Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Implementation For Large Corporation - Overview

Since December 2005 we are talking about Microsoft CRM version 3.0. In the case of established corporate business we usually deal with such legacy environment as IBM Lotus Notes Domino (predecessor of all the modern CRM applications as well as legitimate generic CRM platform), integration with Microsoft (such as MS SQL Server) and non-Microsoft database platforms and applications: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Financials and custom Oracle databases, IBM AS/400 and RS6000 DB2 applications, SUN Java II EJB (as eCommerce front and back ends). Microsoft CRM should be integrated with existing applications and there is no way to simply switch all the corporate ERP to become Microsoft Windows workshop. Let's look at Corporate MRP for large corporation and how Microsoft CRM 3.0 could contribute and be a part of its computer environment.

o Sales Module. You should probably begin with simple. If you are facing sales department reshaping (from computerization standpoint) - you can apply all your MCSE skills and knowledge to install, integrate (with MS Exchange, Active Directory, custom MS SQL databases) and train Sales people to use MS CRM as their sales automation software. It is pretty intuitive: you register Sales Lead, then move it to the Opportunity (where you can create a quote), then move it to Account/Customer and then you can use MS CRM Outlook client to print Sales Quote with Microsoft Mail Merge technology (MS Word format template with your company logo and quotation lines). If you start with Sales module - the investment (MS CRM software license cost) will be optimized/minimized - all the other departments will be working with their "legacy" CRM applications, such as Siebel, SalesLogix, Lotus Notes Domino, custom CRM systems, etc.

o MS CRM Security. Security comes one of the firsts when we are talking about corporate environment. In MS CRM you have two conceptions: Owning and Sharing CRM objects. You can share object with unlimited number of groups, the drawback of sharing - shared object (Lead, Opportunity, Account, Contact) doesn't show in my Leads, my Opportunities, my Accounts, etc. as well as in MS CRM Outlook client calendar

o Integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0/Microsoft Great Plains. Microsoft CRM 1.2 had Microsoft Great Plains CRM integration tool, utilizing BizTalk behind the scenes and our company used it to move MS CRM Customers and Orders into our Accounting - Microsoft Great Plains 8.0. With the version 3.0 of Microsoft CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 we see that Scribe Software is the champion with the integration between the two - however Scribe Software dictates the price for its integration tool

o Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino. This was relatively long story. Both Microsoft Business Solutions and Lotus Software were reluctant to recognize and support Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino connector, written and supported by Alba Spectrum Technologies, beginning with MS CRM 1.2 and Lotus Notes 6.0 (when Java agents were introduced for IBM Lotus Domino). Then, when Microsoft Business Solutions lost Microsoft CRM sales to such client as Caterpillar in LATAM to Saleslogix CRM - Microsoft in Sao Paulo changed its position. Now Alba Spectrum connector is recognized by Microsoft and is on the way to be recognized and recommended by IBM as well. One of the main reasons to keep utilizing both CRM solutions: Lotus and Microsoft - to optimize software licenses cost - IBM Lotus licenses (used in Legal, Production/Manufacturing, Customer Support) and Microsoft CRM licenses (used in Sales & Marketing departments)

o International Considerations. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is preferred Microsoft Business Solutions CRM worldwide, however Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft Axapta) and Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Microsoft Navision/Navision Attain) have their own CRM modules. Integration between Microsoft Great Plains exists, plus integration with Navision and Axapta is and will be available through third parties. If you are Multinational corporation with manufacturing facilities in Latin America, Brazil, Africa, Asia, Australia - and you would like to use one of MBS ERP products in your headquarters: Axapta, Navision, Great Plains or Solomon (Microsoft Dynamics SL). Localization question is relatively simple for Microsoft CRM 3.0 - it is easily translated to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, etc.

o Competition. We already mentioned Oracle E-Business Suite. From SAP - you should consider SAP Business One with its CRM module and integration with Microsoft Office/Outlook (this is not related to Mendocino SAP mySAP SAP R/3 or SAP all-in-One project with Microsoft - SAP Business One has its own original integration with MS Office)

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com, [http://www.greatplains.com.mx], [http://www.enterlogix.com.br] ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.

CRM Software - Comparing Microsoft Dynamics CRM To Salesforce

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CRM Software solutions are an integral part of the sales, marketing and customer service of most organisations. Today, CRM Software dwells far further than these functions to manage all business requirements. This has been termed by the people at Microsoft as xRM - (x) anything Relationship Management. Choosing which solution is right for your company is not easy and often companies compare different CRM offerings. Two of the major CRM software applications on the market today are Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.

There was a time with these two CRM software applications the choice was more black and white. You either looked at software deployed in-house (Microsoft Dynamics CRM) v the software-as-a-service model (Salesforce).

