Microsoft Unveils Dynamics CRM Live

BOSTON—Microsoft has announced—finally—its version of on-demand CRM software.

For more than a year the software giant has nosed around the fact that it’s working on customer relationship management as a service, but it wasn’t until its annual Worldwide Partner Conference here July 11-13 that Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live made its formal debut.

On July 11, Microsoft announced its road map for its next major release of its on-premises CRM suite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM—a plan that now includes on-demand capabilities.

While still part of the Microsoft Dynamics line of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software that resides under the Microsoft Business Solutions umbrella, the newly coined Dynamics CRM Live service will be under the auspices of the Office team—and operated and managed by the Windows Live data centers.

During a recent organizational restructuring, announced June 28, the CRM team was effectively moved into the Office group (and closer to SharePoint Services) under Vice President Kurt DelBene. That said, MBS Vice President Satya Nadella—in charge of business applications product development at Microsoft—will continue to guide the Dynamics road map that includes CRM.

Click here to read more about Microsoft’s Dynamics strategy.

It’s not yet clear where the two products—Dynamics CRM and CRM Live—differ. Both are roles-based, with an Outlook look and feel. Both offer standard CRM capabilities geared toward the small and midmarket, with the capability for partners to build applications on top of the core offering.

CRM Live, however, will be configurable at the user interface, application tier and database level without requiring any actual written code, officials said.

CRM Live will also be integrated with Microsoft’s Windows Live and Office Live—online services geared toward consumers and small businesses, respectively. The difference, of course, is that CRM Live will use the same code base as Microsoft’s on-premises CRM software—in turn, the same code base used by Microsoft partners that host Dynamics CRM. The idea is that even partners that currently offer a hosted version of Microsoft’s business applications won’t be cut out of the pie.

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