Microsoft CRM

Microsoft Australia has announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, the new release of Microsoft's customer relationship management solution for small businesses, midsized companies and large enterprises.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 provides a full suite of powerful marketing, sales and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience based on Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Extensive new configuration, customisation and integration capabilities make it easy for customers and partners to deploy highly-tailored solutions that drive measurable business results and offer a low total cost of ownership (TCO). The product is offered in a Professional Edition and a Small Business Edition.

“Whether large or small, businesses need an easy to use, adaptable and affordable way to manage and grow their relationships with current and prospective customers,” said Mr Ross Dembecki, Lead Product Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Australia. “Microsoft CRM 3.0 provides what our customers and partners have asked us for; an easy to use native Office and Outlook experience, powerful workflow to drives consistent business processes and a flexible platform that can be tailored to fit their business.”

Addressing the key needs in the CRM market today
Microsoft CRM 3.0 is built to address the three key challenges that determine the success or failure of most CRM initiatives: user adoption, business fit, and total cost of ownership.

- Works the way you do: Microsoft CRM 3.0 drives high user adoption by delivering roles-based CRM capabilities within a native Microsoft Office and Outlook experience. Users can choose to use a rich Outlook client or access the system through a browser-based client or a mobile device.
- Works the way your business does: Microsoft CRM 3.0 can be adapted to the unique needs of businesses. Powerful event-driven workflow capabilities drive consistent process execution across the organisation. Powerful reporting and analytics based on Microsoft Excel and SQL Server Reporting Services give real-time visibility into business processes and customer interactions being tracked in Microsoft CRM 3.0.
- Works the way technology should: Microsoft CRM 3.0 delivers a low total cost of ownership by offering a highly flexible and configurable platform built on web services and other standard tools and technologies.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 is already being deployed and delivering results by a select group of customers around the world. Commtech Wireless a Perth based provider of on-site and wide-area paging systems with solutions deployed at 4,500 sites across 53 countries, faced a problem of consolidating its customer information across multiple databases and geographies. Microsoft CRM enabled Commtech Wireless to create a central repository for client data, which now enables its employees to easily access, retrieve and share customer information, resulting in an efficient customer-tracking process and ensuring quick follow-up on sales leads.

Mr Nathan Buzza, Chief Executive Officer of Commtech Wireless, said, “In the space of just one day we swapped out 1.2, installed 3.0, and everyone was up and going the following day. Microsoft CRM 3.0 enabled us to replace ten years worth of Excel Spreadsheets and Access databases and virtually eliminated manual processing which we think is great news."

“Microsoft CRM 3.0 continues that Microsoft look and feel so there was no additional training, everything hooks in with the rest of the Microsoft product lines. Microsoft CRM has allowed us to manage our customers in a way that we could never do it before, which is a direct bottom line improvement,” said Mr Buzza.

New Small Business Edition Delivers Power and Simplicity
Microsoft CRM 3.0 offers a new version designed specifically for small businesses. The Small Business Edition (SBE) is designed to run on Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Edition (SBS) and offers a full CRM suite that can be installed with just ten clicks. It provides wizard-driven configuration of the application, integrates with SBS features like fax management and integrated server management and offers an easy migration path from Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager.

Giving Customers a Choice of Deployment Models
As of January 1, 2006, Microsoft will offer subscription-based licensing to partners that deliver hosted solutions based on Microsoft CRM. This continues Microsoft's strong commitment to providing a choice of flexible and affordable CRM in both on-premise and hosted deployment models. Since the same code is used in both models, customers can choose whichever deployment model fits their business and technical requirements at any point in time.

“Microsoft's subscription based pricing for its partners changes the economics of third party hosting, opening up opportunities in the fast growing hosted CRM segment,” said Mr Foad Fadaghi, Research Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan Australia.

Availability
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is available now in Australia through the broad Microsoft distribution and reseller channel. A directory of local partners who have been trained on Microsoft CRM and can deliver the software and associated services to help ensure a rapid return on investment is available online. More information on Microsoft CRM and trained partners can be found at:
www.microsoft.com.au/crm.