A good CRM solution enables businesses to thrive and generate more revenue by maintaining good relations with clients. One such solution is Microsoft Dynamics CRM that can be installed on-premises and focuses on Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. With Microsoft focuses on the cloud with its much-hyped Microsoft Dynamics 365, organizations that are running Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premise are pondering whether a switch from Dynamics CRM on-premise to Dynamics 365 on cloud makes sense. Apart from there are a lot more questions that are related to migration to cloud such as data security, integrity, backup, etc.
These are really pertinent questions as many organizations have invested huge sum to get CRM on-premise with SQL Server, hardware, server licenses, and user accounts. Once the organizations have invested in that technology, it’s really very uncommon to throw away all the things and then invest in the cloud. However, one daunting fact is that as the technology is evolving, organizations need to change. In order to stay competitive, they need to make expensive and disruptive updates to their on-premise systems. Even if they make these changes, they would always lag behind the value curve. Though Dynamics CRM on-premise offers greater customization and integration of all services yet the companies are themselves responsible for the costs of maintaining the hardware and the IT infrastructure in case of on-premise deployment.
Marching towards the cloud
Improve security, privacy, and reliability: – Dynamics 365 hosted in Microsoft Azure offers you an obvious advantage as users can access it wherever they are and whenever they want to. With Dynamics 365, organizations don’t require to install software on individual devices. With a cloud-based instance of Dynamics 365, the software “lives” on Microsoft’s servers, so all you need to use it is an internet connection and a web browser. As Azure is Microsoft own web service platform, it is primarily responsible for maintaining your entire software infrastructure from their end. This includes managing security measures, issuing updates, and performing data backups.
Real-time view: – With Dynamics 365 on cloud, all you need is an internet connection to access it. Nothing needs to be installed on individual machines. With your business solution available on the internet, the workforce can use, edit and share the documents or information in real-time. Field workers can easily get access to important documents such as customer information, updates, etc., to deliver improved customer services.
Bring all data together: – Dynamics 365 is an innovative tool with five applications – Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Service Automation, and Marketing that operates & purchased as stand-alone or seamlessly together. You can leverage the common data model to have a 360-degree view of your business. Dynamics 365 in the cloud offers deep integration with PowerBI as well as other popular services like Office 365, SharePoint, and Outlook. Deep integration enables you to track emails, view contact information and history, and create new records directly from Outlook, edit Excel and Word files in the Dynamics interface. By breaking down barriers between the applications you use every day, Dynamics 365 in the cloud helps in increasing productivity.
Business Intelligence & Machine Learning: – Dynamics 365 in Microsoft Azure empowers your team with the tools and information which they need to compete, succeed, and excel. Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) and machine learning (ML) based predictive analytics help you to make more informed decisions. Intuitive, customizable reports and dashboards of D365 enable you to spot trends, customer behavior or to identify key performance metrics.
Improved Mobility: – Dynamics 365 on cloud enables users to access data through different mobile devices, such as a smartphone or tablet. By enabling staff members access data and business applications from any location through connected devices help in improving the productivity across the organization. With staff members working at a plant or in a field, visiting consumers at their offices or performing other on-field operations getting access to real-time information, through mobile devices ensure the highest levels of service, availability and customer engagement.
The Bottom Line
Though Dynamics 365 is considered as a further iteration of Dynamics CRM, yet it delivers added advantage to fast growing organizations. Dynamics in the cloud offers more scalability as the size and scope of the solution can easily be scaled up or down at any time. For growing organizations, scaling up on-premise Dynamics CRM means more investment in new servers and processors to cope with the increasing demand. Dynamics 365 cloud solution on Azure reduces the complexity associated with managing hardware and software. As backups, upgrades, and patches are managed by Microsoft, your IT team gets the opportunity to focus on real issues. With Microsoft “cloud first, mobile first” approach, cloud users will be at the front of the line when it comes to getting more from their CRM and ERP solutions, putting them at a competitive advantage in their markets.
How can we help you?
Migration to cloud requires essential IT changes and sound knowledge of the latest technology. Before migration, decision makers want a concrete strategy as well as answers related to their concerns. inoday as a direct Cloud Service Partner offers you frank advice on security models, performance models, process models and data models related to your requirements. We hold the small and mid-market cloud solutions competency, enabling your business to migrate from on-premise to Azure.
