Outlook BCM vs. Dynamics CRM
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From: reha on 25 Feb 2010 04:52 is there anybody who can explain the major difference between Outlook with Business Contact Manager and Dynamics CRM?
From: Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert on 25 Feb 2010 08:32 You asked a very interesting question. I am answering it here, crossposting to microsoft.public.outlook.bcm (where all we talk about is BCM) and will post a copy on my website as well. That's why the reply is unusually detailed. The primary differentiator that really matters to most customers, in my opinion, is availability of support and Sharepoint integration features, but you will pay for this dearly. BCM is supported by a relatively few people including myself whereas MS Dynamics CRM is a well-supported mature product. I love the BCM product, but CRM integrates with the rest of Dynamics family of products and Sharepoint extremely well. BCM's customization opportunities are limited due to its relatively small support ecosystem unless you happen to be a software developer. It's much easier to hire a Dynamics CRM customization expert. We are required to be trained and certified in order to sell Dynamics CRM and Microsoft invests very heavily in its partners like me who offer such complex solutions. On the big plus side, BCM is a lot less expensive than Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Before we talk about the strengths of the product, have you ever priced CRM 4.0? A 5-user CRM deployment under open value license would cost you $3093. You'll also need SBS 2008 Premium to run it (otherwise SQL costs eat you alive) which is another $2916. You may argue against software assurance, but everyone wants to upgrade eventually and then they find out it costs more than it would have been with SA. Quite frankly, there is no choice in this instance. So there you have a $6000 solution. By the way, it is not possible to buy CRM without Software Assurance as a volume license product. It is also not possible to buy this product at retail, unlike BCM that can be purchased as part of retail Office 2007 and 2010 packages. While Microsoft has a marginally attractive $44/mo/user offer, the Workgroup edition includes 5 CALs in which case it's $220/mo for 5 users based on $44/user/mo. I would actually make a lot more money selling you the online version of CRM than I would if I were to sell you the on-premises solution. It's significantly less expensive to install the product locally if you already have the infrastructure. And this is just the Workgroup edition. Professional (required for more than 5 users) and Enterprise are priced at $1236/user. The CRM Professional server costs $2475 and comes with one CAL so we'd need to add 4 more CALs to match the 5 built-in CALs in CRM Workgroup server edition. Thus, the actual true value of the Workgroup server package before any other costs is $7419 and not $3093. Customers with CRM 4.0 and 3yr software assurance will receive CRM 5.0 and related CALs as part of their SA benefits and at no additional charge. A competent SQL professional can make the BCM product do pretty interesting things as an SDK is available to extend it. Web-based components, 10+ users etc. :) This does put things into perspective a bit, right? :) It is possible to upgrade from BCM to the full-blown CRM. It's not an intuitive solution, however. I am tempted to actually write a good conversion tool for this and sell a complete conversion service. As long as you spend less than $5000 over three years on customization, you'll come out ahead using BCM vs. CRM. While BCM 2007 is already a great product, in my opinion, BCM 2010 is promising to be an even more mature product. http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2009/08/26/bcm-2010-customization-101-form-customization.aspx but you will still have to rely on fairly limited support channels. I've been committed to supporting the BCM product since BCM 2003 and CRM since CRM 1.2 as 1.0 was not ready, to put it mildly. If the features BCM offers you are sufficient for your organization, you may find it to be a good alternative to MS CRM. Otherwise, it's the cost of development + support vs. buying a supported solution with features available out of the box. BCM runs on SQL server, so your data can be manipulated in infinite ways if you hire a reports writing professional. Bottom line is this: If you have more time than money, BCM is great. If you have more money than time, Dynamics CRM is superior but comes at a price. :) -- Leonid S. Knyshov Crashproof Solutions 510-282-1008 Twitter: @wiseleo http://crashproofsolutions.com Microsoft Small Business Specialist Please vote "helpful" if I helped you :) "reha" wrote: > is there anybody who can explain the major difference between Outlook with > Business Contact Manager and Dynamics CRM?
