Thursday, 9 November 2006

Microsoft Updates Dynamics CRM For 2007 Office and Vista

Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista that aims to provide productivity; data visualisation; and communications, collaboration, and security features. Microsoft also announced that...

Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista that aims to provide productivity; data visualisation; and communications, collaboration, and security features. Microsoft also announced that, in addition to being offered through Microsoft’s standard Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be offered through the licensing model that is used with Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products, making it simpler and more convenient for customers and partners to buy and deploy a full Microsoft Dynamics suite solution that spans Customer Relationship Management (CRM), financial management and supply chain management, as per a statement issued by the company.

"It's not just compatibility; we've done a lot of work to take advantage of Office 2007 and Vista," Bill Gates said. "There's been billions of dollars in investment in these products from Microsoft, and this leverages the look and feel of this new experience."

The new Microsoft CRM follows the new 'ribbon' user experience of Office 2007 and will continue to allow users to access CRM data through Outlook and Explorer. Microsoft has also improved data visualisation with Excel, making it a richer BI tool, Wilson said.

The new Windows gadgets functionality will also be a part of the CRM release. Gadgets are desktop icons that provide information such as news feeds that bring information directly to a user's desktop. CRM users will be able to quickly access information such as sales to payment processes or key performance indicators for service or marketing departments, he said.

Microsoft is in the midst of rewriting its four ERP suites into a single services-enabled code base, which will be available under the Dynamics umbrella sometime in 2008.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been available as a hosted application since last March. The on-demand, or Live version of CRM, is expected in the second quarter of 2007, and in North America initially. Partners will have early access to the CRM Live services in the latter half of 2006.