Dynamics 365 CRM vs Act! CRM

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Our analysts compared Dynamics 365 CRM vs Act! CRM based on data from our 400+ point analysis of CRM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Dynamics 365 CRM Software Tool
Act! CRM Software Tool

Product Basics

Dynamics 365 CRM streamlines customer relationship management through a cloud-based platform. Tailored for mid-size to large businesses, it centralizes interactions, automates workflows, and fosters data-driven insights. Key benefits include sales force automation, marketing campaign management, and service case tracking. Popular features like social listening and lead scoring help nurture potential customers. User reviews within the CRM landscape praise its robust customization options and seamless integration with other Microsoft products. However, the subscription-based pricing model, starting at per-user monthly fees, can be a cost consideration for smaller businesses.

Pros
  • Robust customization
  • Seamless Microsoft integration
  • Strong sales automation
  • Intuitive interface
  • Mobile app functionality
Cons
  • Potentially complex setup
  • Higher learning curve
  • Subscription-based pricing
  • Limited reporting options
  • Occasional performance issues
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Act! CRM by Swiftpage ACT! is a customer relationship management (CRM) software application designed to help businesses of all sizes build and maintain strong customer relationships. It acts as a central hub for storing and organizing customer data, including contact information, interactions, and sales history. Act! CRM is particularly well-suited for small and medium-sized businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable CRM solution to streamline processes and enhance customer service.

Key benefits of Act! CRM include its ease of use, affordability, and comprehensive features. The software is simple to set up and navigate, making it accessible even for businesses with limited IT resources. With a starting price of $49.99 per month, Act! CRM offers a cost-effective solution for managing customer relationships. Its wide range of features encompasses contact management, lead tracking, sales management, and reporting capabilities, providing businesses with the tools they need to effectively engage with customers and drive growth.

Act! CRM stands out among other CRM solutions due to its user-friendly interface, affordability, and extensive feature set. It is a compelling choice for small and medium-sized businesses seeking a reliable and efficient CRM system to optimize customer interactions and achieve their business objectives.

