Although Microsoft’s cloud version of its leading CRM solution has been live in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico for a while now, was launched in the UK and many other countries for the first time on 17th January 2011.
Although a handful of UK CRM business partners, including Concentrix, have been offering version 4 of the product as a hosted solution, the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online means that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now a genuine cloud application available on infrastructure developed, run and maintained by Microsoft. It has almost identical functionality as the on-premise product and uses the very latest version - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premise is due for release in the UK in late February 2011)
You’ve probably already heard about the new features, enhancements and developments in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. It’s a major new product release. But just in case, here’s a quick recap of some of what’s new in the product: Microsoft has made it even easier to use, improved outlook integration, provided some excellent dashboards, increased personalisation and added role-tailored clients, enabled ‘out of the box’ SharePoint and integration, increased configuration capabilities and filled some technical and functional gaps. And that’s just some of it – there’s a whole range of other things as well!
But here’s something that’s really going to shake up the cloud CRM market, and not just in the UK. The price of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is starting out at a discounted rate of only £22.75 per user per month. If you compare this price with SalesForce.com, which is typically around £45 per user per month; it’s a major difference and incentive to go with the Microsoft product. This is highlighted even more when you consider the extensive , its familiarity and ease of use, and the big productivity gains you can expect from it. What’s more, you only pay for what you need in respect of storage, which is again a major advantage over several other online CRM solutions.
The promotional price of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will last until June this year. However, even after the discount is withdrawn, we expect the standard price of the product to remain extremely competitive and the total cost of ownership to be lower than its key competitors. In fact, Microsoft has already seen many businesses switch to from products such as SalesForce, Oracle Siebel CRM and SAP CRM. It will be interesting to see if and how these other online CRM providers, and SalesForce in particular, react to the attractive pricing, ease of use, high user adoption rates and the flexibility of the new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Cloud computing is no longer in the realm of early adopters – it’s now a firm reality for many organisations. In the UK market we are seeing, and expect to continue to see, a significant rise in businesses using cloud applications for CRM, and for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in particular.
By Concentrix Ltd: a