Now that Microsoft has moved into the cloud with their software as a service model and Salesforce now has a development platform with its "Force" offering your options are now blurred.

Salesforce was founded in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Salesforce calls itself "the enterprise cloud-computing company". Sales Cloud™ and Service Cloud™ are Salesforce's applications for sales and customer service. Their approach to the cloud computing deployment model has led to them developing the force.com cloud platform that allows developers and users to build business applications on top of the Salesforce offering.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, created by Microsoft product team with vast resources was designed with a long-term vision that will allow Customers to use CRM with multiple Microsoft products and choose deployment options to meet organisational needs.

IT researcher Springboard found Australian and New Zealand was already the most mature market for SaaS applications in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to BRW Magazine the market is tipped to grow 45% a year in Australia and New Zealand from $UA 1.7 billion in 2008 to $US7.7 billion by 2012. The magazine also referred to customer relationship management software as the most popular SaaS application (35 percent) and that "companies in Australia are using SaaS because it's cheaper, rather than because it's easier to use. Only 9 percent cited "ease of use" as the reason for choosing SaaS.

Choice and Flexibility

With a multitenant CRM solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers any number of deployment options, depending on your needs. On-demand, on-premise, and partner-hosted models are available for Microsoft Dynamic CRM. If your deployment requirements change so too can your CRM software deployment options as each deployment option is built on the same modern architecture and data model. For example, you can take your configurations and data hosted by Microsoft and move to In-House or to a Microsoft Partner web based CRM software hosted model. Salesforce platform offers SaaS by the Cloud and you don't own the software and configurations. If you want to change to an in-house solution you need to move to another CRM application. You need to factor the cost of getting your data out of Salesforce. Depending on the level of subscription you purchase for Salesforce there have been reports of your data being held hostage. This is, depending on your level of subscription you need to upgrade your subscription in order to export your data.

Cost

Salesforce claims to cost significantly less but Microsoft Dynamics CRM insists that the comparison is not for like services. A-la-carte pricing that is additional to potential price hikes at contract renewal time can significantly affect the total cost of Salesforce. When assessing comparable online products between the two opponents, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is available for less than 50% of the Salesforce fee. The latest pricing in the USA indicates that "Microsoft CRM [Online] runs $44-59 per user per month, compared to $125 for Salesforce" Professional Edition.

Entry price for Salesforce is cheaper but if you want more functionality you obviously have to pay more. With Microsoft CRM you have access to the complete system from the moment you first purchase. Your purchase decision should never be based on solely on price as its only one component in the decision making process. Those that buy first time around on price usually call back 6-24 months later asking for help. From personal experience decision makers who purchase solely on price first time around re-purchase the second time around on service. To compare in-house versus hosted pricing you need to calculate over a 3-5 year period and not just 1 year.

Ownership of Data

Salesforce, as a software-as-a-service provider, does not own the data collected by its customers. Instead, its data centres are outsourced to Equinix, a third party company in the USA and Singapore. With Microsoft CRM for in-house, and partner hosted options, customers have full control over the security and physical location of their data. You can swap and take your data between these options. Microsoft CRM Online hosted by Microsoft will be released in Australia late 2010 and the data will be hosted in Singapore. Again, you will have the ability to move from hosted to in-house but the online model will have some restrictions around customisation code. In order for Salesforce customers to get development platform capabilities they must buy the unlimited version.

Ease of Use

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed for easy user adoption because of its similarity and compatibility with Microsoft Office and Outlook. Simply put, it is designed to minimize the need for training, reduce application switching, and produce high productivity. With the launch of Microsoft CRM 5 or 2011 its release name), Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 the GUI (interface) between the three product suites becomes very similar in look and feel. This provides users with an easy to learn experience and greater chance of user uptake.

Salesforce graphical interface is modern and should be easy to use for most users. The integration to Microsoft Outlook and Office is reported as not as strong as Dynamics CRM especially for MS Excel and Outlook. Those using Google Mail will find Salesforce to their liking.

Both Salesforce and Dynamics CRM have similar modules including sales force automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, document management, contract management, product catalogue management and reports. Although each module for each product has its strengths and weaknesses side by side you need to evaluate each application module against your business requirements (and not user likeability).

Often an organisation short lists three CRM applications to be presented to its users. Evaluation should not be based heavily (if at all) on the users liking the look and feel of the graphical interface. The users of an organisation tend to agree on one CRM application as by nature we feel most comfortable with what we already know. If you ask a salesperson who has been using a paper diary for 30 years, what is better? A paper based or CRM system the answer is always paper! Over the years I have witnessed three different systems put in front of users at different organisations and there is never a clear winner for the CRM application chosen.

