With the recent release of Dynamics CRM 2013, I'm impressed with the work Microsoft has done. They've invested a lot in the user experience, and while it takes a few minutes to get used to, I think it's a good thing. I'm not a huge fan of the new navigation bar at the top, but I've realized it's intention is in the right place - to make the touch screens the dominant user experience moving forward. With that in mind, the new navigation makes a lot of sense.
I also love the care that's gone into the mobile experience. The application sizes to whatever device you have, making it easy to interact with CRM in a way I can expect and rely on every time. This eliminates complex user adoption on mobile devices, for users can just use them if they care to. I suspect users will find value and use mobile devices quickly because the familiarity to desktop makes the transition easy. In the past, mobile usage of CRM required lots of extra steps and manipulation, and the experience and interface was not the same.
Finally, I was excited to upload my CRM 2011 custom solutions into CRM 2013 and have them show up and work! The underlying model of CRM is functionality sound and was built wisely with the foresight to know the interface will evolve over time. Due to the rich metadata-driven architecture, I don't have to waste a lot of time as a developer reworking my projects every time a major release comes out. The architecture of CRM has always been my favorite feature, and here is where intelligent system design from the start has really paid off.
Written By Mark Rockwell, President of .
