SharePortals vs Dynamics 365 — How Does It Compare?

How Does It Compare: SharePortals is the competitively priced answer to Microsoft Dynamics 365

When we compare the two, SharePortals is the competitively priced alternative to Microsoft Dynamics 365 — but that's not all there is to it. SharePortals gives you everything you need in a Microsoft/SharePoint-based CRM and case management platform without the comparative overhead complexities and costs associated with Dynamics 365.

Our founder, Steffen Gorgas, has recently spoken with an SME using Dynamics 365 as their core CRM. We wanted to learn about their experience using Dynamics 365 and where Betasoft (the makers of SharePortals) can help them better understand not just what they are paying for, but what they are missing out on by not making the best of their existing Microsoft tenant.

Steffen Gorgas Talks SharePortals & Dynamics 365:

"I spoke to a small-ish company last week who are using Dynamics 365 as a basic CRM, to manage contact information and sales opportunities. They were after a way to provide simple forecasting. Pretty basic stuff, really. I asked them why they chose Dynamics 365 Sales and they replied that they thought it would work well with the other 365 apps they use. They pay £50 per user per month.

Naturally, they are not Dynamics experts. If anything goes wrong or they are looking for changes to their setup, they’ll have to rely on external consultancy or some form of annual application support contract. Neither of those options are cheap. For long-term Dynamics contracts you will have to pay a median day rate of £500. For ad-hoc work you are talking double that.

Dynamics 365 is a fabulous and immensely capable solution to manage pre- and post-sales information and processes right within your Microsoft 365 tenant. But a wealth of capabilities results in unwanted complexity. Scalability and enterprise-readiness create even further complexity when managing and changing a solution. For most SMEs this is not something they can manage in-house.

Many years ago, we (Betasoft Solutions) looked at using Dynamic 365 for ourselves. The initial CRM template was a great start. However, once you start making changes you realise there is more than meets the eye. I eventually gave up doing it in-house and contacted a Dynamics partner.

To my surprise, the cost for scoping, designing and implementing alone was eye-watering. Ongoing support costs would certainly kill any chance of an ROI. Hence, we abandoned that route.

Similarly, about 10 years ago were providing IT support to small organisation in Glasgow. One day we learned that they also had opted to deploy a Dynamics CRM solution to onboard customers. Again, pretty basic requirements. When they shared the implementation and ongoing license and support costs we felt: 'Eye-watering' doesn't begin to cover it.

This became a great motivation to forge ahead with our investment in and development of SharePortals as a competitively priced Dynamics 365 alternative. We believed there was a great appetite in the market for a simple, Microsoft 365 integrated CRM platform at an SME friendly price point. One that makes the most of SharePoint's document management capabilities and provides a brilliant Outlook add-in too.

We also tried really hard to make interfaces that are simple and user-friendly. when you begin to use SharePortals you begin to realise that it covers most of your daily Office 365 workflows, including Teams, Outlook, Planner, Word and Excel."

The Value of SharePortals Compared to Dynamics 365

SharePortals most popular license option is £50 per user per month, billed annually. That will give you:

• Full functionality

• 4-hr SLA technical support

• 4 hours implementation and customisation consultancy per license per year.

For a 10-user setup we include 40 hours (a weeks' worth) of assistance that you can access ad-hoc at any time. That is usually sufficient for 99% of setups. When we compare the costs of SharePortals to Dynamics 365, the equivalent D365 license is also £50 per user per month, but there is neither the support nor the consultancy built in to support your investment.

SharePortals vs Dynamics 365: The Real Question

Dynamics 365 is a great solution, but SharePortals gives you what your business actually needs without the inherent complexity and noisiness of the do-it-all Dynamics 365 software.

So what businesses of all sizes really need to ask themselves honestly is:

Can you really afford to go without technical support for a business-critical solution like your CRM, when it comes the level of complexity present in Dynamics 365?

If you wisely answered no to this question, reach out to the SharePortals team and we'll help you better understand what SharePortals can do for your business.

For more reading, visit our comparison hub for a direct run-down on how SharePortals and Dynamics 365 compare.