Microsoft confirmed on Thursday that it is bringing forward the launch date of its much-anticipated CRM 3.0 package, but won't talk about pricing until next month.
"We finished our release of Microsoft CRM 3.0 a bit early," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft's CRM unit, on Thursday. "We reckoned we would have it finished by the end of this quarter and make it generally available in the first quarter of next year. Instead, we finished the release on Monday and will be releasing it in early December."
CRM 3.0 is a crucial product for Microsoft, as it battles rivals such as Salesforce.com and Siebel. The company has jumped from version 1.2 to 3.0, and claims the product benefits from wide-ranging improvements that integrate it closer with other Microsoft products like Outlook.
Wilson would not release details on pricing but told ZDNet UK that CRM 3.0 would be available in a small business editions "that will be pre-packaged for Microsoft's small business server and a professional edition that is geared for mid-sized enterprise environments".
In the battle with Siebel, Wilson said Microsoft was selling "very successfully in enterprise accounts right now" but he denied that the early launch had been chose to get CRM 3.0 to market while Siebel's sale to Oracle being debated. "Our timetable is not fixed to other companies," he said.
"This release also broadens our suite, we used to have just sales and service and now we have a marketing automation suite as well," Wilson said. "We give the full range of functionality and you can get it through Outlook or through a browser or through a Windows mobile device. It's a clear, broad footprint."
Wilson also confirmed that Microsoft has taken notice of the success of Salesforce.com's subscription-based model. "We are introducing subscription based pricing for our software — you can pay us monthly. No up-front licence purchase, no contract to fulfill. You go through one of our partners and you wind up paying us for as much as you use every month. No more, no less. If you stop using it, you stop paying for it."
Talkback
wow must be a very buggy application then. Or not contain much functionality at all.....
Emm i think i stick to the opensource alternative. That is free of cost and its secure.
I was disappointed wih the 1.0 and 1.2 MS CRM releases and I'm looking forward to test driving MS CRM 3.0. But since the product is a year overdue already, the 'earlier than planned' announcement rings a little hollow.
Microsoft's mid-market competitors -- Sage, Goldmine and others -- have failed to produce any innovations this year generously allowing Microsoft to catch up. And while salesforce.com is grabbing plenty of headlines, the Software-as-a-Service model still has as many drawbacks as advantages.
And Magnus, since CRM software costs represent about 5-10% of the budget of successful CRM projects, I don't really think that 'free' open source software is really going to make much of a difference.