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$65/User, Monthly
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$30 Monthly
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Chromebook
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Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Gain a 360-Degree View: Sales and marketing benefit from a single source of customer data to provide a consistent experience for buyers. Customer service teams also get a view of every customer’s journey across all touchpoints. 
  • Execute Multichannel Campaigns: Target a number of channels for lead generation, including email marketing, events, SMS, landing pages and more. A connector to lead gen forms for LinkedIn enables audience targeting, lead nurturing and buyer journey creation using LinkedIn information. 
  • Deliver Exceptional Service: Predictive care tools and AI insights provide customer service agents with data to tackle issues proactively and reach the best outcomes. Other tools include intelligent case routing, gamification elements that encourage high performance, self-service options, agent performance metrics and more. 
  • Boost Conversion Rates: Scoring models help determine which contacts are most likely to convert, and smart scheduling capabilities ensure reps reach out at the best time. Sales reps can view lead score, lead trend and lead grade metrics to determine the status of each contact and target the hottest opportunities for better win rates. 
  • Personalize Messaging: Leverage embedded insights to use the most relevant, personalized messaging. Use in combination with segmentation to ensure tailored content reaches the right audience. Customize landing pages using prospects’ data. 
  • Connect With LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Create trust with contacts and conduct relationship selling using relevant data and rich profiles, such as related leads. 
  • Optimize Content: Know which contacts open emails, reply, click links and interact in other ways through metrics. Make informed email strategies, provide relevant content and reply with timeliness. Understand customer needs accurately using customer surveys. 
  • Use Other MS Tools: Microsoft Dynamics 365 has Office 365 apps built in, facilitating work with familiar tools like Excel and Outlook. 
  • Streamine Processes:: AI-driven prompts simplify data entry for records, and playbooks centralize sales techniques, ensuring more focus on selling. 
  • Coordinate Marketing and Sales: Ensure a smooth hand-off from marketing to sales, and automatically send leads to sales reps once lead scores reach the predetermined level. 
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  • Centralized Information: Centralize contact details to track interactions, relationships, statuses and activities for easy accessibility and complete visibility. 
  • Automated Tasks: Automate repetitive tasks like sales processes, alerts scheduling and more to improve efficiency and productivity. 
  • Flexible Deployment: Offers both on-premise and cloud-based deployment strategies to store data in a clean and intuitive layout. 
  • Mobile Apps: Android and iOS apps allow users to stay connected and manage contacts, communications and activities. 
  • Integrations: Integrate with Outlook, Slack, Google apps and more for seamless operations. An open API is also available for custom integrations suited to individual business needs. 
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  • Campaign Builder: Set up and execute campaigns via a visual building tool, and design customer journeys by arranging templates using the drag-and-drop interface. It’s also possible to set triggers based on a range of rules, choose segmented groups, assign emails, include events or surveys, and more. 
  • Dashboards: Access a host of metrics related to leads, revenue and other data sources from dashboards and customize them to show the most important KPIs. Dashboard types include: 
    • User Dashboards: Visible to and controlled by individual users. 
    • System Dashboards: Visible to everyone, with the option to reduce visibility to certain roles. Customized and controlled by system admins. 
  • Lead Nurturing: Account-based marketing features provide capabilities such as customer segmentation, personalized email content and performance metrics. Build buyer journeys and set rules that define a lead’s score based on the individual lead record, the related contact or the related account. 
  • Integrations: Apart from the Dynamics 365 toolset and other MS applications, the platform integrates with partner systems. Integration with Zapier offers access to more than 1,500 apps, ensuring greater extendability. 
  • Event Management: Control all aspects of events, from registrations and speakers to sessions and venue logistics from an event portal. It integrates with ON24 and other providers to support running webinars. 
  • Customer Service Insights: Powered by AI, machine learning and BI tools, this feature helps track KPIs visually for at-a-glance insights. Monitor: 
    • Customer satisfaction levels
    • A range of case metrics
    • Backlog trends
    • Incoming support topics
    • Engagement patterns
    • Support agent performance
  • Customer Insights: This add-on feature uses AI to support marketing efforts. 
    • Use Microsoft Graph to input audience intelligence.
    • Build triggered workflows with Microsoft Flow.
    • Customize reports and dashboards with the Power BI connection.
    • Microsoft PowerApps enables custom app creation.
    • Governance tools and security features ensure GDPR compliance and data privacy.
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  • Customer Management:: Records and maintains robust customer data in an organized and centralized manner. Includes contact details, emails, documents, notes, history and activities. 
  • Account Management: Manages interactions at the company or account level for a complete view of relationships with an organization. 
  • Dynamic Groups and Filters: Organizes similar contacts into dynamic groups based on rule-based criteria. Dynamic groups can be used for targeted communications, campaigns and sales initiatives. 
  • Opportunity Tracking: Captures and manages key opportunity details such as status, values, estimated close dates and more. 
  • Task and Activity Management: Tracks and prioritizes calls, meetings and daily task lists to manage time efficiently. 
  • Sales Process Management: Enables either a pre-built or a custom-defined sales process, streamlines sales activities, and measures success against each step. 
  • Sales Engagement Tracking: Offers click tracking with Outlook integration to focus on sales efforts and the most engaged prospects once an email is sent. 
  • Sales Pipeline Management: Supports revenue projections, strategy adjustments and focused efforts via a visual, real-time sales pipeline. Includes quantifiable metrics like opportunity close rate, close-won value, open deals and more. 
  • Call Lists and Hot Leads: Makes it easy to identify and focus on hot leads with an intelligent call list that ranks campaign recipients according to their level of engagement. 
  • Analytics and Reporting: Monitors sales, marketing and business KPIs with data-rich reports and actionable insights to drive informed decisions. 
  • Marketing Automation: Offers automated management of assets, landing pages, surveys, turnkey campaigns and email marketing. 
  • User Management: Allows adding users, assigning roles and defining role-based accessibility for team and activity management. Tracks individual performance as well. 
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Product Ranking

