Microsoft has unveiled details of its customer relationship
software roll out, but UK users will have to wait until next year
before the product ships here.
Aiming to attract medium-sized businesses, the software giant plans
to ship Microsoft CRM as early as the fourth quarter of 2002 in
North America. A beta version of the software is already available.
However, in the UK, users are unlikely to see a Microsoft CRM
product before the first quarter of 2003.
Andy Smith, European development director at Microsoft, said the
reason for the delay was down to Microsoft's team in Ireland who
are translating the software to six European languages.
"When it is ready, we'll launch [Microsoft CRM] across Europe,"
said Smith. Microsoft also plans to develop links with its recently
acquired Navision ERP system, he added, although these links will
not be available in the first version of Microsoft CRM.
Designed for businesses with 25 to 500 employees, Microsoft said
the CRM package builds on the company's growing number of business
applications, which offer users a Web-based system for managing
accounting, human resources, supply chain and customer
relationships.
The suite will be offered as both a hosted service and a product
that companies can deploy on their own servers.
Based on Microsoft's .net technology, the software is designed to
allow integration with external Web services offered by third
parties, such as credit checking, mapping and marketing automation
services.
Microsoft first announced plans to offer the CRM package in
February.
While enterprise users tend to customise packaged applications,
David Thacher, general manager of CRM at Microsoft, said,
"[smaller] businesses don't have the IT resources in-house to build
[CRM systems] themselves. They need something that's out of the
box."
The software uses technology developed to run on Microsoft's .net
servers and infrastructure. Users can access the software through
Microsoft's e-mail and calendaring software, Outlook, or via a Web
browser.
Businesses will need to buy Windows 2000 or Windows NT server
software and the SQL Server 2000 database to use the CRM package
from Microsoft. The e-mail and messaging functions require
Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory.
Prices for the standard edition product will start at $395 (£255)
per user, plus $995 (£642) for the server. The professional edition
will be priced at up to $1,395 (£900) per user, plus $1,990
(£1,285) for the server.