Getting Started with Microsoft CRM Online

I helped a client with CRM Online over the weekend, and am do far quite impressed with the way Microsoft has been able to translate this server based application to be a fully Internet enabled application. My client is a current Salesforce.com user with about 13 users, and they pay about $125 per user per month. By moving to CRM Online Professional Plus, he will be able to double the internal users at his company without increasing his monthly cost over what he pays Salesforce.



The screenshot shows the first, most obvious difference a user of a server based CRM implementation will notice. Withing the Workplace screen, there is a new "entity" called "Getting Started" which walks the new user/administrator through all of the basic steps necessary to have a successful launch of CRM Online.



This entity guides you, step by step through

• Setting up the basic company information - Users, Business Units, Fiscal Years


• Integrating with Outlook


• Managing Sales


• Managing Support


• Managing Schedules in Customer Service


• Managing Marketing


• Advanced Business Processes

While we are just starting getting through these steps, I have to say that this getting started screen will help new customers of Dynamics CRM Online begin using CRM in a more productive way. What I don't understand is why these Getting Started screens are not standard in the server based edition of MSCRM? Perhaps these will be added at a later date.

Overall, my client is happy with what he has so far, and I will keep posting as I delve further into Microsoft CRM Online.

New Microsoft CRM Books coming soon

With the release of Dynamics CRM 4.0, a whole slew of books - okay four are being written to support users and administrators.  I am looking forward to this particular title, as it seems to be the power users guide to using CRM in day to day mode.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed by Marc J. Wolenik, Damian Sinay Read more about this book...

July 13, 2007 - Microsoft CRM Week in Review

Big news on the CRM front, and I'm not just talking about the ongoing battle of the dashboards.  Which one do you like best?? Vote in our poll!

Of course the top event for this week was the announcement by Kevin Turner of pricing for Dynamics CRM Live, and of course the reaction from Salesforce.com, who nows sees themselves squarely in Microsoft's cross-hairs.  Having Microsoft undercut your pricing in your sole product is a lonely place to be, and while I don't expect mass defections from SGF existing customer base until Microsoft develops a one touch migration tool, CRM Live will be on the radar of anyone with an upcoming CRM purchasing decision.

Other views and news from WWPC

CRMCHUMP, Videos, Jim Glass, eweek, Google,

My one complaint in all of this coverage is there is so much FUD that Dynamics CRM Live is a generation 1 product.  As if the features that are in Salesforce are not present in Dynamics CRM.  I am working on a blog post for next week that shows the differences between Salesforce.com's high end Ultimate package, and Dynamics CRM Live, and let me tell you, the differences are not worth $80 per month

In Other News:

Aspective won Microsoft Partner of the Year in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Congratulations

MSCRMGUY tantalized us with a very skeletal CRM client for the MAC.  How about a client for FireFox after you finish this project!!

Invoke Systems explained how to install the MSCRM Rollup Update #2 on the VPC (Which, by the way, is still missing from Microsoft's Download site.

Jim Glass expounded on the Analytics Foundation.  I have never looked into this product, but I need to.  Another article from Jim discussed Marketing Lists

And last but not least, Michael Hohne, one of the premier resources on JavaScript and Microsoft CRM , began a series of articles on Displaying MSCRM views in IFRAMES and webpages.  this will help solve one of those silly little CRM limitations that drive us crazy - how to create multiple associated views in an entity

Also, in MSCRMSpot news, we had our highest readership ever on Wednesday -36 users!!!

Any scoops that you would like to report - please send me a message at lpgforms @ gmail.com

Have a great weekend, see you all next week!

Brian

 

Technorati tags: CRM Live, WWPC, salesforce.com, microsoft CRM, crm live, Dynamics CRM Live

Business Week: Microsoft takes on Salesforce

Can you tell that I am excited about the impending release of CRM  Live announced yesterday?

In this article, Businessweek spoke with Jeff Raikes, fellow Nebraskan, and President of Microsoft Business Solutions about the importance of Microsoft CRM Live to Microsoft, its customers, and its partners.

Highlights below:

Microsoft has been somewhat late to the online CRM party. Why was that?

Well, we did put a real emphasis on being able to have a strong offering in the on-premise (packaged software) area, and that's been excellent for us. We've developed great momentum. We're over 400,000 users now, approaching 500,000. I think that was the smart way for us to come at that.

I would turn it around, though, and say if you think about what customers really want, we are not the one who's late to the party. What customers really want is that ability to have a choice in terms of the implementation. And so if we are correct in that view of the market, the ability to have a very, very strong CRM offering that can be hosted by Microsoft, hosted by our partners, or implemented on-premise by our partners is really the triple play.

Is that really what customers want? If you look at the success that Salesforce.com has had, I think you could argue that customers really want something that is simple, lightweight, and not expensive.

We've developed a lot of momentum on-premise, and they've developed some momentum online, but now we're going to really see what customers want. Simplicity of use, ease of implementation, low total cost of operation: Those are all very important things that customers want. And we have been offering that very successfully in on-premise. We now have a great offering that is both online and on-premise.

Microsoft Takes On Salesforce

Technorati tags: crm live, salesforce.com, microsoft crm, dynamics CRM Live, microsoft, crm