Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 vs. Salesforce.com: Why Microsoft is the better investment

With the advent of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 right around the corner, the choice between Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM just got a lot easier.  If you are a business that utilizes Microsoft Office applications, including Microsoft Outlook, choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 over Salesforce.com is a no brainer.

Here are the key differentiators that make Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 the better investment:

1)      Office Experience

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a true Microsoft Outlook application, not just a plugin
• SFDC is repealing Outlook features; for example, users can’t manage opportunities and leads anymore
• SFDC doesn’t have a concept of a fluid user interface

2)      Dashboards

• CRM 2011 inherits security and data privileges…SFDC does not
• CRM 2011 allows charts, lists, iFrames to be displayed…SFDC only reports
• CRM 2011 data is real time…SFDC has a lag of 30-60 minutes
• CRM 2011 allows for unlimited data refreshes.  SFDC limits refreshes

3)      Inline Analytics

• CRM 2011 offers Inline Analytics…SFDC does not have a parallel offering
• SFDC users must leave their task or process…open reports or dashboards..and hope that they don’t get distracted

4)      One-Click Drill Down

• CRM 2011 offers One-Click drill down…SFDC does not have a parallel offering
• SFDC users can click on a static image of a chart to pull up the full report.  From the full report they can drill down…7-15 clicks vs. 4 with CRM 2011

5)      User Interface Customizations

• CRM 2011 offers a new drag and drop capability for end users that is so easy
• SFDC offers UI personalization…but users can’t revert changes
• SFDC personalization features are for power users and administrators only

6)      Value Matters

• CRM 2011 Online – $44/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• SFDC Professional – $65/user/mo.
• SFDC Enterprise – $125/user/mo.
• SFDC Unlimited – $250/user/mo.

7)      Hidden Costs – aka, the SFDC Tax

• CRM 2011 Online – $44/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• SFDC – Data Storage (5GB) – $1,000/year
• SFDC – Mobile $/user/mo.
• SFDC – Knowledge Base – $/user/mo.
• SFDC – Customer Portal – $/user/mo.
• SFDC – Partner Portal – $/user/mo.
• SFDC – SLA – Not Available.  CRM 2011 has a 99.9% uptime, financially backed SLA.

Need to decrease the number of users?  SFDC does not allow the number of user subscriptions purchased to be decreased during the subscription term.

More Resources for Dynamics CRM Developers

Marc Schweigert of Microsoft has released more goodness for Dynamics CRM Developers.

His latest is this:

Unit testing CRM 2011 JavaScript web resources

This is in addition to this technique for plug-in developers:

How I develop and unit test CRM 2011 plugins

Also of interest is today's presentation of Team Development with Shan McArthur for the XrmVirtual User's Group:

http://www.xrmvirtual.com/events/team_dev_ShanMc_CRM2011

It's always great to see people putting the time and interest into topics that help us all do our jobs.

Thanks Gentlemen.

How to find the number of users connected to a SQL Server database

Hosk 

15 Nov 2012 8:24 AM 

• 0

I was having some intermittent problems with the connector.  When I turned on the connector it would soon be unable to connect to the SQL database.

I was thinking it maybe be had something to do with the SQL server limiting connections.

The code below will show you the amount of connections and how many on each database.  I found it in this forum post

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/216007/how-to-determine-total-number-of-open-active-connections-in-ms-sql-server-2005

SELECT

    DB_NAME(dbid) as DBName, 
    COUNT(dbid) as NumberOfConnections,
    loginame as LoginName
FROM
    sys.sysprocesses
WHERE 
    dbid > 0
GROUP BY 
    dbid, loginame

And this gives the total:

SELECT 
    COUNT(dbid) as TotalConnections
FROM
    sys.sysprocesses
WHERE 
    dbid > 0

SSRS: Quarter Filter Expression where May is the first month of Fiscal Year

StartDate=CDate(iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=1,"5/1/"&Parameters!Year.Value-1, iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=2,"8/1/"&Parameters!Year.Value-1, iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=3,"11/1/"&Parameters!Year.Value-1, "2/1/"&Parameters!Year.Value))))


EndDate=CDate(iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=1,"7/31/"&Parameters!Year.Value-1, iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=2,"10/31/"&Parameters!Year.Value-1, iif(Parameters!Quarter.Value=3,"1/31/"&Parameters!Year.Value, "4/30/"&Parameters!Year.Value))))

SSRS: Auto Fiscal Year

=IIf(Month(DateValue(Today))>4,Year(DateValue(Today))+1,Year(DateValue(Today)))

SSRS: Auto Current Quarter selections on Filter Parameter

=iif(
month(Globals!ExecutionTime)>=5 and month(Globals!ExecutionTime)<=7,1,
iif(
month(Globals!ExecutionTime)>=8 and month(Globals!ExecutionTime)<=10,2,
iif(month(Globals!ExecutionTime)>=2 and month(Globals!ExecutionTime)<=4,4,3
)
)
)