At present, Salesforce has a lot of easy to use business add-on products for its core offerings built on its force.com platform. Microsoft has a host of ISV Partners who have built add-on products to Microsoft CRM but it's not as easy to find these add-on's spread out across the globe on various websites. Microsoft has just launched PinPoint that allows you to search globally for Partner software solutions. Also, Microsoft CRM Dynamics Online does not provide the same access to write custom code in a sandbox because Microsoft did not want outside code in its own application, but with Microsoft Azure, ISVs can execute their own code.

Access to CRM and Email

Microsoft CRM is available either through a web browser, through a mobile device or through a plug-in to MS Outlook. Salesforce integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Google App's. Salesforce will run on a mobile device, through a web browser and if you want some level of Email (Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Google App's) integration, however you will still need to download and install a Salesforce connector.

Scope and Support

According to Wikipedia, Salesforce offers support for 16 languages, while Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers support for 25. Microsoft Dynamics CRM's ecosystem includes 750,000 solutions partners; 2,200 users groups, and 400 community web sites globally. Standard support included in Salesforce's subscription fee allows for a 2 business day response time. With Microsoft, support is dependent on the licensing module used to purchase the software and the support offered by a Microsoft CRM Partner. You can choose from ad-hoc through to dedicated support.

The Future and Investments

It has been reported in online publication The Inquirer.com that Microsoft will spend US$9.5 billion dollars in 2010 on research and development making it the largest R&D technology spender in the world.

In 2008, Salesforce spent $63.8 million, or 8% of its revenue, on research and development, much of which went towards expanding the Salesforce's cloud computing abilities. In addition, 91% of salesforce's revenue comes from subscription and support fees from their cloud computing services.

The CEO of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu first made this good point in April 2008 by noting the disparities in R&D and sales & marketing spending by Salesforce. Using the financial data from the last 12 months, Salesforce's sales and marketing spending of $605 million was almost 5 times its R&D spending of $131 million. It has been reported in businessinsider.com that Google, R&D spending of $2.8 billion was almost 1.5 times that of its S&M expense of $2 billion.

There is no doubt Salesforce is a leader in the SaaS market. The question will be whether the heavy weights including Microsoft (with Azure and BPOS) and Google with its GoogleApps MarketPlace will be able to stay in the game as the heavy weights begin gaining heavy market share in the cloud.

SaaS versus In-House

A note on SaaS versus In-House deployment. "In 2009, within enterprise applications, SaaS represented 3.4 per cent of total enterprise spending, slightly up from 2008 at 2.8 per cent," said David Cearley, vice president of Gartner. This market will reach $8.8 billion in 2010, according to the company's forecasts.

From a market perspective, most of the spending for SaaS is occurring in the content, collaboration communication, and customer relationship management markets. Collectively, they represented 65 per cent of the global enterprise applications software market in 2009. Many of the bad practices that occurred in the on premises world are now moving their way into SaaS.

The biggest example is shelfware. "Shelfware-as-a-service is the concept of paying for a software subscription that is not being accessed by an end user," said Cearley. "This most commonly occurs in large organisations, but it could happen to any company, especially those that have downsized their workforce, or one that has oversubscribed to trigger a volume discount." "SaaS may not have delivered on its early grand promises - of the current SaaS deployments we estimate that a total of 90 per cent of SaaS deployments are not pay-per use - but it has reenergised the software market and added choice," Cearley said.

First Steps in Choosing Your CRM Solution

Your first step in determining which solution is right for your company is to document your CRM requirements. Secondly, research to see what CRM applications are going to meet your requirements. Third, bring in a CRM consultancy firm and/or CRM Vendor to discuss your requirements and demonstrate their knowledge and application to you. Whether you go hosted or in-house should always come after you've gone through the above steps.

Antony Dutton is Managing Director of Aaromba - CRM software & service management software specialists. Aaromba uses best of breed technology and methodologies, designing solutions to improve sales and marketing for CRM software. Working with over 800 clients Aaromba specialises in Microsoft CRM Software, CRM and web based CRM software.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online - Is it For You?

Microsoft is rolling out their new Software plus Services hosted customer relationship management software service known as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. In many respects it is designed to compete directly with hosted sales force automation services from companies like SalesForce. But the question is, is it for you?

Lets' first cover what it offers and then we can identify 3 groups of users that would find it makes sense for them to use the service. CRM Online offers the full functionality of Microsoft's latest customer relationship management software release - version 4.0. It has all the core functionality of the on-premise solution. With the hosted model the technology is managed by Microsoft and that frees up capital and IT support. This is especially important if your firm doesn't already have an investment in the server infrastructure required to implement CRM internally. The monthly fee model also reduces the up-front investment and at cost of $39 per user/month it has a low barrier to entry.

So is this new method of accessing CRM using the hosted model approach for you? Well it depends on how you answer the following 5 questions:

Does your organization wish to deploy a solution rapidly on-line?

