Great info on Dynamics and CRM

Microsoft Announces New Version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for 2007 Microsoft Office System and Windows VistaTuesday November 7, 2:30 am ET

Microsoft Delivers Powerful New User Experience for Better Sales, Marketing and Service and Introduces New Licensing Options for Microsoft CRM

MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at Convergence 2006 EMEA, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) announced it will release a new version of Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM for the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Windows Vista(TM) that enriches the user experience through enhanced productivity; data visualization; 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.

Better Together With 2007 Microsoft Office System and Windows Vista

With this new release, Microsoft Dynamics CRM continues its focus on delivering a solution that works the way people do, providing a familiar and intuitive work environment that maximizes user adoption and productivity. The new version will be released at the same time as the 2007 Office release and will ultimately be available in 18 languages for small, midsize and enterprise customers around the world.

"Microsoft Dynamics CRM is committed to delivering the ultimate in business productivity for sales, marketing and service managers and users," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. "As with prior releases of Microsoft CRM, it delivers the power of choice, enabling customers and partners to deploy this as on-premise software or an on-demand service."

The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, compatible with the 2007 Office release and Windows Vista, enables a range of powerful features:
* An enriched user experience based on the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
The new release of Microsoft CRM picks up on the new Ribbon user
experience of the 2007 Office release, and continues to enable users to
access rich, roles-based CRM capabilities through Microsoft Office
Outlook®, Microsoft Internet Explorer® and a broad range of mobile
devices.
* Richer data visualization with Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Rich data
visualization and business intelligence enhancements to Microsoft Office
Excel® 2007 enable better analysis and decision-making for CRM
managers and users.
* Desktop action and insight using Windows Vista gadgets. New Windows
Vista gadgets allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM activities, analytics and
alerts to be placed directly onto the desktop or home page.
* Unified communications with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The new
release of Microsoft CRM enables users to store voice-mail messages in
Outlook and track them automatically in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
* Enhanced security with BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows Vista. The
new BitLocker(TM) capability in Windows Vista helps protect confidential
CRM data on laptops from being accessed by unauthorized individuals.

Customers Look to the Next Generation of Innovation From Microsoft

As a National Football League franchise with global brand recognition, the Indianapolis Colts organization puts customer relationship management at the heart of its strategy for building and retaining its base of loyal fans and business partners. Recently, the Colts began an initiative to evaluate replacement options for its current Salesforce.com CRM solution. Citing the need for tight enterprise integration and a complete CRM solution, the Colts worked with Crowe Chizek, a regional Microsoft Gold Certified and Microsoft Dynamics Partner, to evaluate the combination of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Vista and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Pat Coyle, director of Database Marketing and E-Commerce with the Indianapolis Colts, said, "We knew right away this could work for us. We continue to be impressed with the technology Microsoft provides. Having a tightly integrated system that includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista will allow companies like us to remain on the leading edge of sales, service and marketing effectiveness for years to come."

For South African financial group Sasfin Bank Ltd., the decision to upgrade to the latest versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista hinges on two key needs: a true 360-degree view of its customers and an intuitive user experience that enables rapid adoption across the company.

"Managing our clients' financial portfolios demands real-time access to data from numerous sources," said Peter Oeschger, chief information officer, Sasfin Group. "Microsoft Dynamics CRM's ability to integrate technology, coupled with its flexible service-oriented architecture and friendly user experience is the best in the industry, bar none."

The new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will work with the 2007 Office release and Windows Vista as well as with previously supported versions of Office and Windows®. Upgrades to the new release will be free for customers on active support agreements.
Microsoft Adds New Purchasing Options for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft also announced today that licensing options for Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be increased by adding it to the licensing model that is offered with Microsoft Dynamics ERP products. This includes both Business Ready Licensing and Modular Based Licensing. By adding pricing information for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the price lists for each of Microsoft's financial and business management solutions (Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics SL), customers will find it even more simple and convenient to buy and deploy full-suite Microsoft Dynamics solutions for their businesses.

