There are some new announcements from Microsoft about availability and functionality of Microsoft Portals. This is important for Microsoft Dynamics Partners to be aware of, as it directly affects the Portal choices you make or the types of solutions you can offer your customers.
Microsoft has stated Adxstudio Portals is no longer available for general purchase.
If you have been in the planning phase for your customer’s web portal project over the past several months, and had been counting on Adxstudio Portals as one of your options, it may come as a surprise that as a product, the Adxstudio Portals software license is no longer publically available for purchase as of Jan 8th (North America UK) and Jan 22nd (EMEA and APAC).
We’ll even provide the direct link to purchase Adxstudio Portals for you to see for yourself: https://www.adxstudio.com/adxstudio-portals/pricing/
The link will direct you to a “contact Microsoft Dynamics 365” web page.
If your CRM/365 practice has typically used this solution for delivering portals, it is time for a new approach.
Microsoft Portals is NOT available for CRM on premise
So I know what you’re thinking – “Adxstudio was acquired by Microsoft, so I can purchase a Microsoft Portals license for my customer’s locally hosted on premise Dynamics CRM instance”.
Well, here is another change that will impact your solution choices. Microsoft Portals is not available for any past versions or current on premise instances of Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365.
MS Portals does not allow for Custom Portal Development
As I am sure you are aware the average CRM/365 instance has at least a few, and more likely many customizations configured to match up with how a business is run, and how departments within that business function.
When it comes to building out a web portal, most customers will not be satisfied with solely the out of the box functionality available with Microsoft Portals, and will require at least a few customizations to their web portal.
One of the key purposes of building a web portal, with data flow into and out of Dynamics CRM/365, is to extend the power of CRM out to your customers. Your customers want to be able to update their profile information, submit a case or support request, sign up for an event you are hosting, pay for a yearly membership subscription, all while securely logged into your web portal. All that was mentioned previously more than likely will require some form of customization to match up with the CRM/365 instance. Microsoft Portals will not allow for such custom development and you will be confined to the few “boxed up” portal solutions that are currently offered.
If you are a Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Dynamics 365 Partner and have been relying on the new Microsoft Portals as the “go-to” portal solution, you might want to seriously consider an alternative solution, an alternative solution that:
- Is readily available for purchase
- Compatible with ALL versions of Dynamics CRM 2011 and up to the latest version of 365
- Can be hosted ANYwhere
- Offers unlimited dev, test, QA, UAT instances
- Has the ability to be FULLY customized to meet your customer’s requirements
- Offers countless portal functions within one license
Of course, my friends at The Portal Connector for Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365 offer all of these. And they are excited about their active development of the product and releasing new features. You should check out The Portal Connector 4.0, the release for developers!