Is your IT department all ready busy with other projects or do you even have an IT department or individual serving in that role?

Would you like to have an inexpensive, ready to go test environment prior to a larger CRM deployment internally?

You like the Microsoft CRM application but don't own the required server structure which is necessary for the CRM application to run on?

If you answered yes to one or more of the previous question then you are likely to be a good candidate.

But how good a fit are you? Take a look at these profiles and see which group you fall into:

Perfect Fit: 5 - 25 users

Workgroups needing to share and cooperate on customer activities

Departments looking to centralize customer information in a single place and standardize communications and customer management activities

Great Fit: 26 - 150 users

No-Information Technology Organizations with little to No-IT investments that need a central system for managing customer information



Department & Divisions that need a centralized system for managing customer information and standardizing sales, service and marketing capabilities



Resource constrained IT organizations that need to deliver business value, but are unable to do so due to time, budget or resource constraints

Good Fit: 151 - 250 Users

Software plus Services Pioneers: Some-IT to Big-IT organizations looking for cutting-edge application delivery and service-oriented software design


Pilots looking to validate a successful CRM or Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment prior to making a larger purchase.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online http://www.crmInnovation.com

CRM is more than the technology - it is the business process transformation that takes place with the technology that really drives the return on investment.

Jerry Weinstock is a specialist on using technology to achieve sales and marketing objectives. He focuses on the areas of Microsoft CRM Software http://www.CRMInnovation.com, Internet Strategy, and Business Intelligence applications. 913.492.2764

An Introduction to Microsoft Dynamic CRM

Microsoft has a wide range of software products. Their customer relationship manager (CRM) software package is slowly becoming one of the most attractive options in that category and the fastest growing, with the advantage of being late in the game and being able to fix all the things that other CRM Software products lacked. A CRM software package has various functions such as developing a database of vital information about customers and their preferences and providing this information in a user-friendly way to streamline the operations of the company and to provide better co-ordination between various departments. The Microsoft Dynamic CRM can be well integrated into the Windows operating system and e-mail applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has been constantly updating their Dynamic family of CRM suites. The latest version, Version 4.0, was released recently on November 24, 2008. According to the company website, it provides a user-friendly interface to navigate through various functions of the software. It also provides a number of options to classify and arrange the stored data. The new version is considerably faster than the previous versions and it is as cost effective too.

The latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM package provides tools for effective grouping of customers, organizing marketing campaigns, extracting and modifying data, and report creation, data sharing, and enabling smooth communication between various departments in your organization. The software suite provides better control to the customer relation executive by making the person better aware of the characteristics and purchasing preferences of the customers.

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Corporate Accounting: Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 Future Horizons - Notes for Consultant

As we are writing this article - a lot of new ERP related information about Microsoft Business Solutions products: Axapta (Microsoft Dynamics AX), Navision (Microsoft Dynamics NAV), Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Great Plains is published on the daily basis, especially with the advance of the so-called "Project Green". We would like to be a bit pessimistic and toss in new ideas about future Microsoft MRP products development and marketing positioning as we see the development on European (including UK, East Europe: Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, plus Southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece), Latin American (including Brazil, where Microsoft is starting from scratch) and Asian ERP markets.

o Microsoft Dynamics GP vs. Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is probably the question of future positioning of these two ERPs. Axapta has modern design (the end of 20th century), while Great Plains Software Dynamics was designed in the beginning of 1990th as Great Plains Dexterity application

o Microsoft Dynamics GP USA MRP market. This seems to be the stronghold of Microsoft Great Plains. Microsoft Business Solutions makes its Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 the first wave of its Project Green with the switch from Microsoft Dexterity to .Net and Visual Studio development: C# and VB, plus the increased role of eConnect (initially introduced for eCommerce web XML developers, now the middle tier to resolve Great Plains Dexterity peculiarity with generic .Net development)

o Microsoft Dynamics GP European ERP Market. In Europe Microsoft Great Plains is leaving its French, German, Spanish and Dutch positions (leaving current Microsoft Great Plains clients to switch to Navision or Axapta). Microsoft Dynamics GP will stay in UK, Australia, New Zealand, LATAM: Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Salvador, Panama, Caribbean

o Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft CRM 3.0 will become the CRM frontend for all the Microsoft Dynamics ERPs, including Great Plains, Axapta, Navision, Solomon. The most interesting part is Microsoft CRM integration, when you can automatically move Customers, Quotes, Orders from Microsoft CRM to accounting back end - here you have two options: use Microsoft Great Plains CRM integration (based on BizTalk for CRM 1.2 or eConnect based integration for MS CRM 3.0 and GP 9.0)

o Oracle/Java/EJB/J2EE. Here we have to appeal to our third party programming expertise and knowledge/experience with Oracle Financials/Oracle E-Business Suite/Oracle Applications development and Programming