For Bill Kinahan, CRM practice lead at Tectura North America, the addition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the Business Ready Licensing model enables Tectura to do what it does best: provide expertise in integrating business solutions for its customers.

"Rather than someone from the IT department, it is frequently the vice president of sales, the CIO or CEO who comes to us to purchase Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They are looking to us to make the purchasing easy," Kinahan said. "With Microsoft Dynamics CRM on the Business Ready price list, customers can purchase full-suite Microsoft Dynamics solutions directly from Tectura and benefit from our expertise in delivering end-to-end business processes. That's a smart move on Microsoft's part, putting the purchasing decision back in the clients' hands."
Microsoft Dynamics CRM will continue to be offered through Microsoft Volume Licensing, the same licensing model that is used for Microsoft Office, Windows and Microsoft Exchange.
About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

NOTE: Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Windows Vista, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Excel, BitLocker and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/businesssolutions/default.mspx For more information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/default.mspx

Wiki Definition of CRM - Client Relationship Management Software

I Love using Wikipedia to look stuff up. It provides a ton of context around simple questions and topics. So I combined that with my love for CRM and looked it up to fine:

Here is a great definition of CRM:
"The generally accepted purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable organizations to better manage their customers through the introduction of reliable systems, processes and procedures for interacting with those customers.

In today's competitive business environment, a successful CRM strategy cannot be implemented by simply installing and integrating a software package designed to support CRM processes. A holistic approach to CRM is vital for an effective and efficient CRM policy. This approach includes training of employees, a modification of business processes based on customers' needs and an adoption of relevant IT-systems (including software and maybe hardware) and/or usage of IT-Services that enable the organization or company to follow its CRM strategy. CRM-Services can even replace the acquisition of additional hardware or CRM software-licences.

The term CRM is used to describe either the software or the whole business strategy (or lack of one) oriented on customer needs. The main misconception of CRM is that it is only software, instead of whole business strategy."

- Source: Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_Relationship_Management
I thought you might enjoy.

Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/ - Austin, Texas - CRM Specialists.

Avaya Integration to Microsoft CRM

Check out this overview video of the Avaya integration to MS CRM. Good quick overview and demo.
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=31538

We use the Avaya IP Office internally and it is a very nice integration. It is seamless and works rather well as long as you are at your desk. The other limitation is that it only works in the browser. Weird but true.

Jon Petrucelli - www.productivegap.com - Austin Texas

CRM 3.0 - SImple Duplicates Detection and cleansing

I recently de-duped all out CRM dbs and tried to use various products to do it. Dupes can really destroy your marketing and CRM cred if you dont be careful. Just imagine you spend a bunch of time developing a nice personalized and individualized email for sending out to propsects and cleints and leads etc. Then you run your blast email campaign and your valuable prospects get THREE personalized "Dear, John" emails flood their inbox. THis does not make you look very competent.

Microsoft CRM has some good tactical features to help cleanse your DB and thus enhance your marketing.
1. Deactivate leads and contacts - This revolves around the concept of never deleting records and the status of Active vs Inactive.
2. Merge records - Nice feature for leads, contacts and accounts merging of two duplicate records.
3. SQL Reporting Services Reports and their drill back/thru capabilites

Using these powerful and native features we quickly (hours) developed a few different reports to interrogate our CRM dbs and surface any and all email duplicates. We used Emails as the primary matching record. We looked at dups of Lead emails, Contact emails, and also compared lead and contact email lists. We also looked it they were Active or inactive.

Once we had the list in front of us with the Active v Inactive and the date created and modified we could easily see which record to keep and which to deactivate or delete. Once the decision was made we could easily use the SRS drill thru feature to easily click through and open the record and either delete or deactivate it.

It is crud and brute force but is also very black and white and straighforward.

We now trust our data a lot more and that means we can use it a lot more and communicate with our clients a lot more to build our relationships and expand our social and business networks to enable our success!