From: reha on 26 Feb 2010 03:08
leonid, thank you very much for the detailed explanation indeed. it greatly helped me to understand it much better. regards "Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert" wrote: > You asked a very interesting question. > > I am answering it here, crossposting to microsoft.public.outlook.bcm (where > all we talk about is BCM) and will post a copy on my website as well. That's > why the reply is unusually detailed. > > The primary differentiator that really matters to most customers, in my > opinion, is availability of support and Sharepoint integration features, but > you will pay for this dearly. > > BCM is supported by a relatively few people including myself whereas MS > Dynamics CRM is a well-supported mature product. > > I love the BCM product, but CRM integrates with the rest of Dynamics family > of products and Sharepoint extremely well. > > BCM's customization opportunities are limited due to its relatively small > support ecosystem unless you happen to be a software developer. It's much > easier to hire a Dynamics CRM customization expert. We are required to be > trained and certified in order to sell Dynamics CRM and Microsoft invests > very heavily in its partners like me who offer such complex solutions. > > On the big plus side, BCM is a lot less expensive than Microsoft Dynamics > CRM. Before we talk about the strengths of the product, have you ever priced > CRM 4.0? > > A 5-user CRM deployment under open value license would cost you $3093. > You'll also need SBS 2008 Premium to run it (otherwise SQL costs eat you > alive) which is another $2916. You may argue against software assurance, but > everyone wants to upgrade eventually and then they find out it costs more > than it would have been with SA. Quite frankly, there is no choice in this > instance. > > So there you have a $6000 solution. By the way, it is not possible to buy > CRM without Software Assurance as a volume license product. It is also not > possible to buy this product at retail, unlike BCM that can be purchased as > part of retail Office 2007 and 2010 packages. > > While Microsoft has a marginally attractive $44/mo/user offer, the Workgroup > edition includes 5 CALs in which case it's $220/mo for 5 users based on > $44/user/mo. I would actually make a lot more money selling you the online > version of CRM than I would if I were to sell you the on-premises solution. > It's significantly less expensive to install the product locally if you > already have the infrastructure. And this is just the Workgroup edition. > Professional (required for more than 5 users) and Enterprise are priced at > $1236/user. The CRM Professional server costs $2475 and comes with one CAL so > we'd need to add 4 more CALs to match the 5 built-in CALs in CRM Workgroup > server edition. > > Thus, the actual true value of the Workgroup server package before any other > costs is $7419 and not $3093. > > Customers with CRM 4.0 and 3yr software assurance will receive CRM 5.0 and > related CALs as part of their SA benefits and at no additional charge. > > A competent SQL professional can make the BCM product do pretty interesting > things as an SDK is available to extend it. Web-based components, 10+ users > etc. :) > > This does put things into perspective a bit, right? :) > > It is possible to upgrade from BCM to the full-blown CRM. It's not an > intuitive solution, however. I am tempted to actually write a good conversion > tool for this and sell a complete conversion service. > > As long as you spend less than $5000 over three years on customization, > you'll come out ahead using BCM vs. CRM. > > While BCM 2007 is already a great product, in my opinion, BCM 2010 is > promising to be an even more mature product. > http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2009/08/26/bcm-2010-customization-101-form-customization.aspx > but you will still have to rely on fairly limited support channels. > > I've been committed to supporting the BCM product since BCM 2003 and CRM > since CRM 1.2 as 1.0 was not ready, to put it mildly. > > If the features BCM offers you are sufficient for your organization, you may > find it to be a good alternative to MS CRM. Otherwise, it's the cost of > development + support vs. buying a supported solution with features available > out of the box. BCM runs on SQL server, so your data can be manipulated in > infinite ways if you hire a reports writing professional. > > Bottom line is this: If you have more time than money, BCM is great. If you > have more money than time, Dynamics CRM is superior but comes at a price. :) > -- > Leonid S. Knyshov > Crashproof Solutions > 510-282-1008 > Twitter: @wiseleo > http://crashproofsolutions.com > Microsoft Small Business Specialist > Please vote "helpful" if I helped you :) > > > "reha" wrote: > > > is there anybody who can explain the major difference between Outlook with > > Business Contact Manager and Dynamics CRM? |