o SAP MRPs. SAP is another traditional MRP market leader. For years ago SAP purchased Israel made MRP software application, now known as SAP Business One. SAP Business One is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Office (what is the next step from SAP R/3 mySAP project Mendocino with Microsoft for the next few years), plus SBO is integrated on the Sales and Purchasing transaction consolidation level wit mySAP/SAP/R3. In the case of SAP - you will need customization/integration partner to help you with the above consolidation

o International aspects. Well - as you can conclude from this whitepaper and our past publications - Microsoft Great Plains / Dynamics GP is not supported for non English or Spanish speaking countries. In the case of Brazil/Sao Paulo/Rio de Janeiro/Salvador - population speaks in Brazilian Portuguese. SAP Business One could be a good spoke/hub ERP application to be consolidated to Microsoft Dynamics GP/NAV or AX in the USA/UK/France (including Canada/Montreal/Quebec)/Germany/Europe

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies [http://www.greatplains.com.mx] [http://www.enterlogix.com.br] ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.

Microsoft Dynamics AX and the Rapid Development of Offshore Services

Microsoft Dynamics AX services are wholly focused on user roles and productivity gains through constant focus on tasks and duties that employees have to manage daily. Users have customized home pages for the ERP software which gives them instant access to their personal tasks and relevant schedule, past due invoices or customers over their credit limit. AX alerts users instantly to the exceptions which require immediate attention thus improving productivity in the long run. This helps solve issues before they get out of hand in an enterprise.

Dynamics AX was initially created by Erik and Preben Damgaard in 1983 and was termed as Axapta. In the 1990s, IBM teamed with Damgaard to bring Axapta to the US. But soon after, in 2000, Damgaard Software merged with Navision Software which was a competitor product created by Navision Financials. Damgaard Axapta got renamed to Navision Axapta while Navision Financials got renamed to Navision Attain.

Microsoft Dynamics Axapta solutions are beneficial for thousands of enterprises today. Why? Today organizations operate in an increasingly complicated world - thousands of different products, plethora of business processes and customers ranging from mega-retailers to small chains, independent stores, service providers and exporters. These organizations have to identify rapidly evolving consumer trends and respond with continuous innovations against them. Meanwhile they also have to respond to growing concerns over sustainability, health and green environment, while meeting a demanding regulatory compliance.

Successful organizations are those with high customer insight and the ability to respond quickly to ongoing trends in the market. Such organizations depend on flexible and low cost operations that enable lean and seamless manufacturing and distribution.

Microsoft Dynamics AX improves your business in 4 critical areas: Customer, Consolidation, Compliance and Cost. It brings different people, processes, and information spread across the world and promotes collaboration and trade far and wide. In addition, many independent software companies offer newer enhancements for different domains and their specific applications.

Microsoft's Dynamics product line is mostly sold through authorized/ certified partners who are very well trained and certified on the products that are there on offer. It is the partners' duty to take the AX 2009 product and configure it as per clients' business. Also, there are many third party solutions which act as add-ons to Dynamics AX. Some are small modules, while others provide significant specific-industry functionality.

Ishan Goradiya is freelance writer and these days he is working on how to develop Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The Art of Tracking Like Microsoft Dynamic CRM Software

To hunt is to be able to find something whether it is a large animal, a game bird or your car keys. Often times it takes a bit of tracking skill to be able to locate what it is your hunting. Tracking is the science and art of observing. It is the ability to take everything about a location into your mind and understanding what you see, hear, feel, smell, taste and sense. It is a total experience that requires gathering the information and deciphering it. In today's technology world it might be compared to Microsoft dynamic CRM software.

For instance a MS dynamics CRM application gathers and integrates sales, marketing and customer service from one centralized access point. From there you can get a picture of the customer relationships and their interactions. It allows you to track all linkages across customers and sales opportunities along with all important associations within the customers. Although all of this information is gathered it has to be looked at by someone who can get an overall picture of what you have going on, much like a master hunter.

You can teach people how to look for the different signs in the wild such as a place used for bedding for a herd of deer. It's pretty obvious once it's pointed out. The same goes when looking at a Microsoft CRM SaaS. The more you understand what you see the more relationships you will see and the more identifications you will be able to determine. As you learn more about each animal and their signs that identify them then you can start learning the art of interpreting what you see. The same goes for information gathered about customers. The cool thing about software is that it can put some of the relationships together for you so you have a head start. For those in the cold autumn chill, you are on your own to find the deer you want.

To get professional help putting together the best Microsoft dynamic CRM package, let Phase 2 International help. They are the experts who can help you identify what you need and how to use a MS dynamics CRM application and a Microsoft CRM SaaS to help you track what you need to know about your customers.