Jon Petrucelli www.productivegap.com Austin Texas

Dynamics CRM Value Proposition - Why Invest?

I wanted to take a second to post some opinion on our Team BLOG. None of this is really earth shattering but I beleive it is worth writing down every once in a while for posterity sake....

CRM really is an amazing product. It is ground-up built on the latest technology unlike any other application on the market. Every competitor we see out there is trying to move to a similar platform. We believe the best core messages to get across to a Business Executive evaluating CRM solutions are these: AMPLIFY THE EFFECTIVNESS OF YOUR TEAM
MS CRM provides you a strategic business application process platform not just sales, marketing and service.

- It seamlessly integrates and functions within Office applications that your users already know and prefer.
- It also heavily leverages your existing investment in the Microsoft Stack of Server and Client Office applications.
- Lastly it is extremely customizable and extensible to both your business needs and the personal user preferences.

These three main messages combine to deliver a world class application that provides your valued teams with the tools they need to AMPLIFY their effectiveness and performance.
Ultimately the team members that you have in your organization make or break your business, performance and success. Technology does not MOVE business and enhance value or innovate strategy. People do.

Unchain them from friction filled applications and disparate 'ALT-TAB' integrated windows and let them run for the GOLD. Provide them a familiar, easy to use, interface with a V12 engine architecture and you will drive your success!

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/ – Austin Texas

CRM Magazine's 2006 CRM Market Leader Awards

First Posted : Thursday, September 21, 2006, 2:15:35 PM

Microsoft CRM wins CRM Magazine's 2006 CRM Market Leader Awards and independent research firm's report analyzes the product.

"Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM 3.0 has won CRM Magazine's 2006 CRM Market Leader Awards in both the Midmarket Suite CRM and Small Business Suite categories. Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft CRM, has also won the magazine's CRM Influential Leader Award for the second consecutive year. These awards, as well as a new report published by Gartner Inc. on Microsoft CRM, follow the recent announcement of over 100 percent growth for Microsoft CRM in the past fiscal year. This includes over 50,000 new customer seats and major multithousand-seat enterprise wins in the last quarter, and validates the rapid growth of the product across all segments, geographic regions and industries."

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-20CRMIndustryInfluencersPR.mspx

Regards,
Jon Petrucelli
www.productivegap.com
ProductiveGap is based in Austin, Texas and is a leading provider of Microsoft CRM products, services and solutions. The ProductiveGap team has attained the highest levels of experience and certification in the Microsoft CRM field. We combine this technical leadership and operational experience with an extreme passion for Microsoft CRM and how it will enable the success of our clients.

Forreser Report on Dynamics Wave 1

HERE IS THE INFO FROM 3rd Party Technology Analyst Firm:
Microsoft Corporation today announced results from the independent Forrester Research, Inc., report “Microsoft Dynamics Emerges From Wave 1,” in which Microsoft Dynamics is seen to be successfully delivering. Dynamics, the line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions, says Microsoft PR, “is successfully delivering on the company’s vision of roles-based productivity that enables the ‘people-ready’ business.”

The report provides an assessment of Microsoft’s progress in delivering on Wave One and combining its enterprise resource planning and CRM solutions. Microsoft press material places particular emphasis on at least one excerpt from the report: “With its financial strength, ubiquitous Office environment and improving analytics capabilities, Microsoft is in a unique position to redefine business application usability, and is doing so.” The first wave of Microsoft Dynamics products, announced at the company’s Convergence 2006 event in March, focuses on extensive collaboration functionality and business intelligence via deep integration with Microsoft Office and Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft Dynamics products and solutions include Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The good buzz on Microsoft Dynamics is bolstered by one firm whose choice of CRM packages is literally a matter of life and death. Steve Lenz, vice president of Information Systems for LifeNet, the nation’s largest nonprofit, full-service organ donation agency and tissue banking system, said “When you consider that saving a life or helping a patient in surgery often depends upon our ability to immediately and accurately transfer information, it’s crucial that we have a fully integrated system our staff can easily use [...] we anticipate the additional benefits of upcoming Microsoft Dynamics product releases.” The Forrester report goes on to further state that “With each new product release, Microsoft Dynamics delivers improved support for Web services [...] With roles and personalization, SharePoint enhances the overall user experience across the Microsoft Dynamics product lines and moves the applications from a client/server, fat-client paradigm to the Web.”

