Microsoft Offers Peek At Next-Gen CRM

4foot10 writes "As reported by VARBusiness.com, Microsoft's next release of its Dynamics CRM application, code-named 'Titan', is moving a little closer to completion. Today, the vendor is making the new software, which uses a single code base to support on-premise and software-as-a-service deployments, available to several hundred business partners for testing, giving them an early start on developing complementary solutions."

Comments

Good for web apps?

[Henry 2.0]

At least in the instance of hosted applications, it's an opportunity for online application vendors to rub their shoulders with the huge vendors such as microsoft.

We've already begun using online spreadsheet tools to replace (almost) a few office applications, but the scope for apps like a centralised CRM database rooted in a b2b myspace style mashup is on the cards now - should be very interesting to see who gets there first.

me first me first!

erm hmmm... Web 3.0 anyone? :)

Re:Good for web apps?

[Anonymous Coward]

The question is wether or not the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based version will be a web application, a "fat client" or a hybrid solution (like using ActiveX controls or other browser plugins).

CRM is one of the applications that seem to play nice as web application (salesforce.com as a prime example, although I hate the slow loading interface of salesforce.com). But there are plenty of applications that are not possible with a web application, without extensions in the browser or a better alternative (I'm not refering to Terminal Server or Citrix).

CRM is one of those things that work best when offered as a service:
- People who need it are often quite mobile.
- CRM implementations used to be quite expensive and are therefore mostly used by midsize to large companies, leaving small companies a bit in the dark.
- CRM is almost always multi-user.

One thing that bothers me though is that Microsoft is going to offer this via their Live "channel", essentially killing the opportunity for third-party Application Service Providers to close the gap for the smaller companies. The only thing those ASPs can differ is in offering additional services and/or better support on top of the normal services.

Re:Wikipedia says:

[cyxxon]

Nah, it's not a marketing term, and not something even remotely connected to DRM. I am a CRM consultant (though not dealing with Microsoft's implementation, but rather SAP). Among the various aspects of business software, CRM is the part that helps a company get new contracts and keep good relations to their old customers. It is indeed (among others things) responsible for sending out Xmas cards, but also for sending new offers to old customers. You can build web shops for B2B and B2C with it, and you can track which of your customers are how "valuable" (i.e. purchase what and how much of it) and are the best targets for new campaigns for new products. This is a booming industry, my company (Germany, ~170 consultants) is currently looking for CRM consultants because everybody and their mother is realizing they need better ways to manage their customers then simply keeping them as debitors in their Enterprise Resource Planning system or as contacts in an Outlook system.

Try vTigerCRM

[DG]

Open Source, php/Apache/mySQL based, not perfect but way better than any of the offerings from the Borg.

DG