# Dynamics 365 CRM - Why Are So Many Companies Migrating To It?

> Why companies migrate to Dynamics 365 CRM in 2026, from on-premises Dynamics CRM, Salesforce and ERP-only estates. The dates, the prices and the route.

Published: 2024-10-23 · Updated: 2026-10-11
Author: John Bellaud
Tags: What We Do, Cloud, Dynamics 365
Canonical: https://www.techfabric.com/blog/dynamics-365-crm---why-are-so-many-companies-are-migrating-to-it

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If your company runs Business Central or Dynamics 365 Finance, there's a good chance the same customer and order get typed twice, once by sales in their CRM or spreadsheet and again by someone in finance or the warehouse. That's one of three reasons companies move to Dynamics 365 CRM. Connecting it to the ERP couples the customer and order records in both systems and keeps them in sync, so each is typed once.

The other two depend on where you're starting. Companies on on-premises Dynamics CRM are being moved by support dates. Dynamics CRM 2016 left extended support on 13 January 2026, and the last on-premises version, 9.x, leaves mainstream support on 12 January 2027. Companies on another CRM move because they already run Microsoft 365 and want sales in the same sign-in, inbox and Teams.

*Updated by the TechFabric editors in October 2026.*

## The dates behind on-premises migrations

| Product | Milestone | Date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Dynamics CRM 2016 (8.x) | Extended support ended | 13 January 2026 |
| Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement on-premises 9.x | Mainstream support ends | 12 January 2027 |
| Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement on-premises 9.x | Extended support ends | 9 January 2029 |

Sources: Microsoft lifecycle pages for [Dynamics CRM 2016](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/dynamics-crm-2016-dynamics-365), and the [2027](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/end-of-support/end-of-support-2027) and [2029](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/end-of-support/end-of-support-2029) end-of-support lists.

Mainstream support is the one that delivers fixes for non-security problems. After January 2027, an on-premises 9.x customer gets security updates only, and nothing new.

## Moving from on-premises Dynamics CRM to online

Microsoft runs a programme for this, known as on-premises to online, and its [overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/guidance/migrate/opol-crm-migration-high-level-overview) sets the conditions plainly:

1. The source has to be version 9.0 or later. A CRM 2016 system upgrades to 9.x on-premises first, then moves.
2. You buy the online licences before the migration, not after.
3. You nominate the environment through Microsoft's form, and the tooling runs in Lifecycle Services.
4. Unsupported customisations are yours to fix beforehand. Anything that wrote directly to the SQL database, or relied on server-side code the cloud doesn't allow, has to be rebuilt as a plug-in, a Power Automate flow or an integration.

Point 4 is where the time goes. Ten years of on-premises customisation usually includes a few reports reading SQL views directly and a scheduled job on the CRM server that nobody remembers writing. Inventory them before anything else.

Two things change for users that are worth telling them early. The Outlook COM add-in, the old "thick client", is [no longer available for online customers](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/important-changes-coming); everyone uses the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. And the separate Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets app was deprecated for online users in April 2024. On mobile, Dynamics now runs in the Power Apps app.

## Moving from Salesforce or another CRM

Microsoft doesn't publish a step-by-step guide for migrating from Salesforce to Dynamics 365, and the tool most often suggested for it is the wrong one. The Configuration Migration tool moves [configuration data](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/manage-configuration-data), such as reference tables and settings, and Microsoft says explicitly it isn't for end-user data like accounts and contacts.

What Microsoft does provide is the [Salesforce Objects connector](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/salesforce-objects) for Power Query, which can feed dataflows that load into Dataverse. It needs API access on the Salesforce side, which trial accounts don't have. For larger migrations, an Azure Data Factory pipeline or a commercial migration tool does the same job with better logging and retry.

Whatever the tool, the order of work is the same, because each record refers to the one before:

1. Users and teams, so every record has an owner to land on.
2. Accounts, then contacts, because contacts refer to accounts.
3. Products and price lists, if you're bringing quotes or orders.
4. Leads and opportunities.
5. Activities and notes last. Decide how much history you need, because ten years of email activities can be most of the data volume and very little of the value.

Keep the old system's record ID in a column on every migrated row. It costs nothing, and it's the only way to reconcile counts afterwards and to fix the records the first load got wrong.

