On July 11, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), the largest software company in the world, fleshed out the contents of its recently pre-launched Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM) offerings for the mid-market, together with an indication of pricing. Earlier this year, the company indicated that it planned to deliver a CRM solution specifically aimed at medium-sized organizations (see Microsoft Throws .NET At SMEs, With CRM As Bait), having already made strides in this prospective and underserved area of business application software, with the April 2001 consummation of purchase of former Great Plains Software at the end of 2000 (see Microsoft And Great Plains - A Friendship That Turned Into A Marriage) and a recent announcement of purchase of Navision Software (see Microsoft 'The Great' Poised To Conquer Mid-Market, Once and Again).
The presentation featured David Thacher, general manager of customer relationship management (CRM) at Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), the new name for the combined Microsoft division, which includes Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft bCentral, and Navision a/s businesses. Thacher spoke about the upcoming release of Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM), a solution developed for mid-market businesses. He also explained Microsoft's overall CRM strategy, its value proposition, Microsoft's ongoing support for partners and resellers, the strength of the MBS channel, and the increasingly important role of Web services in the CRM industry. Thacher pointed out that .NET facilitates the easy connection of systems and enhances solutions with external Web services such as credit checking, analytics and marketing automation services that extend the core functionality of Microsoft CRM.
The Microsoft CRM demonstration focused on the solution's tight integration to Outlook and Microsoft Business Solutions' business applications, and attempted to show how easily customers can use and customize the solution. Microsoft CRM complements (and possibly overlaps with) a plethora of Microsoft's other CRM offerings for small and medium-sized businesses, including bCentral Customer Manager and DealerPoint, Microsoft iCommunicate, Microsoft Great Plains eEnterprise Field Service, Microsoft Great Plains Solomon Field Service and Great Plains Siebel Front Office. Likely the most prominent amongst these would be Microsoft Great Plains' CRM functional offering, provided by an interface with Siebel Systems and called Great Plains Siebel Front Office (SFO). It was aimed mostly at companies that were existing users of Great Plains' enterprise systems, such as Solomon or eEnterprise, and it provided field service, and lead and contact management with an element of connectivity to those back-office systems.
Microsoft CRM solution will be used as a standalone product or integrated with Microsoft Business Solutions' Microsoft Great Plains business applications: Dynamics, Solomon and eEnterprise and eventually Navision Attain and Axapta. Its expected availability in North America is in the fourth quarter of 2002 (it will be available for beta test from August), while the availability outside of North America will be phased and is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2003. It will be sold and implemented through MBS' reselling partner channel, and partners and Microsoft Great Plains' award-winning customer support team will provide support.
The solution will be available on-premise or as a hosted solution through select partners. The software will be accessible either through a browser or through Outlook, and businesses will also need either Windows 2000 or Windows NT Server software, as well as the SQL Server 2000 database and Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory in order to use the e-mail and messaging functions.
Microsoft CRM will have a straightforward yet flexible licensing model that allows companies to purchase what works best for them. They may choose among Sales, Service or Suite licensing at Standard or Professional levels of functionality. The main difference between the two levels is that the Professional edition will offer more elements of workflow and integration with back-office applications than the Standard package. The capabilities have been designed specifically with small organizations in mind, from 25 to 500 employees, having 15 to 150 concurrent CRM users. Microsoft CRM carries a pricing model designed to encourage companies that previously considered CRM systems unaffordable to start systems and expand them as their businesses grow. Pricing for Microsoft CRM ranges from US$395 per user plus US$995 for the server for the Standard Sales level to US$1,295 per user plus US$1,990 for the server at the Professional Suite level.
Earlier in June, as a part of rounding out of its CRM strategy, then Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions and Crystal Decisions Inc., a privately held provider of information management systems, announced that Crystal Decisions will provide the reporting, analysis and information delivery capabilities within Microsoft CRM. The new OEM and reseller agreement will give Microsoft CRM customers access to Crystal Enterprise to gain insight into their customer data, identify high-value opportunities, predict short- and long-term revenue, and distribute information across their organization for better decision-making. Crystal Enterprise enables businesses to access data from virtually any data source or application, analyze it, create a report, and share the information with employees, customers and partners.
Tightly integrated with Microsoft CRM, Crystal Enterprise should deliver insight into customer data through a combination of operational and analytic reports, enabling companies to understand what is happening in their customer base and why. The agreement includes an OEM component through which a version of Crystal Enterprise, called Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM, would be installed by default at no additional cost, providing customers with the ability to view, filter, print and export 125 predefined reports. The agreement also includes a worldwide reseller component through which Microsoft will resell enhanced Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM licenses (for customers seeking to customize existing reports or create new reports), Crystal Reports Standard (with a custom data driver for Microsoft CRM), and other Crystal Decisions offerings, such as training and support, through its value-added reseller channel.
Also on July 11, Microsoft announced that it has completed the acquisition of Navision Software a/s as a result of the successful close of the tender offer. Microsoft expects to purchase Navision's shares for approximately US$1.45 billion in stock and cash. Including the purchase of Great Plains in 2001, Microsoft has forked out more than $2.5 billion to become a major player in the SME applications market.
As a result of the acquisition, originally announced on May 7, 2002, Navision will become part of Microsoft Business Solutions, which will be led by Doug Burgum, senior vice president of Microsoft and former chairman and CEO of Great Plains. Navision co-CEOs Jesper Balser and Preben Damgaard will remain with Microsoft Business Solutions. Balser will become director of global strategy, and Damgaard will become director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. The EMEA operations will be based out of Navision's corporate headquarters in Vedbaek, Denmark. MBS will continue to develop, market and support Navision's business applications. These applications — Microsoft Navision Axapta, Microsoft Navision Attain, Microsoft Navision C5 and Microsoft Navision XAL — join the portfolio of products currently offered by Microsoft Business Solutions. The MBS' focus going forward will likely be on rationalizing and defining the future of its product portfolio and value-added reseller (VAR) partner network.
