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Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship
Management Launches in North America
A Solution for Building and Managing More-Profitable
Customer Relationships, Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship
Management Empowers Midmarket Businesses to Deliver Superior
Customer Service
REDMOND, Wash. Jan. 21, 2003 Microsoft Business
Solutions (Microsoft) today announced the North American
availability of Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship
Management (Microsoft CRM). The new product supports and
automates the CRM strategies of midmarket organizations,
helping them build lasting and profitable relationships
with their most important constituency: their customers.
The solution enables businesses to take advantage of technology
and related services that were previously reserved for large
enterprises with big IT budgets.
Microsoft CRM offers an up-to-the-minute view of all interactions
from initial lead through lifetime customer history. Featuring
an intuitive user interface, Microsoft CRM is accessible
both as a browser-based application and through Microsoft
Outlook. Sales teams have integrated, up-to-date information,
facilitating better work in team environments, increasing
efficiency and ultimately improving the customer experience.
Customer service employees are armed with a solution that
helps meet a greater number of service agreements and provides
higher customer satisfaction.
Microsoft CRM is the first Microsoft business application
built on the Microsoft .NET infrastructure, facilitating
a simpler connection of disparate systems and enhancing
integration with external Web services such as credit checking,
analytics and marketing automation services that extend
the core functionality of the solution. The flexibility
built into Microsoft CRM allows midmarket businesses to
determine the degree to which they want to automate and
share information across their organizations.
Microsoft CRM is a key component of Microsoft Dynamics
overall mission to give midmarket businesses the tools they
need to succeed on their terms, their schedules and their
budgets, said David Thacher, general manager of Customer
Relationship Management at Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft
CRM empowers businesses to deliver the kind of superior
service that keeps customers coming back for more.
Microsoft CRM Brings New Opportunities to Certified
Reselling Partners as Well as Customers
Microsoft CRM Professional Edition, which enables more complex
CRM functionality including work-flow rules, customization
and back-office integration with enterprise resource planning
(ERP) systems, and Microsoft CRM Standard Edition, which
provides a broad range of CRM functionality for a stand-alone
CRM environment without extensive business automation and
integration requirements, will be distributed and implemented
by Microsoft Dynamics CRM-certified reselling partners beginning
today. Microsoft CRM Standard Edition will also soon be
available to reselling partners in North America through
a key distributor, Ingram Micro Inc. Additional distributors
will be announced over the next few months.
"We anticipate that Microsoft CRM will significantly
change the way businesses work with their customers. The
solution meets the needs and fits within the budget and
IT resources of midmarket businesses," said Terry Petrzelka,
president and CEO of TECTURA Corp., a Microsoft Dynamics
CRM certified partner. "This CRM product can be easily
tailored to meet a variety of specific vertical and industry
requirements and has built-in support for advanced customizations,
integration of additional code and unique user interfaces."
Availability and Pricing
Microsoft CRM is available for purchase in North America.
Estimated retail pricing for Microsoft CRM ranges from $395
(U.S.) per user, plus $995 (U.S.) for the service or sales
servers for the Standard Edition, to $1,295 (U.S.) per user,
plus $1,990 (U.S.) for the service and sales servers for
the Professional Suite Edition. The product is available
as an on-premise solution or as a hosted solution through
select resellers. The North American version of Microsoft
CRM is not available for purchase outside the United States
and Canada at this time, but localized versions of Microsoft
CRM for the Europe and Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin
America markets are being developed and are scheduled for
release in the second half of 2003.
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics, which includes the businesses of Great
Plains, Microsoft bCentral and Navision a/s, offers a wide
range of business applications designed to help small and
midmarket businesses become more connected with customers,
employees, partners and suppliers. Microsoft Dynamics applications
automate end-to-end business processes across financials,
distribution, project accounting, electronic commerce, human
resources and payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management,
business intelligence, sales and marketing management, and
customer service and support. More information about Microsoft
Dynamics can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is
the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet
technologies for personal and business computing. The company
offers a wide range of products and services designed to
empower people through great software any time, any place
and on any device.
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