Microsoft Dynamics CRM On-Premise and On-Demand: What’s the Difference?

Stephanie Dart Published Friday, August 15, 2008 8:41 AM

As part of Microsoft’s CRM strategy to deliver the “Power of Choice” to customers and partners, we offer Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a variety of subscription or ownership models:

• On-premise: Customers purchase the licenses and run the application on their own servers.
• On-demand: Customers subscribe to the software service on a per user per month basis:
• Partner-hosted: Microsoft partners host the application in their facilities on behalf of customers, and provide customer service and support.
• Microsoft-hosted: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is hosted in Microsoft corporate datacenters, delivered to customers over the Internet.

With all the deployment choices offered, people often ask about the differences between them. Let me start with the similarities:

• All are based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 code base, making it easy for customers to migrate across on-demand and on-premise deployments.
• The core functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the same regardless of how it is deployed, offering a full-suite of Sales, Marketing and Service functionality - as well as workflow automation and customization capabilities.

Where the deployment options differ is in the level of customization available and authentication mechanisms used. The table below shows a comparison between the on-premise, partner hosted and CRM Online solutions:

	On-Premise	Partner Hosted	CRM Online
Authentication Method	Active Directory	Active Directory	Windows Live ID
Authentication Interface	Integrated Active Directory / Forms based	Forms based	Windows Live ID
Custom Entities	Yes	Yes	Yes (100/200)*
Custom Workflow	Yes	Yes	Yes (100/200)*
Form Scripting & Events (Jscript)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Reports Built with Ad-hoc Wizard	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dynamic Export to Excel	Yes	Yes	Yes

* The number of customer entities and workflows depends on the product edition

Since the capabilities are essentially the same across all deployment models, the decision to go on-premise or on-demand should be driven by criteria such as budget, existing IT infrastructure and resources. For more information on the offerings available visit http://www.crmchoice.com.

Cheers,

Stephanie Dart

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Video Gallery

Please see the link below to review a gallery of how-to videos using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The videos include topics such as end-to-end scenario’s for Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. There are also video’s for customizations, imports, and workflow.

All of the videos are the work of the CRM Online Technology Specialist team. Keep checking back for more as we will continue to add new videos. Feel free to ping us if there is something you would like to have covered.

www.democrmonline.com

Upgrading your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription

For customers wanting to upgrade the subscription of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription, here is the process to do so. This would apply to customers wanting to upgrade from a 30-day free trial, Pro to Pro Plus, or 12 to 24 month subscription terms.

You can initiate this process by clicking on the link below

Upgrade Subscription Wizard

or

Clicking the "Upgrade subscription" link from within the Organization Notifications and Status area of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. (Settings->Administration->Organization Notifications and Status)












Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:54 PM by bgalicia

Purchasing Additional User Licenses for your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription

The CRM Online has a great article on buying more licensing.

For customers wanting to add additional user licenses to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription, here is the process to do so.

You can initiate this process by clicking on the link below
Purchase Additional User Licenses Wizard

or

Clicking the "Buy user licenses" link from within the Organization Notifications and Status area of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. (Settings->Administration->Organization Notifications and Status)








Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:39 PM by bgalicia

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live authentication process

If you need to write a SDK process against a CRM-Online CRM site, this article will explain the authentication process using Windows Live Authentication.

CRM Online verse On-Premise

Checkout Extensibility Features CRM Online vs. On-Premise in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Click Here

CRM Online blog

I just bumped into the CRM Online blog. It is located here. There is a simple article telling you how to get started with CRM Online here.

Here is a copy of the the info posted in the artical by Jon White.

CRM Online - Start Here Part II - Getting Started

I recently wrote about starting up with CRM Online. In that blog, I tried to outline some of the items you'll want to consider when you first get going with your instance.
I wanted to update that blog by pointing to the Getting Started guide that is part of the application.

This will guide you through all the configuration and setup task you need to do to get started using CRM Online. I've listed out a brief summary. Make sure you check it out after you sign up for you site to get the full details.



1. Tailor Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Your Business
This section guides you through setting up basic configuration such as user setup, importing data, etc.

2. Integrate Email with Dynamics CRM
Do want to set up your email or learn about email templates ? This step will guide you.

3. Manage Customer Relationships
In this step, you learn how to track customers and business that you work with.

4. Manage your Sales
Learn how to review sales and adjust the user experience to meet your business needs. Also, how to track deals and competitors.

5. Manage your Customer Support
Learn how to setup and manage customer incidents ( ie- case management). Learn about how to use queues, the knowledge base and contracts.

6. Manage Schedulable Resources
In this step you will learn how to configure resources and schedule service activities.

7. Manage your Marketing
Setup system wide marketing settings. Learn about marketing campaigns and responses.

8. Manage Sales Transactions
Setup your product catalog and price lists.

9. Automate your Business Process
Setup and configure workflows and duplicate detection.

-cheers
Jon

More Info on CRM Online and moving to OnPremise

Update on Microsoft CRM Online and moving to CRM OnPremise. When you sign-up for CRM OnLine it is a year contract. If you move to OnPremise within the first 3 months you WILL get hit with the cancellation fees of arounf $175 a user. However, if you move after the 3 months are over all you need to do is provide them with a CRM Server key and it is waived.