Don't let price distract from improvements in Dynamics CRM Online Fall '13, analysts say

When it comes to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online's Fall '13 update, the old adage, "you get what you pay for," seems to be an accurate assessment.

Analysts and partners agree that the Microsoft's new CRM Online release offers more functionality for the price than the CRM solutions of other vendors including its closest competitor, Salesforce.com.

But even though Dynamics CRM Online 2013 is giving customers more bang for their bucks, Microsoft probably should have done a better job telling those customers exactly how many additional bucks that extra bang was going to cost.

"Should Microsoft just have jumped the price without a whole lot of preparation? No," said Paul Greenberg, President of The 56 Group, LLC, a consulting firm focused on CRM. "Microsoft didn't really do a good job. It would have been in Microsoft's best interest to start preparing customers over time. Microsoft should not have just dropped the bomb. They should have informed people months ago that this was going to happen and babied it a little."

When Microsoft launched Dynamics CRM Online professional in 2008, it debuted at an introductory thirty nine dollar per person per month price point for the "professional" version.

"It was sort of the equivalent of a loss leader and a come on at the time - when Microsoft was just competing with Salesforce," says Greenberg. Although Microsoft claimed CRM Online was the same as Salesforce, Salesforce was actually more robust."

Then Microsoft raised the price of the CRM ...