Ryan Toenies

Update: Microsoft CRM, Office 2007 and Windows Vista

Microsoft just released an important CRM announcement regarding the upcoming releases of Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista.  Please read the blog post by Christian Pedersen - Senior Director, CRM Product Management.

http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2006/08/30/730678.aspx

Inetium will be presenting a "Prepare for Windows Vista" event the first part of November.  Stay tuned for additional details.

:: Ryan ::

CRM: The Competition Heats Up

As the evolution of CRM continues, I find it very interesting how the rivalry between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com is heating up.  For CRM users this competition is welcomed as it continues to push product innovation.  Everyone benefits from more powerful applications.  But I cannot help but see similarities to old rivals like Apple and Microsoft with the relatively new rivalry of Salesforce.com and Microsoft.  I have had many conversations with my peers about the pros and cons of hosted CRM.  I make no bones about it - I am 100% pro "On-Premise" CRM (OK - Microsoft Dynamics CRM) but I do understand the appeal of hosted CRM.

I get passionate about CRM competition in the marketplace because it pushes the envelope for new product capabilities.  Consider the next 12 months in the CRM marketplace.  Microsoft has announced:

• New CRM Mobile Product (http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2006/08/04/688908.aspx)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live (http://www.crmlive.com)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Titan (codename for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0)

These new product innovations are a direct outcome of competition in the marketplace and Microsoft's drive to become the premier CRM vendor in the world.  In response to Microsoft's strategy other CRM vendors are stepping up to the plate and providing innovation around their product platform.  Salesforce.com is putting a lot of focus on their AppExchange platform.  This allows customers to integrate line of business applications to their hosted CRM platform.  This is considered a core strength of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.  What might be more important to consumers is that this competition is driving the overall cost of implementing CRM solutions lower.  Consumers are gaining leverage as vendors compete for market share.  In addition, I would argue that the amount of functionality you receive for the same per seat license has dramatically increased.  In the case of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you no longer buy the product by module rather when you acquire one seat you receive all the Microsoft Dynamics CRM modules and products (Marketing, Sales and Service modules and the Outlook, Web and Mobile clients).

As the competition heats up the ultimate winner is "The Consumer"!

:: Ryan ::

From CRM to Zune

Have you heard the news?  Microsoft is building a media device that will rival the likes of iPod and other popular media players.  The new device will be called "Zune".  For selfish reasons I am very excited for this new device.  For professional reasons I can see this as a continuing evolution of the Information Worker becoming even more mobile.

** Zune Thoughts ** - Future home of Rants and Raves about Microsoft Zune

What does this have to do with CRM?  Today we have resources like the Microsoft CRM Sandbox.  The Sandbox is a collaborative environment where developers come together and share their code to extend the power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  The new CRM Mobile product that utilizes WAP technology to access your corporate CRM data is a great example of product innovation.  Microsoft has also launched their "Live" vision - www.live.com - where business applications are blurring the line with consumer applications.  Imagine what tomorrow will bring with powerful computing capabilities available in the palm of your hand.  We have Windows Mobile devices today. Tomorrow, Zune will offer powerful media capabilities comparable to watching movies on your home entertainment system. 

While Zune is targeted to be a consumer device (developed under the Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division) I sense we are very close to seeing a convergence of these mobile devices released into the business world.  Microsoft is fast approaching a world where thy will have unrivaled collaboration capabilities with the powerful media entertainment.

So think about tomorrow - You can be watching your CNN.com news feed and listen to a story that impacts one of your top customers.  Simply send the video link via email to your business contact and track your message as an email activity within CRM all from your Zune "Live" device!

** Microsoft CRM Sandbox ** - Build powerful CRM extensions - Learn what others are creating!

:: Ryan ::

Scribe Insight - The Essential CRM Tool

Garbage in - Garbage out ... we have all heard that statement before but could it ring any more true than with a CRM application?  Sure, the CRM application needs to be adopted by the end-users but would it be worth anything if the data wasn't accurate and up-to-date?  It's kind of like Monopoly, can you pass GO with CRM if you can't get your hands around all of your CRM data sources?

I was first introduced to Scribe as a data migration tool back in 2000 when we were reselling SalesLogix.  I have to say I was very impressed.  When Microsoft Dynamics CRM was released in January of 2002 I immediately looked for a solution from Scribe that worked with the product.  I was very happy to see that Scribe built an adapter for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. 

Yes, Microsoft has built a Data Migration Framework for its product that is included as part of the solution but the reality is it pales in comparison to the feature set that Scribe brings to the table. With Scribe, you not only get a data migration application but you can use it for ongoing integration to line of business applications.  How many times do you get new data (marketing lists, campaign responses, ERP customer lists, etc.) that you need to import into your CRM application?  We spend time on every CRM project educating our customers on the importance data agility.  Simply put - this is a mindset that believes CRM databases are always changing and that data inputs and outputs are dynamic because the overall business is constantly evolving.  Scribe does an incredible job supporting these dynamic environments.  We use Scribe to integrate hundreds of thousands of records on a daily basis or simply to upload Excel spreadsheets that contain a list of new leads. 

If you are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM or you are an existing customer - strongly consider acquiring Scribe Insight for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - you will not be disappointed!

:: Ryan ::