon Case Study Factor Salesforce CRM Microsoft Dynamics CRM Management: Management is concerned with two aspects of technology and these are knowledge management and training requirement Management requires knowledge to be able to make decisions and Salesforce offers capturing of expert knowledge both through web self-service option and through Salesforce Agents. Salesforce Service Cloud provides highest level of Knowledge Centered Services (KCS) verification. Salesforce agents contribute to content through updates on best implementation practices of knowledge acquisition and management. eGain which is one of the Customer engagement application provided by AppExchange engine of Salesforce allows capturing of customer knowledge through recording of all kinds of interactions with them including chats and emails. Contact center agents help customers resolve their queries through the platform. For people of the organization to be able to work on Salesforce CRM, training and expert certification is provided by the company which enables professionals to develop intelligent cloud based applications over salesforce and use the knowledge for operating and customizing CRM solution. Different levels of certifications are provided including cloud consultant, developer and administrator Knowledge management suite of Microsoft can be integrated with the CRM such that solution agents are added with ability to collaborate and use a centralized repository for getting real time information. A seamless on demand access if provided to each agent through Moxie knowledge solution. With single user credentials both CRM and Moxie knowledge management system can be used(Moxie, 2015). In the current release of Microsoft CRM, some capabilities of knowledge management are added within solution such as content authoring, video and graphics embedding, versioning, translation and knowledge management dashboards providing life cycle reviews, schedule details, and context search. For training, Microsoft provides Dynamics CRM certifications that can be studied both online and in classrooms where professionals are trained on using and developing applications over CRM solution Organization Change in the learning process and in the organizational culture Employees need to gain expert knowledge through certification processes for using the CRM solution and thus, users adopting solution have high degree of capabilities. As Salesforce adopted can facilitate relief from legacy systems, the organization would start using the solution for all CRM needs which would need a change in culture as employees would have to become customer centric which is the approach taken on development of the CRM solution. Further, people would have to start taking and understanding 360 degree view of customers which would enable all users to have both technical and management capabilities. Employees need to gain expert knowledge through certification processes for using the CRM solution and thus, users adopting solution have high degree of capabilities. The culture of the organization would face a change with move into the cloud solution and collaborations would happen online with real time visibility into each others work. Employee would require to be more trusting and closely collaborating with increased capability to respond faster to their clients with availability of real time data and information. Information systems The legacy systems can be eliminated and all other capabilities can be integrated with Salesforce. This would reduce cost of implementation and operation with single license of Salesforce. Most organizations already use Microsoft solutions for OS, Office and the use of its CRM would make integration with older systems easy. Organization would get add on benefits and easy implementation with integration with its legacy systems Business Challenges Solutions Some of the major challenges in a business can be resolved with the use of Salesforce CRM such as understanding of customers as it provides a 360 degree view with marketing information integration, centralization of information, fast collaboration capabilities such that all partners have visibility into processes and so on Microsoft Dynamics provide cash flow capabilities that simplifies accounting practices of the company which can be avoid a major challenge that can result from financial crisis which is avoided with high level of visibility into accounts. The reporting to management can become complicated with increased staff but with the use of Dynamics, reporting is simplified with real time connectivity(Lacouture, 2013). Recommendations Both solutions have their own benefits when considering adoption for any organization and an organization may choose to implement a solution based on their own requirements. For instance, a large organization that requires a very strong CRM solution that is also secure, may go for Salesforce. For such a company, the internal processes have to be strong and adaptable enough to release legacy system and train all employees on the new CRM solution to take the most out of Salesforce CRM. However, in case of a smaller organization with resistant employees who are used to working with office solutions, Microsoft would be an obvious choice as it would require least efforts in integration and training and at the same time, deployment would be faster and cheaper for specific suits. Thus, a company must analyze its current situation as per the Laudon case study to be able to select an appropriate solution for the organization considering requirements of implementation, training, cultural chang es and so on. References Ahmat, K. A. (2013). Emerging Cloud Computing Security Threats. City University of New York. Brite Global, Inc. (2013). CRM and Salesforce Product Comparison. Brite Global. Lacouture, P. A. (2013). 6 Reasons CFOs Select Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Solve their Business Challenges. Microsoft. Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J. P. (2014). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. New York: Pearson Education Limited. Laudon, K. Laudon, J. (2001).Essentials of management information systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lucey, T. (2005).Management information systems. London: Thomson Learning. McFarlan, F. McKenney, J. (1983).Corporate information systems management. Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin. McLeod, R. 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