ERP Brazil: Microsoft Dynamics NAV, AX, CRM Localized Family

When your company plans to outsource its manufacturing operations to such countries as Brazil, the ERP system for the overseas subsidiary is one of the first decisions to make. In this small article we will concentrate on functional side of the Microsoft Dynamics ERPs, such as Microsoft Navision, Microsoft Axapta and Microsoft CRM and we will not touch background technologies (Microsoft .Net vs. EJB/Java discussions)

o Localization. It usually has two components: language translation (in the case of Brazil it is Brazilian Portuguese) and sales, purchasing taxes and government regulation/reporting. In the case of Brazil we usually talk about these taxes & regulations: CNAE, CPF, IE, IEST, IM.

o Local versus International MRP brand. This is usually the question beyond the functionality of the ERP - you need to decide for yourself if you would like advanced localization features (usually provided by local made ERP - Microsiga or Datasul to name two) or you want more control over your overseas operations from headquarters - this will probably be international ERP brand, one of them we are evaluating here - Microsoft Dynamics family (former name was Microsoft Business Solutions)

o Navision/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Around 2004 Microsoft Business Solutions tried to unify its international ERP offer. As the result, in many countries, including Brazil, East Europe, Russia and others Navision kind of pushed out of the market another MBS ERP - Microsoft Great Plains (currently Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 - Brazilian version is not available, however you can get local support from Alba Spectrum). There were multiple reasons, including technical feasibility, they are beyond the scope of this article. Navision is localized and has several years of successful implementation in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and across Brazil. One of the strong points of Navision is Manufacturing module. We see strong demand for Navision ERP implementation from multinational corporations with headquarters in Europe, especially continental: Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

o Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is relatively new ERP - its design was completed in the very end of XX century, Navision Software bought Axapta prior to be purchased by Microsoft Business Solutions itself. Brazilian localization of Axapta is now complete and it will be released in the first quarter of 2006. In Brazil Microsoft has experiment with Axapta pricing and it is now targeted to compete with Microsiga and Datasul from one side and with SAP Business One from another side. Axapta implementation cycle is longer than for SAP BO, however Axapta is more flexible in its ability to automate upper midsize and large scale business.

o Microsoft CRM/Dynamics CRM. Now we are in the process of upgrade from MS CRM 1.2 to its 3.0 version. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will be more flexible to automate franchisee networks and nation-wide servicing organizations. The question of selection is more simple - if you are committed to Microsoft platform - you should know that Microsoft CRM is promoted Worldwide. Here we have to say some words about technical side of Microsoft CRM, especially considering some challenges of MS CRM upgrade - it heavily uses .Net platform, XML web services and requires strong server side programming, if you need Microsoft CRM customization and custom pieces upgrade (Microsoft CRM SDK 3.0 is a bit different from MS CRM SDK 1.2). In Brazil we saw instances of Microsoft CRM, coexisting with such corporate platform as IBM Lotus Notes Domino

If you need help - give us a call: São Paulo: +55-11-3444-4949, USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europa: +44-20-8123-2580, +45-36-96-5520 or help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is ERP consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies (http://www.albaspectrum.com [http://www.greatplains.com.mx] [http://www.enterlogix.com.br]) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, SAP Business One, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving LATAM: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization or Third Party Product - Overview for Consultant

With version 3.0 MS CRM will be more exposed to end-user tuning, software development, customizations. Microsoft CRM SDK is becoming more sophisticated with post-call-out technology reconsidering, deprecating a lot of 1.2 CRM SDK methods, replacing Crystal Reports Enterprise with MS SQL Server Reporting Services, changing MS CRM Exchange Connector functionality, etc. Microsoft itself has to be very flexible and freed up to change/adjust development standards if required. In such situation end customer should be very knowledgeable and savvy to predict the future, when he needs to deploy custom solutions/modules. In this small article we will consider pros and contras of deploying third parties or just go ahead with customer specific unique customization.

Third Party Product.

o Pros: The cost is normally controllable, because product is already developed and ready to be implemented. Plus it is possible to get references on the reliability of the product from all the kinds of user groups, product reviews, etc. Also - sometimes it is referred as weakness but it might be considered as the plus - if product is developed and supported by the known vendor - you should believe that it will be upgraded and available for future MS CRM releases.

o Contras. The first minus we would like to mention is usually not described in the textbooks - this is the problem when, say product A is purchased by Microsoft itself and inaugurated as from now on 'official' solutions, and if you historically selected product B - coming from the competitor - you are in a problem - you will see you software vendor to be weakened and slowly phasing out alternative product B

Unique Customization.

o Pros. You will have so-called source code, if you negotiate it right with the custom developer or custom development company - then you can transfer version upgrade or product modification to the market leader (who will be giving you better price and quality assurance in the future). Other pluses might be cost saving, due to the fact that you are paying for required functionality only, not for something you will never use.

o Contras. Cost might be crossing the budgeted line, because you might not be able to select reliable software developer (all of them might be in the learning curve, because MS CRM is relatively young product) - this is very strong argument, when you have just purchased the CRM and yet not know the players on the customization market.

