Described by Brad Wilson, the general manager of Microsoft CRM, as a ‘a major upgrade’, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is more realistically the company’s full tilt at the market replacing version 1.2 which was widely regarded as incomplete.   Also, without a hint of irony, Wilson described the global availability of the product as  being ‘early’ despite the company’s delays and eventual abandonment of version 2.0.

There are a number of significant additions to the product most notably its inclusion of a marketing module but also extension of configuration, customisation and integration tools available as part of the user licence.  It is now available in 20 languages with more to be added in the new year.    The ‘vanilla flavoured’ solution will be sold exclusively through its partner network who will customise for their target vertical sectors.  

Microsoft is also making a claim for the entire business space by producing two versions: a Small Business Edition for up to 75 users at up to $500 per user and a Professional Edition priced at up to $880 per user.  

Wilson said the product has been in development for five years, was designed by Microsoft engineers and was ‘probably the most modern CRM application in the marketplace’.

He said the watch word of the development was ease of use.  ‘We have brought CRM 3.0 into Office so CRM is not the “other thing” you do but an integrated part of the way you work now.  The fact that people are so familiar with Outlook means this is not intimidating.’

He said the company had considered not using the term CRM in naming the product as the term had taken a bit of hammering over the way ‘it was delivered as a complex application that was hard to be successful with.’  He added: ‘We will help to rehabilitate CRM by changing the price/value equation through reliability and lower risk. User adoption is key to success and we take a very big part of that issue away.’