The discontinuation of Microsoft Parature is just over two weeks from now, so presumably nearly all customers have chosen a new software platform for customer service and migrated to that platform.
Many customers likely chose Microsoft Dynamics 365. They may have picked Dynamics 365 because it comes from Microsoft, and they can receive credit from Microsoft for any Parature subscriptions which were purchased but cannot be used due to the discontinuation of service. They also may have chosen Dynamics because of the integration with Office 365 and other Microsoft products.
It may have come as a surprise to some customers that Dynamics 365 is not at all similar to Parature, even though Microsoft progressively implemented new features in Dynamics 365 to replace the functions that Parature provided. Here are some of the ways that they are different:
Many customers likely chose Microsoft Dynamics 365. They may have picked Dynamics 365 because it comes from Microsoft, and they can receive credit from Microsoft for any Parature subscriptions which were purchased but cannot be used due to the discontinuation of service. They also may have chosen Dynamics because of the integration with Office 365 and other Microsoft products.
It may have come as a surprise to some customers that Dynamics 365 is not at all similar to Parature, even though Microsoft progressively implemented new features in Dynamics 365 to replace the functions that Parature provided. Here are some of the ways that they are different:
- Dynamics 365 is a broader platform than Parature. In addition to customer service it offers sales, marketing, field service, project management and other apps (not to mention accounting in the ERP side of Dynamics 365).
- Dynamics 365 is built on the Microsoft developer stack which is much more well known than Parature, so it is more broadly supported.
- Some Parature features that seem simple require planning, design and implementation in Dynamics 365. Parature embodies some assumptions about how customer service representatives behave, such as grabbing tickets and generating emails to customers triggered by many actions on the tickets.
- The nomenclature of Parature and Dynamics 365 are different. It takes a while to get accustomed to talking of cases instead of tickets, for instance.
- Microsoft no longer offers live chat which was included in Parature. Instead, CafeX Live Assist add-in is available from a third party vendor.
- The portal technology is quite different in Dynamics, with many options that did not exist in Parature.
Nothing lasts forever, and this is particularly true for products acquired by software companies. For software deployed on premises, customers can keep going with an old product even as tech support dwindles or is dropped altogether. It doesn't work that way for cloud services.
I hope all Parature customers have made it to their new platform or are in the final stages of migration as of May 1.