Microsoft has announced further details of the new
version of its customer relationship management
system.
To make it easier to use, CRM 3.0 will provide a complete suite
of marketing, sales and service capabilities with the look and feel
of a Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook user interface.
With CRM 3.0, Microsoft is also introducing a new
subscription-based licensing model for customers that prefer a
hosted offering, enabling Microsoft to compete against other
companies in the hosted CRM space, such as Salesforce and
Siebel.
Microsoft said CRM 3.0 is designed 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.
The new release also comes with a new service-scheduling module,
designed to automatically manage complex scheduling requests that
currently require specific people, skills and resources.
Microsoft said that new data objects can be also added to the
system easily and linked to other pre-defined objects, with all
underlying data storage and web services automatically generated by
the system.
Microsoft is also introducing a small business edition of CRM
3.0, which is designed for companies that use Windows Small
Business Server 2003 Premium Edition (SBS 2003). This version will
deliver a simplified installation.
CRM 3.0 will be available to existing Microsoft CRM customers in
the fourth quarter of 2005, and will be generally available in the
first quarter of 2006. Pricing is yet to be confirmed.