The presentation featured David Thacher, general manager of customer relationship management (CRM) at Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), the new name for the combined Microsoft division, which includes Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft bCentral, and Navision a/s businesses. Thacher spoke about the upcoming release of Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM), a solution developed for mid-market businesses. He also explained Microsoft's overall CRM strategy, its value proposition, Microsoft's ongoing support for partners and resellers, the strength of the MBS channel, and the increasingly important role of Web services in the CRM industry. Thacher pointed out that .NET facilitates the easy connection of systems and enhances solutions with external Web services such as credit checking, analytics and marketing automation services that extend the core functionality of Microsoft CRM.
The Microsoft CRM demonstration focused on the solution's tight integration to Outlook and Microsoft Business Solutions' business applications, and attempted to show how easily customers can use and customize the solution. Microsoft CRM complements (and possibly overlaps with) a plethora of Microsoft's other CRM offerings for small and medium-sized businesses, including bCentral Customer Manager and DealerPoint, Microsoft iCommunicate, Microsoft Great Plains eEnterprise Field Service, Microsoft Great Plains Solomon Field Service and Great Plains Siebel Front Office. Likely the most prominent amongst these would be Microsoft Great Plains' CRM functional offering, provided by an interface with Siebel Systems and called Great Plains Siebel Front Office (SFO). It was aimed mostly at companies that were existing users of Great Plains' enterprise systems, such as Solomon or eEnterprise, and it provided field service, and lead and contact management with an element of connectivity to those back-office systems.
Microsoft CRM solution will be used as a standalone product or integrated with Microsoft Business Solutions' Microsoft Great Plains business applications: Dynamics, Solomon and eEnterprise and eventually Navision Attain and Axapta. Its expected availability in North America is in the fourth quarter of 2002 (it will be available for beta test from August), while the availability outside of North America will be phased and is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2003. It will be sold and implemented through MBS' reselling partner channel, and partners and Microsoft Great Plains' award-winning customer support team will provide support.
The solution will be available on-premise or as a hosted solution through select partners. The software will be accessible either through a browser or through Outlook, and businesses will also need either Windows 2000 or Windows NT Server software, as well as the SQL Server 2000 database and Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory in order to use the e-mail and messaging functions.
Microsoft CRM will have a straightforward yet flexible licensing model that allows companies to purchase what works best for them. They may choose among Sales, Service or Suite licensing at Standard or Professional levels of functionality. The main difference between the two levels is that the Professional edition will offer more elements of workflow and integration with back-office applications than the Standard package. The capabilities have been designed specifically with small organizations in mind, from 25 to 500 employees, having 15 to 150 concurrent CRM users. Microsoft CRM carries a pricing model designed to encourage companies that previously considered CRM systems unaffordable to start systems and expand them as their businesses grow. Pricing for Microsoft CRM ranges from US$395 per user plus US$995 for the server for the Standard Sales level to US$1,295 per user plus US$1,990 for the server at the Professional Suite level.
Earlier in June, as a part of rounding out of its CRM strategy, then Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions and Crystal Decisions Inc., a privately held provider of information management systems, announced that Crystal Decisions will provide the reporting, analysis and information delivery capabilities within Microsoft CRM. The new OEM and reseller agreement will give Microsoft CRM customers access to Crystal Enterprise to gain insight into their customer data, identify high-value opportunities, predict short- and long-term revenue, and distribute information across their organization for better decision-making. Crystal Enterprise enables businesses to access data from virtually any data source or application, analyze it, create a report, and share the information with employees, customers and partners.
Tightly integrated with Microsoft CRM, Crystal Enterprise should deliver insight into customer data through a combination of operational and analytic reports, enabling companies to understand what is happening in their customer base and why. The agreement includes an OEM component through which a version of Crystal Enterprise, called Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM, would be installed by default at no additional cost, providing customers with the ability to view, filter, print and export 125 predefined reports. The agreement also includes a worldwide reseller component through which Microsoft will resell enhanced Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM licenses (for customers seeking to customize existing reports or create new reports), Crystal Reports Standard (with a custom data driver for Microsoft CRM), and other Crystal Decisions offerings, such as training and support, through its value-added reseller channel.
Also on July 11, Microsoft announced that it has completed the acquisition of Navision Software a/s as a result of the successful close of the tender offer. Microsoft expects to purchase Navision's shares for approximately US$1.45 billion in stock and cash. Including the purchase of Great Plains in 2001, Microsoft has forked out more than $2.5 billion to become a major player in the SME applications market.
As a result of the acquisition, originally announced on May 7, 2002, Navision will become part of Microsoft Business Solutions, which will be led by Doug Burgum, senior vice president of Microsoft and former chairman and CEO of Great Plains. Navision co-CEOs Jesper Balser and Preben Damgaard will remain with Microsoft Business Solutions. Balser will become director of global strategy, and Damgaard will become director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. The EMEA operations will be based out of Navision's corporate headquarters in Vedbaek, Denmark. MBS will continue to develop, market and support Navision's business applications. These applications — Microsoft Navision Axapta, Microsoft Navision Attain, Microsoft Navision C5 and Microsoft Navision XAL — join the portfolio of products currently offered by Microsoft Business Solutions. The MBS' focus going forward will likely be on rationalizing and defining the future of its product portfolio and value-added reseller (VAR) partner network.
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