Switching from Salesforce to Microsoft Dynamics

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We are considering a move to Microsoft Dynamics from Salesforce. I wanted to see if anyone has done this move before and what your pain points were during the move. Any suggestions on plan of attack if/when we do move? 

Is there anything Salesforce can do as a CRM that Dynamics cannot? 

[Edward_Masson]

We have not gone through one because of connection issues, we stuck with SFDC.
If memory serves, its not a native connection like SFDC and uses middle ware to connect through SOAP API.
Below is a link with discussions on Dynamics and issues folks have:

Community Discussions: https://community.marketo.com/SolrSearchDetailPage?page=0&searchText=Microsoft%20Dynamics%20Sync&sor...

Microsoft Dynamics Sync: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDeepDive?id=kA5500000008QNICA2

[Anonymous]

Subscribing

[Nichole_Cunnin4]

Don't do it. We are switching from Dynamics to SFDC. If you're looking to get your reporting running correctly i.e  revenue explorer, opportunity influence analyzer, program analyzer etc, you will have an extremely hard time. It took us over a year to get everything running correctly.

Marketo was built to run/work best with SFDC. At best, things will work ok with Dynamics.

We also ran into the fact the Marketo-to-Dynamics does not have the ability to reopen a lead once it has been disqualified...this completely defeats the purpose of lead scoring when you want a previously disqualified lead that reaches a new score to open up.

Your sales reps may hate you too. If you want to build out the Marketing and sales BFF relationships, I wouldn't recommend the switch.

[Nichole_Cunnin4]

One other thing to note is you'll have to get an entirely NEW Marketo instance. It isn't just a simple unplug one and plug it into another.

You need to build everything out again, remap out all the fields, the entire lead lifecycle etc. We are going through it now and unless you are a Marketo expert and have a really good Marketo Operations/CRM team, it will be a difficult path.

[Jep_Castelein2]

I realize your post is from 2014, but wanted to provide an update for later reference. Marketo has developed a 'remove crm sync' tool, which is currently still experimental. It removes the SFDC or MS CRM sync from Marketo, including all Opportunities, Company records, Sales People, SFDC Campaigns and SFDC Activities. It can then be reconnected to another CRM. It also opens up the Company, Opportunity and Sales Person APIs if you need to do a custom sync (for example for NetSuite).

The 'remove crm sync' tool is currently still 'experimental', meaning that it is not officially supported. So far we have seen good results: it can be used to remove a native sync, then create a custom sync via the REST API. It also can be used for changing from one SFDC instance to another (or Microsoft CRM), going from SFDC to MS CRM and vice versa.

Switching between natively-synced CRM instances is more work than removing an old native CRM sync, because the switch also requires extensive field mapping and deduplication of new records. There is still a fair bit of work involved, but it's a lot easier than moving to a new instance, and most importantly it retains all activity data.

If - for whatever reason - the tool doesn't work for your particular Marketo instance, it may still be necessary to migrate to a new instance. However, so far that hasn't been necessary.

[Nichole_Cunnin4]

Also, the lead functionality is completely different in CRM vs SFDC.

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.

We had run into issues in Dyanamics where due to the updates that were flowing through to Dynamics, a rep wouldn't get leads for a week or two at a time.

Also, Sales Insight is not nearly as robust in Dynamics. In SFDC reps have the ability to add contacts to specifici nurture campaigns. In Dynamics, this functionality is not available and we have not been able to get an ETA on when it'll be available.

I could go on and on...but, feel free to ask questions if you have any additional. I've been through all sorts of migrations.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Nichole for the all your insights!!! 
I have no desire to switch but that is not my call unfortunately. But all your comments help me build a good case to maybe stay where we are.

I may take you  up on your offer if we do decide to move which I hope we don't!

[Anonymous]

(To Edward's comment, you now can integrate Dynamics CRM11 natively with Marketo, so no Boomi service required shuttling data across. If you use an older CRM, like Dynamics CRM 4.0, you'll need to use Boomi. I've likened Boomi to using two tin cans with a string attached. You can technically hear a muffled response, but it's not a telephone)

I've used both systems. What it comes down to is that you'll save cost on the front end. Dynamics comes in a roll-up of other Microsoft products. So you can for almost free add it & save a lot of cost. In return you need to hire two full time admins to run a robust system. Instead of so many things "just working" in Salesforce, they require extreme customization in MS Dynamics. You want a nice report in Dynamics, you'll have to push the data to a data warehouse and have an SQL wizard analyze it. 

This is Penny wise, Pound foolish. 

I've used both systems in the past year. We had extreme problems with Lead/Contact/Account data because 1-N, N-N relationships. You need a Dynamics Scholar / PhD to really run that system well. I can only say after nearly 3 years of Dynamics I am elated to be an SF admin.

If my current company told me that they were looking to cut costs and eliminate SF for Dynamics. I'd go on to LinkedIn and start updating my resume and applying for new jobs.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your feedback. This is helping me a lot and I will communicate your points to the decision maker.

Some questions for you:

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?

Adam: You said " Instead of so many things "just working" in Salesforce, they require extreme customization in MS Dynamics." can you please give me an example that I can use when talking to my execs? 
 

thanks again!