Heavy praise, indeed, which Microsoft representatives see as the company “delivering on its vision of Web-services-based customization that leverages the functionality of Microsoft SharePoint products and technology.” Microsoft U.S. sales strategy general manager Jennifer Bogdalek spoke with the confidence of one who is no. 1 when she opined, “Customers of all sizes continue to come to us because that is a value proposition they aren’t finding elsewhere. We are on track, and will stay on track, to ensure that the Microsoft platform continually delivers upon this promise.” Established in 1984, Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that advises on technology’s impact on business and consumers.

The Forrester m.o. is called “WholeView 2 Research,” “a comprehensive, unified view of technology's impact on business, from deep information technology issues to broad strategic goals.” An electronic version of Forrester Research’s “Microsoft Dynamics Emerges From Wave 1” is available here. Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions, delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services. These integration modules work with familiar Microsoft software to streamline business processes.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/ – Austin Texas

Analysis: CRM Is Microsoft's Next Billion-Dollar Baby

FROM CRM Magazine -

Microsoft already claims 7,000 CRM customer accounts and 180,000 CRM users worldwide. The big challenge will be enticing large customers to help the software move beyond its SMB roots.

By Barbara Darrow, CRN July 5, 2006 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190300116
Microsoft is banking that its CRM, after a slow start, will become the company's next big money-maker. While it might not hit Office-type numbers any time soon, it could still be the next billion-dollar baby, executives say.

In a series of recent interviews, Microsoft executives repeatedly brought up CRM—the current Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 release shipped late last year--as the next big apps opportunity.
"CRM could easily be the next billion dollar business for Microsoft," said Margo Day, a regional vice president who just moved to that role from her post as vice president of the U.S. Partner Group.

Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., claims 7,000 CRM customer accounts and 180,000 CRM users worldwide.

Partners agree that the latest release, with its tight Outlook integration, has made great strides from its predecessors. They cite, in particular, easier navigation—it takes far fewer clicks to perform common tasks. And, the fact that it looks and acts like Outlook means that sales people, who often refuse to use complicated programs, actually use it, partners said.

Some Microsoft Business Solutions-focused partners still beef that they cannot make the margins they expected on CRM since Microsoft put it into broad distribution two years ago. But even some of those naysayers say it makes a good add-on sale into existing Microsoft ERP and infrastructure accounts.

Microsoft itself estimates that a typical 50-seat CRM deal is worth $153,000. Of that total, $50,000 goes to CRM software, $40,000 for other Microsoft software, $8,000 for ISV software, $50,000 in services and $5,000 in mobility contracts.

And, while Microsoft maintains that its CRM and ERP solutions specifically target the SMB market, the company is getting serious about entrenching them in enterprises as well, if only to surround and link to legacy "big iron" applications from SAP, Siebel, Oracle and others.
Simon Witts, Microsoft corporate vice president of enterprise and partners, is likewise enthusiastic on CRM prospects, both inside and outside the company. "Since 3.0, it's been a different discussion," he noted, saying he used to counsel partners and insiders alike to tout its use in departments and small groups.

Microsoft is now running 10 pilots of Dynamics CRM internally, and that "my goal is to surround Siebel with Microsoft CRM," Witts said.

And he intimated that the enterprise push will get stronger. "In July at our own sales conference, my pitch is CRM everywhere, not just departments. And don't worry about the scale of the customer."