## What it costs

From Microsoft's [Dynamics 365 Sales pricing](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/products/sales/pricing), per user per month on an annual commitment:

| Plan | Price |
| --- | --- |
| Sales Professional | $65 |
| Sales Enterprise | $105, with Copilot in Dynamics 365 |
| Sales Premium | $150, with 1,000 Copilot Credits included with each licence |

For service teams, [Dynamics 365 Customer Service](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/products/customer-service/pricing) runs from $50 (Professional) to $195 (Premium).

Sales Professional is the entry tier, not the full product. The usual decision is between Professional for straightforward pipeline management and Enterprise when you need its additional automation and Copilot. You can mix plans across users, so the people who only read reports don't need the seat the account managers have.

## The "unified data model," precisely

It's often said that with Dynamics 365, ERP and CRM share a single data source. That's true for some combinations and not others, and the difference affects the project.

Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service store their data in **Dataverse**. Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management keep their own database and reach Dataverse through [dual-write](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/data-entities/dual-write/dual-write-overview), a near-real-time, two-way integration. **Business Central** connects to Dynamics 365 Sales through a [sync integration](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/admin-prepare-dynamics-365-for-sales-for-integration) that couples records, mapping items to products, customer price groups to price lists, and sales orders, posted invoices and units of measure across. Its sync jobs run every 30 minutes by default.

```mermaid
%% caption: Sales and Customer Service store their data in Dataverse, Finance and Supply Chain Management reach it through dual-write, and Business Central syncs with Sales.
flowchart TD
  S["Dynamics 365 Sales"] --> B["Dataverse"]
  CS["Customer Service"] --> B
  C["Finance and Supply Chain Management, own database"] -->|"dual-write, near-real-time, two-way"| B
  E["Business Central"] -->|"sync integration"| S
  class B accent
```

So the integration is built in, which saves building a custom one. It isn't one database, and someone still has to decide which system owns customers, prices and orders. That decision is most of an ERP-to-CRM project.

## And the companies leaving Dynamics

Dynamics GP and Dynamics NAV have dates too, and they drive some companies from Microsoft Dynamics to another ERP. GP's product updates and support end on [31 December 2029](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-gp/terms/lifecycle), with security updates until April 2031. NAV 2018's extended support ends in January 2028, which we've covered in [Dynamics NAV support ends in January 2028](/blog/dynamics-nav-support-ends-in-january-2028).

Microsoft's intended path for both is Business Central. Whether to take it or move to a different ERP is a real choice, and it's worth making on how well each option fits your warehouse and finance processes, not on which vendor's renewal letter arrived first.

## Is Dynamics 365 the right CRM for you?

The strongest reason is Microsoft 365 itself. Microsoft reported over [450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial seats](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/events/fy-2026/earnings-fy-2026-q2) in January 2026, and for a company that's one of them, Dynamics 365 shares the sign-in, the Outlook inbox, Teams and SharePoint with everything else people use. A CRM that people can work in from Outlook gets used. One that needs a separate tab tends to get updated on Friday afternoons.

It's a weaker fit for a small team with a simple pipeline and no Microsoft estate, where a lighter CRM will be cheaper and faster to set up. It's a strong fit for a company already on Business Central or Dynamics 365 Finance, where the CRM-to-ERP link is the reason to buy it.

## Where to start

If you're on-premises, check your version this week. Anything older than 9.0 needs an upgrade before it can move online, and 9.x leaves mainstream support on 12 January 2027. If you're on another CRM, list every custom object and integration before you price licences, because those decide the size of the project.

TechFabric is a Microsoft Solutions Partner, and we implement [Dynamics 365 CRM and Business Central](/expertise/microsoft-dynamics-365), including the migration off whatever is there now.

## Frequently asked questions

### If we're on Dynamics CRM 2016, can we upgrade to 9.x and stay on-premises?

You can, but 9.x is a stop on the way. After 12 January 2027 you get security updates only, and those stop on 9 January 2029, so staying on-premises buys a little over two years of security patches and no other fixes after January 2027.

### Can I test a Salesforce migration on a trial account first?

Not with the Salesforce Objects connector, because it needs API access on the Salesforce side and trial accounts don't have it. Run the test against an org that does have API access, and put the old record ID on every row you load. Then the test load gives you a real reconciliation of counts, and you'll know how many records the first pass got wrong before the real one.

### With Business Central, how soon does a customer change show up in the CRM?

By default the sync jobs run every 30 minutes, so the two systems can disagree for a while after someone edits a record. That's why the ownership decision matters. If sales and finance can both edit the same customer, you'll see the gap. With Finance and Supply Chain Management the picture is different, because dual-write is near-real-time and two-way.