Switching from Salesforce to Microsoft Dynamics

[Anonymous]

We did a successful migration from SFDC to Dynamics CRM last year. It took some time and was quite painful, but we had good support from Marketo and Microsoft. In the end, we learned a lot, and Shad wrote up pages of detailed notes, tips and gotchas in this post:

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PezUAAS

Bottom line, our combined solution works pretty much the way it did in SFDC. We are missing a few features promised from Marketo, such as supporting the "add to campaign" feature of Marketo Sales Insight, as well as the great reporting and dashboarding capabilities in SFDC.

I'm sure Shad would be more than happy to answer any specific questions you have if you add them to the thread above.

And, we definitely would like to connect with other Marketo-Dynamics users at the upcoming Microsoft Convergence conference and/or Marketo Summit.

-Carl

[Edward_Masson]

You can technically hear a muffled response, but it's not a telephone
LOL, Adam, I want to use that...

[Nichole_Cunnin4]

I am expanding on this:

Nichole: You said " In Dynamics CRM, the leads get in a queue with all the other updates that are going through to CRM. Whereas with SFDC, the lead has the ability to go around all the other updates that are going through and get to the rep right away." Can you please expand on this?

The easiest way to explain the dynamics queueu is that it is it is like waiting in line to get the latest Apple product, you don't get it until you wait for the front of the line like everyone else. With SFDC, it is like you have a VIP pass and get to go around the big long line and go to the front to get the latest and greatest product.

Basically, in SFDC leads get VIP access/the ability to skip the line and go around all other updates. MS Dynamics, leads get no special treatment and have to wait like everyone else.

It is the way the programming is set up. Dynamics = bi-directional sync..

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I concur with all the posts above which accurately describe a lot of issues we've had to try to overcome or are still having to deal with.  Our company also switched from SFDC to save money prior to using Marketo (we switched from Eloqua 3years ago).  Knowing what I/we know now I would do anything and everything to dissuade your company from switching.

To add context around our particular journey, prior to the release of the native integration we had to use Boomi.  The basic set up process took over 9 months as MKTO had limited to zero experience with Dynamics and we suffered major reliability issues with the Boomi connector. 

We were thrilled when the native integration was announced and we thought this would resolve our problems.  Alas, this process has also been incredibly painful and drawn out but at least going native has addressed the reliability issues we had.  I will not add to the list of issues posted by Dynamics users within this thread but want to say that they are not exaggerated.  We still raise support cases on a regular basis.

As Nicole warned, you will lose functionality when switching from SFDC to Dynamics; limited MSI features, inability to sync to Microsoft Campaigns from Marketo (please help us by voting for this: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000JkoxAAC).  I fear that you will need to manage your Sales people’s expectations to ensure this change does not have a negative impact on the relationship between Sales and Marketing – as I am sure you have established.

I would like to hijack this thread for a moment as I have never found so many Dynamics users. Has anyone has gone from Microsoft Dynamics 2011 to 2013?  We're looking move Q1 2015. Does anyone have any advice/warnings?  Obviously, I'd also like to hear about how great and easy this process is - but I fear the worse...

Best of luck Sarrah.  Happy to help in any way so feel free to reach out.

Victoria