Any CRM platforms that have API access and an easy

Question

We're investigating other CRM platforms before investing time/money in updating our current Salesforce-based CRM.

Here's what we're looking for:

• Easy migration of Salesforce data
• A support contact
• A community of developers and consultants
• Custom objects
• A customizable interface
• API access (in our case, we would use it for a syncing daemon that controls delivery of our content)
• Ideally: Ruby libraries, such as ActiveSalesforce, for interacting with that API

Are there any options (besides Salesforce) that meet those needs? If so, would the migration be worthwhile, keeping in mind that we have a partial Salesforce-based solution already?

Answer 1

We ended up staying with Salesforce. We didn't find any extremely compelling reasons to migrate away from it, although we may still be open to other CRMs.

Answer 2

Easy answer is Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Granted that answer is a bit biased. =)

Here are reasons for your points -

• Easy migration of Salesforce data

  • I could talk for a while on data migration. Not many CRM solutions have complete all-inclusive migrations because extensible CRM solutions can be chaotic.. Microsoft CRMs data import is very flexible in that it gives you a nice template which you can populate with the information from SalesForce. The Microsoft CRM entities are easily modified through an interface so if your SF.com data doesn't match the out of the box structure that Microsoft CRM comes with, you can simply extend it with a little point and click. With the new edition (Dynamics CRM 2011) you can extend the entities on the fly during the import - this can cut hours out of a migration. Microsoft CRM also has adapters from third party tools such as Scribe which come with adapters for other products including SF.com. You can rent these products for 90 days for a one-time fee. I would only recommend going with one of these migration products if your data is extremely customized or if you have a lot of notes/file attachments in your data.

• A support contact

  • Microsoft CRM offers free support through there support line. For training, support, and consulting you can go through a partner such as the one I work for.

• A community of developers and consultants

  • Being a Microsoft product you there is a lot of community support (me). Microsoft CRM is the choice CRM platform for .NET developers. Microsoft has forums specifically for key areas of the product - http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/dynamics
  • Microsoft CRM has training throughout the interface (Getting Started panes) to help get you up to speed and there is a resource center with a lot of good training information built into the interface.

• Custom objects

  • Microsoft CRM allows you to make custom entities, custom attributes, and custom relationships (no limit to the number that I've seen). These additions are made through a safe customer interface that is very intuitive and the background data store is a SQL Server database. You must be a system administrator or system customizer (Microsoft CRM security roles) to be able to make these changes.

• A customizable interface

  • Microsoft CRM 2011 has the most customizable user interface that I've seen in a CRM product. It comes with 3 modules (Sales, Marketing, and Service) but is extendable to allow other areas. These areas can even be taking completely out and the product can be refocused for your business (hence xRM, x can be anything). An example of this is that the US Airforce uses Microsoft CRM to track tasks - http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000003059.

  • API access (in our case, we would use it for a syncing daemon that controls delivery of our content)

  • Microsoft CRM has an open web service that allows access to do anything you are able to do via the interface. Plugins can be written in C# to handle events (insert/update/assign...) synchronously and asynchronously. You would simply need to hook up your application to the web service. If you use languages other than C#, you can still communicate with CRM's web service via its WSDL.

Other reasons you should look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM:

• Microsoft CRM is one of the only CRM models that lets you choose your model, they call it the power of choice. You can start with Microsoft CRM Online (hosted in the cloud by Microsoft) for a low monthly per user per month price. If you need more customization/dedicated hardware then is available with Microsoft CRM Online, you can have a partner host it for you. If you grow beyond that you can easily get a SQL backup from partner or Microsoft and take it in house with Microsoft CRM on-premise. (On-premise supports direct SQL reads from the database vs. just being able to get data via calling web services).
• Microsoft CRM is accessible via Internet Explorer or via Microsoft Outlook (with client installed). Microsoft CRM is the only CRM solution with native Microsoft Outlook client and if you use any of the Microsoft front office stack, you will have better integration and easier user adoption than with any other CRM product.

You would be well off to make the move if you are looking for a flexible, better priced enterprise class solution. Feel free to ask questions.