Microsoft News Tracker

Today, Microsoft threw open the doors on its long awaited “Salesforce.com killer” hosted CRM offering, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, an on-demand customer relationship management service hosted and managed by Microsoft. The new Internet service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a Web browser or directly into Microsoft Office and Outlook.
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is initially packaged in two service offerings:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional delivers a full suite of CRM capabilities with extensive configurability and extensibility options. Businesses get 5 GB of data storage, 100 configurable workflows and 100 custom entities. The Professional edition is priced at $44 per user per month, with an introductory offer of $39 per user, per month.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional Plus delivers all the capabilities of the Professional version plus offline data synchronization with expanded data storage, workflow and customization options that give businesses 20 GB of data storage, 200 configurable workflows and 200 custom entities. The Professional Plus edition is priced at $59 per user per month.

More than 500 customers and 200 partners have used Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online over the past six months via the Microsoft Early Access Program.

Until recently this product was “Dynamics Live CRM”, but it’s still basically what was announced last July with some name changes. Head to head comparison of features and reliability remain to be determined, but Microsoft is undercutting Salesforce on price.

Today at its Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft revealed the offering details of its long anticipated hosted CRM solution, Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM:

Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will be operated and managed by Microsoft within its datacenters and will offer Microsoft’s partners another fast and flexible way to address the unique customer relationship management (CRM) needs of each customer. Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will use the same code base as the on-premise and partner-hosted versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a strategy that reinforces Microsoft’s leadership in allowing customers to choose the best deployment option for their business and IT needs at any time.

It also puts the partner-hosted version in the shade as we’ve mentioned previously. Some balm for that wound is that partners can earn 10% of the recurring Live CRM subscription fees when they sell it to customers. The on-premise and partner-hosted versions will be available to those that still want it in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The customer early access program for Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will begin this quarter and will extend through the remainder of 2007. It will offer the Professional version of the service (see below) at no charge to customers during the early access period; at the end of the early access period, normal service fees will apply.

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Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will be available as a range of service offerings, with features and pricing designed to optimize value for different types of customers. The first two service offerings will be the following:

• Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Professional will offer full-suite CRM through Microsoft Outlook and browser clients, customizable workflow powered by Windows Workflow Foundation, and rich configuration and extensibility capabilities. The price for Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Professional will be $44 per user per month; however, during 2008 it will be offered to customers at a promotional price of $39 per user per month.
• Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Enterprise will offer all the capabilities of the Professional product as well as offline data synchronization. The price for Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Enterprise will be $59 per user per month.

During the early access program, all customers of Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will use the Professional version of the service. The Enterprise version will be made available in the first half of 2008.

Although it’s version 1.0 and will take some time to get up to speed, the target of Dynamics Live CRM is obviously Salesforce.com and the play looks to be price.

Update: Salesforce.com to Microsoft: Is that all ya got? Best line:

“We could talk for hours about all the great on-demand services that are out there that I can sign up and use. Where is Microsoft? Microsoft has a price list, not a product.”

It was not the rumored grand anti-Microsoft alliance, but Google and Salesforce.com announced a joint offering today that links Google AdWords advertising with Salesforce.com’s online CRM service.

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Last week Microsoft held their Convergence 2007 soiree for their Microsoft Business Systems customers and announced a package linking Dynamics ERP to Office and the upcoming availability of Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 and Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0.

They also trotted out CEO Steve Ballmer to demonstrate the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service targeted at Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce.com. You may recall that it has a rather checkered history involving Microsoft competing with partners for the hosting business.

I wish I could get more excited about the MBS family of products which were all solid if unexciting businesses until Microsoft took them over, at which point they settled into mostly profit-free lassitude despite promises of a grand convergence via Project Green. Now, we can’t even tell how they’re doing since they have been folded into the Windows Business Division (i.e. Office), but it is hard to believe that it is much better.

While Steve Ballmer may be excited about competing with long time partner SAP and the others (see also Barbara Darrow’s report), a relevant question is why they don’t just spin MBS off when it would likely be better for both parties.

“Summertime and the living is easy.” There’s just a small list of odds and ends this week.

Google reopens Writely, the online word processor it bought in March. Online services related: Wall Street loved Salesforce.com’s earnings report.

Yankee Group Predicts PS 3 Will Win The Battle For Most Console Sales, but Microsoft is making hay while the sun shines.

Mary Jo Foley at Microsoft Watch reminds us that support for Microsoft’s Software Update Services (SUS) is coming to an end in December, so it is time to migrate to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). If you aren’t familiar with either, they are Microsoft offerings for enterprise patch management.

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