Microsoft Dynamics

We were choosing between Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce. After extensive vetting and implementation partner demos, etc. we decided to go with Dynamics. Like many other Microsoft products, the software itself is very robust and can probably accomplish everything your association needs and more. However, that said, it is also a little "too enterprise" for most small to medium associations. The biggest drawback, however, was not the endless list of bells and whistles, it was the implementation partner. We definitely had some important lessons learned about choosing the right implementation partner, as our experience with ours was a nightmare.

After using the AMS for over a year now, we realize that it has all of the customizations and capabilities that we ultimately need, but that the discovery conducted by our vendor was not robust enough to truly understand our business and capture all necessary business requirements.

PROS

• Hosted by Microsoft Azure (incredibly reliable with virtually no downtime)
• Seamless integration with Office 365 and Microsoft Office suite
• Easy exporting/reporting to other MS products
• Very robust data analysis
• Deeply customizable dashboards and business development tools

CONS

• Very steep learning curve
• Too many options available makes the software difficult to use and navigate
• Ugly, non-intuitive user interface
• If poorly implemented, it can be a navigational/functional nightmare
• Missing many features we need to operate effectively (mentioned this is more likely the fault of the implementation partner)
• Poor support and documentation

As a database, this product is excellent! It can track all kinds of things and the reporting is very robust. You can even do your own "customizations" if you have someone skilled enough in the product to do so. All that said, it is not designed to be an AMS, and we are adding on another product designed to go with it that "converts" it to an AMS and also pushes information to the website - replacing the custom coding we've had for years. We are still in implementation phases for this, so I cannot rate that product yet.