Saturday, July 30, 2011

Transform your partner business with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Are you a Microsoft platform partner interested in building a Dynamics CRM practice?  Take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics CRM MPN site to learn more about how to transform your business to take advantage of the Cloud opportunity for CRM.

Cloud Partner Profitability Guide: Learn more about the market perception for cloud services and how to establish implementation roadmaps by business function, optimize business processes and investments, and apply profitability models to create financial plans.

Sign-up for your Internal Use Rights Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online instance

Sign-up for your 12-month Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online partner demo instance

Watch this video to hear how existing partners have been successful with their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online practice.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Before you purchase or renew your Salesforce.com subscription

If you are evaluating Salesforce.com or contemplating renewing your subscription, I encourage you to take the time to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Here are some sites to get your started. 

Don’t Get Forced | Why Microsoft | Price Comparison

In addition, hear from a former customer (Magma) and a prospect (BioMedix) as to the realized value Microsoft Dynamics CRM has provided to their businesses.

Magma:

BioMedix:

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Can your CRM solution do this with Outlook?

As you evaluate CRM vendors, not all vendors are the same when it comes to integration to Outlook.  One of the big benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the ability to provide a familiar experience to your users.  Effective deployments begin with adoption and the best way to get users to adopt your solution is to provide an easy to use interface that they are already familiar with.

One in the same (CRM and Outlook) including the ability to take all your data offline. No more “ALT+TAB” to switch between Outlook and your CRM solution

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Tight integration with key Outlook capabilities (preview pane)

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Visualizations and Charts available in real-time based on the data you are looking at

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Conditional formatting to highlight critical records to users

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Ability to create records (e.g. opportunity) from e-mails

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Great video from one of the Microsoft Program Managers who worked on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook client

Great video from one of the Program Managers who worked on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook client

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Release history of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has come a long way since the original release back on January 2003.  In case you were wondering, there was no 2.0 version as the product went from 1.2 to 3.0.  The Dynamics brand was also introduced in the 3.0 release.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (Released Jan 2011)

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Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 (Released Dec 2007)

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 (Released Dec 2005)

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Microsoft CRM 1.2 (Released Dec 2003)

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Microsoft CRM 1.0 (Released Jan 2003)

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Monday, July 25, 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Case Studies



Here is a handful of case studies that shows the value of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to customers in various industries.  Note the specific CRM solution that some of them migrated from.

Magma Design Automation
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-Online/Magma-Design-Automation/Software-Provider-Adopts-CRM-in-the-Cloud-to-Simplify-and-Accelerate-the-Business/4000010752

BioMedix
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-Online/BioMedix-Vascular-Solutions/Medical-Device-and-Software-Firm-Supports-Rapid-Growth-by-Moving-to-Online-Services/4000008645

Century Payments

High Five Sportswear

Trion

Unico

Sunday, July 24, 2011

History of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online


Below are the various press releases denoting the past releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.  As you can see, service updates occur twice a year with the next one targeted for Q4 of calendar year 2011.

Initial launch - Release in US and Canada (Apr 2008):
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-22DynamicsCRMOnlinePR.mspx

1st service update (Sep 2008):
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-08CRMOnlineServicePR.mspx

2nd service update (Mar 2009):
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-10CRMConvergence09PR.mspx

3rd service update (Nov 2009):
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/nov09/11-03serviceupdatepr.mspx

4th service update (May 2010):
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/apr10/04-25ConvergenceCRMPR.mspx?

Beta release of CRM Online v2011 (Sep 2010):
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/sep10/09-09MSCRM2011BetaPR.mspx

5th service update - release of CRM Online in 40 markets and 41 languages (Jan 2011):
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2011/jan11/1-17MSCRMOnlinePR.mspx

Upcoming service update (Q4 calendar year 2011)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2011/07/13/microsoft-dynamics-crm-at-the-2011-worldwide-partner-conference.aspx

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Windows Phone 7 app to track Microsoft Dynamics CRM twitter feeds


For those partners who have a Windows Phone 7, there is a partner app that allows you to track various Microsoft Dynamics CRM twitter feeds.

Simply click the “Marketplace” button on your Windows Phone and do a search for, “Microsoft Partner Info” in the Marketplace. You can install it directly from there.  Otherwise you can click here to get it from the Zune marketplace.

If you have a Apple iPhone, Blackberry or Android, you should consider getting a Windows Phone 7.

Friday, July 22, 2011

CRM sessions from WPC11

Many useful CRM sessions from WPC11 were recently published and posted on microsoft.com/showcase

Kirill Tatarinov Keynote

DYN01 - Microsoft Online Services: the Total Package (CRM Online and Office 365)

DYN07 - Growing Your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Business in the Enterprise

DYN14 -Social Media Strategies with Microsoft Dynamics

DYN20 - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online – Ready, Set, Go http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/details/b426c1ae-69fa-4464-9843-8215bfec1a0f