How advantageous is Microsoft's ERP-CRM integration within the market?

With the ERP-CRM integration, Microsoft is beginning to lay the foundation to fill its CRM needs. It still lacks in more complex functionality in the marketing space. Microsoft wouldn't be able to fill the needs of a marketing-driven company with a need for heavy marketing customization aimed at marketing automation or deeper customer journey mapping the way Salesforce can. Microsoft will need to find something to fill marketing automation needs and utilize marketing clouds the way other companies do. While what Microsoft is doing with Dynamics 365 isn't an answer yet, it is a start. It is beginning to fill CRM needs from field service, allowing the use of Power BI for analysis, and creating more productivity through integration with Office 365.

Microsoft's ERP-CRM integration definitely plays to Microsoft's strengths. Salesforce has a good hold on CRM within the market but Microsoft is great at the ERP piece of the puzzle. Integrating CRM into this allows Microsoft to make it easier to go from front office to back office, pull multiple processes together, pull data together, and in general, make it easier to analyze the customer experience from front to back.  Microsoft excels at productivity, and it is playing into that.  

Salesforce, on the other hand, excels in the CRM arena. Salesforce plays well to that strength. Compared to Microsoft, Salesforce delves deep into customer engagement and has a much more robust marketing cloud.

Both companies are doing exactly what they need to do in that they are doing what they are good at. They're going to find there are customers that like each approach, so it makes sense for Microsoft to keep building on what it already has and what it is good at.