Powerful integration wtih Outlook enables users to track email, appointments, tasks, and contacts into the system to be shared with other users. The UI looks very nice with minimal effort and we were able to get the system up and running quickly. We have a lot of integrations with SharePoint and Office products also.

Heavy UI and somewhat clicky, requires extra work to make a smooth user experience. Performance is not great on Vista/IE7 but we see significant improvements when using more modern laptops with Win 7 64-bit and IE9.

Early issues with the Outlook integration were solved in Update Rollup 10. If your primary business users need to track email in the tool, you should seriously consider this product. Users who need a lightweight web/forms application with no Office integration will have less impetus to use MS Dynamics CRM. Microsoft is investing heavily in this space and the product is really cheap when you consider everything you're getting.

Disclosure: I work for a company whose sole business is Dynamics CRM Dynamics CRM is far more than the "CRM" would indicate. Whilst it had its origins in a sales-marketing solution, it can be (and is) used for a variety of functions as it is really a platform on top of a SQL database. MS likes to talk about non-sales & marketing implementations as "XRM" where X is a variable that can be almost anything you wish. I specialize in healthcare applications, and have branded the soluitions built on the platform as "RxRM" products. The power of the platform is significant. The built-in workflows and processes can be easily configured without programming skills to manage processes from the very simple to the highly complex, and the dashboards and analytics are better than anything I've seen out-of-the-box, and extraordinary with a bit of configuration. Additionally, it is easy to write solutions and plug-ins to accomplish specific tasks and/or add capabilities - for example, my company has a dozen or so "PowerPacks" that enable email campaigns with full tracking, surveys, event planning and registration, billing/credit cards, barcoding, document sharing and a bunch of other stuff and all the activities and data are automatically tracked in CRM. soem of these have utility in the RxRM solutions, and some don't - it's easy to pick and choose and install/use with a couple of mouse clicks. As there is seamless interoperability with other MS products, working directly with Dynamics CRM in the RxRM world takes advantage of Outlook, Word, Excel, SharePoint. This enables rapid user adoption, as the tools and supports are familiar, leverages investments the organization has already made in most instances (MS Office, SharePoint etc.) and extends the functionality/utlity considerably. In PowerObjects RxRM, the economy with which powerful solutions to common problems can be developed is astonishing. I come from the custom software world and am constantly surprised at how inexpensively and quickly solutions can be developed. So far, we have used Dynamics CRM/RxRM for a Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS), Physician Referral Management (PRM), grant application/Investigator Initiated Trial submission and management (IIT), chronic disease management (CDM), case management, home healthcare management, call centers, telemedicine and more. What characterizes these systems across the board is the management of process and data visibility/reporting - essentially, the system makes sure what needs to get done gets done, and the right people are be made aware of performance trends, issues and opportunities.

The current interface is clunky/old fashioned, although that will be changing in December/January with the Polaris release update. Out-of-the-box the sales & makretign heritage is very predominant, and it takes some vision to understand how you can morph it (not that that is hard) into meetign the "X" need. Until Polaris, there is no non-IE browser support.

Microsoft does not configure Dynamics CRM. They use partners to do that, and provide 99.9% of the support. Myadvice to anyone looking at Dynamics CRM is to be REALLY selective about the partner chosen to configure/customize/support - soem are much better (and less expensive) than others.

Provides a solid platform for tracking the sales cycle. Enables me to enter hundreds of leads and the important information pertaining to those leads. The function I most often use is "Activity / Task" which allows me to track all meetings, phone calls, emails and events associated with each lead. When integrated with Microsoft Outlook, the Activity / Task can be updated to alert me on the exact time / date of the next scheduled activity. My firm also allows us to use Microsoft CRM to view leads and opportunities of other sales people (so no one is stepping on each other's feet), providing great transparency throughout our company.

The actual process of entering a lead and updating the lead to opportunity / client / work completed is tedious. I usually have to spend a few hours on the weekends or later at night updating my CRM so that I am not wasting the precious business-day hours.

From what I hear around our office, it just depends on the user preference. Some of my co-workers still use ACT or Salesforce because they could not handle the transition to Microsoft CRM.

- Customization - Good for due diligence / financials

- Not very user-friendly / overwhelming - Difficult to navigate - Slow / Clunky - Although good for both financials and due diligence, I wouldn't recommend for Sales

Salesforce > Microsoft CRM

The new interface that looks and feels more like a combination between Outlook and Facebook. It is intuitive, logically laid out, and gives you everything you need at a glance. No more clicking through level after level. And the "follow" feature is absolutely amazing -- as a salesperson I can follow all of my accounts and see when any consultant or support analyst logs work or a case against it, keeping me totally up to date without having to seek that information out.

So far.....nothing!

Give the 30-day CRM online trial serious consideration. You will be sold.