Production Environment Challenges. When you are already in production - be sure that MS CRM needs testing, if you introduce custom logic. You should try to isolate custom logic, and test it in the isolated space - again MS CRM doesn't have parallel test company environment - opposite to what you have in ERP system, such as Great Plains/Dynamics GP.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com [http://www.greatplains.com.mx] ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is Given an Overall Rating of 9 Stars Out of 10 Stars

Microsoft Dynamics Web Based CRM Software System key features and functionality meet most all the industry requirements of a first-class Customer Relationship Management System.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is given an overall Rating of 9 Stars out of 10 Stars

Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management System Marketing Automation: Generates a steady flow of new business leads by placing almost all of an organization's marketing events on automatic routines! The Microsoft Dynamics Web-based Contact Manager system includes the creation of new accounts and management of any contacts connected with each account. A first-class CRM system supplies user's detail of actions such as meetings, calls tasks, notes with attachments, emails, account, lead, opportunity and case.

A first-rate CRM system also helps you to more effectively cope with the leads and sales prospects throughout the sales cycle. Craft and organize multi-step marketing promotions that include email, direct mail, fax, voice broadcast and tasks. Let a powerful marketing system follow-up with your customers and prospects instantaneously! * Feature Set Rating Customer Retention in a Recession for Microsoft Dynamics CRM System: 5 Stars out of 10 Stars ** Component Set Rating for Five Step CRM Implementation Process for Microsoft Dynamics CRM System: 5 Stars out of 10 Stars

Making sure you completely apply all the best features of a Sales Force Automation System: With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system you can enhance your direct sales activities by tracking all of your leads through a completely specialized sales pipeline. Also inside a first-class Customer Relationship Management system, vital statistics of the sales performance must be provided in an easy to use dashboard. The sales opportunities pipeline, lead sources and event outcomes must all be observed from a comprehensive graphical dashboard.

This dashboard must create a summary view of the top opportunities, appointments, open cases, leads, open tasks, sales pipeline graph, monthly calendar, and a swift contact view. This functionality must also have the power to set up sales teams, automatically distribute leads and build automated triggers into your sales process to ensure that your leads are being followed up with appropriately and on time. It is critical the facts about the customers and prospects are prearranged within a one central database. Key information about the sales opportunities, accounts, and individual business contacts can be obtained from the central database.

The inflowing and outgoing email messages and appointments are instantly associated with the business contacts, business opportunities and accounts. The tasks, notes, files and phone logs can be added to the accounts, business contacts or sales opportunities, giving the operation to be gathered quickly. * * Feature Set Rating Customer Retention in a Recession for Microsoft Dynamics CRM System: 6 Stars out of 10 Stars ** Component Set Rating for Five Step CRM Implementation Process for Microsoft Dynamics CRM System: 7 Stars out of 10 Stars

Kent Bond
CRM Project Manager
CRM Software Free Trial

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Customization, Reporting Integration Highlights

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM has now new name, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics product series also include Microsoft GP (Great Plains),

Microsoft NAV (Navision), Microsoft AX (Axapta), Microsoft SL (Solomon). However

version number was not changed, Microsoft just mentioned that MS CRM 1.2 was

actually version 2, due to large number of new features, comparing to first

version Microsoft CRM 1.0. In this small article we would like to share our

impression and as we see Microsoft messages to potential and existing customers

with this new version of Microsoft CRM.

o Buyers are tired with complex and expensive traditional CRM solutions, MS CRM

brings to the customers very attractive price and is very easy, we would say

intuitive to use

o Users should spend most of their computer time, working with MS Outlook. Both

- customer and Microsoft could capitalize on the large number of experienced MS

Office / Outlook users. Microsoft made its CRM with Outlook client. In version

3.0 you can be assured that majority of the functionality is available in

Outlook and only specific tasks would still require MS CRM web client interface.