Because Dynamics CRM is available through broad distribution, and can be part of volume Enterprise Agreements (EAs), it is an easy adjunct sale to Office, some partners say.
As part of a broader reorg announced last Wednesday, the CRM development group under David Thacher is moving into Office under vice president Kurt DelBene. MBS vice president Satya Nadella will continue to run the roadmap, according to the company.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, who joined the company ten months ago after 20 years with Wal-Mart is also bullish on MBS' overall business applications mission.

MBS posted a loss of $13 million on revenue of $216 million for the third quarter ending March 31, 2006 and represents a tiny portion of the company's overall earnings. But it is a closely watched part of hte company viewed by many as a pivotal piece of the company's future.
Oracle has bought a huge chunk of the business applications market with its PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems buyouts in the past few years. But SAP still dominates the overall market. Both Oracle and SAP are trying to come down into the midmarket from their enterprise positions of strength, while Microsoft is seen moving up from its SMB base.

"I'm super stoked about MBS and where we need to take it," Turner told CRN. He reiterated the mid-market target but with an important addendum: "Certainly I think our ability to scale our ERP system up is something where we're constantly pushing the envelope and I think we'll be able to compete at the high end."

More Third Party Analysis of CRM 3.0 - Gartner

Gartner is the largest and most well respected Industry Analyst Firms. They have a large CRM analyst practice and are the thought leader in the space to advise CEOs and CIOs on IT and IW strategy for CRM evaluation etc.

Independent Analyst Firm Evaluates Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0
A report published by Gartner, the leading analyst firm in the technology industry, provides the latest evaluation of Microsoft® CRM. The August 2006 report, titled “Status Report on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0,” discusses the product’s first year on the market as well as customer reaction to the solution.

“Gartner believes there’s a growing market for ‘pragmatic CRM,’” said Brian Prentice, research director with Gartner and the author of the report. “This involves deployments, usually in subsidiaries and business units of Global 2000 organizations, along with discrete midsize businesses, in which the goal is to achieve higher user adoption rates for a system that automates one or two straightforward end-to-end sales, marketing and service processes, or a broader set of department-specific processes.”

Wilson said the recognition by CRM Magazine and the Gartner report affirms Microsoft’s strategy for developing and delivering powerful and affordable CRM solutions on a global scale.
“We believe this recognition by CRM Magazine and the Gartner report echoes what we’ve been hearing from our customers and our partners,” Wilson said. “We offer a CRM product that’s easy to use, easy to deploy, and easily configured to meet the unique needs of businesses. The level of worldwide customer demand confirms the power of our vision for Microsoft CRM.”
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 was received with great acclaim when it was introduced late in 2005, and has since achieved great market success around the world, with more than 7,500 customers and 250,000 users. The company recently announced plans for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, a Microsoft-hosted CRM service that offers complete product functionality and a transparent migration path to the Microsoft CRM on-premise and partner-hosted offerings.
An electronic version of the Gartner report is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/default.mspx.

To learn more about Gartner, interested parties can visit http://www.gartner.com.
www.productivegap.com - Austin, Texas - CRM Specialists.

CRM overview

Business moves at light speed today, requiring that every company continuously reexamine direction, strategies, suppliers, partners—literally every variable and relationship that might lead to complacency. The intensified search for competitive advantage may mean that some of your best customers pick up and leave without you ever knowing that there was a problem.

How well can you react to—and even predict—ever-shifting customer needs and competitor moves?Infuse your organization with new levels of customer intelligence using Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 3.0, an all-new customer relationship management (CRM) system that gives every customer-facing employee the information they need to truly impress customers.
With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can create a centralized repository of customer data that sits neatly alongside Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office Outlook—the applications your employees probably use every day.

From Outlook, employees access Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales, marketing, and customer service modules to make sales decisions, market products, solve problems, and get strategic views of the business. It’s CRM that works—and works very well—because it works the way your users already do, works the way your business already does, and works the way technology should.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the powerful CRM and Business Process Platform that:
-Works the way you do
-Works the way your business does
-Works the way technology should