#4

among all
CRM Software

#31

among all
CRM Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 5825 reviews
Good User Sentiment 1012 reviews
82%
of users recommend this product

Dynamics 365 CRM has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 82% when considering 5825 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

75%
of users recommend this product

Act! CRM has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 75% when considering 1012 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.6 (21)
n/a
3.7 (1433)
3.9 (353)
4.3 (3779)
3.7 (613)
4.5 (23)
n/a
3.9 (569)
3.2 (46)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Easy to Use: 98% of reviewers referencing usability felt the software is user-friendly.
Improved Productivity and Efficiency: The system aids efficiency and productivity, as observed by every user who talks about this aspect.
Customer Relationship Management: 95% of the reviewers who reference this aspect noted that it aids a positive customer experience.
Customization: Adding or removing fields is simple and doesn’t require technical help, as observed by more than 85% of reviews mentioning this feature.
Integration: Important integrations such as Power BI, Cortana, Azure and Office are of great help, as noted by 92% of the reviewers who refer to this element.
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User-Friendly: The system is intuitive, leading to easy adaption, according to 60% of users who reviewed this feature.
Cloud Sync: The cloud upgrade allows users to seamlessly sync their data and helps avoid manual data saving, as noted by 75% of reviews about this feature.
Customization: Of the users mentioning customization, 60% suggested the platform’s fields are highly customizable, enabling flexible functionality.
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Learning Curve: According to 90% of the reviewers talking about this factor, new customers require a bit of training, which is time consuming.
Pricing: Microsoft Dynamics 365 is expensive, as observed by every user mentioning cost.
Slow Performance: At times, the platform takes time to sync and perform simple tasks, as observed by almost 70% of reviewers referring to this aspect.
Navigation: 90% of the reviews about this feature mentioned the navigation is complicated, especially for new users.
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Customer Service: Customer service has issues such as a lack of product knowledge and poor response times, according to 80% of reviews referencing support.
Bugs and Responsiveness: New updates introduce bugs that can make the application less responsive and hamper performance, according to 90% of users who mention bugs in upgrades.
Outdated Design: The system’s UI design and functionality is outdated and need an upgrade, as observed by 77% of users who wrote about the feature.
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A mix of praise and critique defines 2023 user reviews for Dynamics 365 CRM. Fans champion its robust customization, enabling precise tailoring to diverse business needs, like adding fields to track specific equipment rentals or crafting workflows for complex approval processes. This flexibility, some say, surpasses competitors like Salesforce, where out-of-the-box options might constrain unique workflows. Yet, this very strength can be a double-edged sword. Detractors find the customization curve steep, requiring significant IT expertise or costly consultant guidance, unlike the more user-friendly setup of HubSpot. Integration shines as a clear win for Dynamics 365. Seamlessly blending with Microsoft's ecosystem, including Outlook and Teams, streamlines communication and boosts collaboration. Imagine pulling CRM data directly into an email or setting up team meetings from contact records – a breeze for Dynamics users, while competitors often require clunky workarounds. However, pricing structure remains a sore spot. While subscription fees are competitive, the extensive customization often necessitates additional add-ons and consultancy, potentially inflating costs compared to more all-inclusive options like Zoho CRM. Ultimately, reviews suggest Dynamics 365 excels for businesses seeking in-depth customization and Microsoft integration, willing to invest time or resources in setup. For those prioritizing ease of use or budget-friendliness, alternatives might be a better fit. The key takeaway? Choose the CRM that complements your unique needs and technical capabilities.

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Act!’s sales and marketing solutions are cost-effective, making it a good choice for smaller businesses. It offers flexible customization options for fields and is easy to use, though the UI is outdated according to reviews. A seamless cloud syncing option eliminates the manual work but can make the database difficult to use. Additionally, customer service lacks responsiveness and understanding of the product, and product updates sometimes have bugs that impact performance. Overall, it’s a good solution to consider for small businesses looking to manage their sales and marketing efforts and monitor their team’s outcome.

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