Technical directions:

o Reporting. From Crystal Reports to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting

Services. You can still deploy Crystal, if you purchase Crystal Report viewer or

designer license. If you do not have report you need in SRS reports set (and you

do not want to create new report in Visual Studio.Net), you can export one of

CRM views to MS Excel Pivoting Table and use it as report generator and data

analysis tool. Both SRS reports and Excel Pivoting work in MS CRM security

realm. The reason why? - MS CRM views have security restriction check in where

SQL clause - you can check it by looking at the views definitions.

o Customizations. Before we dive to MS CRM SDK level we should mention

that you can now store your Javascript and MS CRM SDK C# or VB code in Pre/Post

callouts (to check for duplicate records, when you save new contact, for

example). Plus end user can create custom MS CRM entities (stored in tables) and

relate these custom entities to MS CRM objects. Imagine you need to create bank

accounts table, which will store multiple accounts per account-customer. Bank

account is custom entity and it might be made available for synchronized

off-line Outlook client.

o Messaging. In version 1.2 messaging was tracked and automatically moved

to MS CRM by adding and checking GUID in the message header. Antispam filters

were blocking such messages under certain conditions. Now in 3.0 instead of GUID

we have tracking token: CRM:0001001 or like this. Please, note, if you have

custom messaging Exchange connector, based on GUID - you should consider redo

this custom connector for version 3.0, based on tracking token or simply

contact, account, lead email scan (matching with sender email address)

o Integration. IFrame will allow you to integrate all the types of URL

with your CRM . Also Sharepoint is the future of advanced workflows and

collaboration of your CRM and domain users

o Data Migration. The tool was improved substantially, however if you

need history integration plus certain logic on checking duplicates, you still

should consider third party solutions.

Happy implementing, customizing and modifying! If you want us to do the job -

give us a call 1-866-528-0577!

help@albaspectrum.com 

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) ? Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials, SAP Business One and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Solutions India

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft. It provides extra benefit by assimilating business-intelligence features to increase our return on investment. It is definitely an ideal business model for every growing company. Featured with its distinctive, customized and economical solutions, this product comes in two versions: Advance Management (AM) and Business Ready Licensing (BRL).

Business is all about making effective decisions, and this software product is a perfect tool of flexible business management solutions that further enables you to formulate important business decisions with greater self-confidence. Moreover, Microsoft Dynamics offer world-class solutions that include applications and services for wholesale distributors, manufacturers, retailers and many other service companies, doing their business domestically or on international platform.

This software brings the business information you require in your planning. The solution offers an extensive range of reporting capabilities and also provides tools to control statistics. Gaining its popularity by enhancing all areas of business in your organization, it delivers special advantages in three critical areas, mainly:

Financial Management: It is designed to assist people work efficiently. It provides easy-to-navigate crossing point that is easily customized to present key functions and information people need. The best part of this software product is it also helps employees in offering tools that can help in making more informed financial decisions. In addition to this with Microsoft Dynamics financial solutions, you can also modify financial management of your corporation into a well-organized process. It helps in having a better look on financial metrics and the usefulness of financial management throughout your organization. This software product further simplifies financial and accounting assignment as it allows in keeping total record of accounts, VATTING reporting etc. centrally.

Supply Chain Management: It also offer solutions for supply chain management (SCM) and helps in linking information from different teams. It helps in maintaining beneficial relationships with dealers and business partners. Microsoft Dynamics NAV SCM feature aids in scheduling, executing and controlling all business processes.

Mentioning about some of the other benefits of this software, it allows you to have a transparent view of supply chain management in terms of customer demand and the delivery of goods and this in-turn promote in making better decisions. It facilitates various companies to have a clear vision, so that they can handle various distribution operations - warehouse needs, distribution centers and channels, distribution planning across all nodes in supply chain.

Customer Relationship Management: Microsoft Dynamics NAV CRM solutions are customer-driven and it helps companies capitalize on their profit at every step of customer lifecycle and maintaining their customer relationship. This software product, further provide tools that can facilitate your organization to set a competitive direction for your business. The solutions offered by this technology can smooth the progress of improving the talents, processes you already own & use, and permit you to gain more value from present existing investments.

Furthermore this technology is provided with various business information & reports tools, and assists in recognizing clients' behaviors & business inclinations. This software also helps in decreasing administrative weight of managing interaction with customers and partners. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Commerce Portal allows communications with your customers and associates via internet. Here, customers can contact your corporation through a web portal, where they easily find information and use self-service aptitude to take care of business.

Today, Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a gem of modern technology and integrates efficiently with other Microsoft products, so you don't have to find different software to get things done. Integration of Microsoft Dynamics NAV with other Microsoft products ultimately cut the requirement of user training. This product keeps people focused on their tasks instead of distracted by technology.

Icreon Communication is providing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions in India [http://www.offshoredotnetdevelopment.com/solutions_mdnav.shtml] and offering Microsoft Dynamics Navision services India [http://www.offshoredotnetdevelopment.com/solutions_mdnav.shtml]

Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM Software

There are many ERP companies in the market and one of the leading among them is ERP by Microsoft. Here, in this article, we will discuss in brief about Microsoft ERP products: Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV, AX, SL and CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP was initially architectured by Great Plains Software in earlier and middle 90's.

GP/Great Plains versions 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5 are available for Pervasive and Ctree, and version 8.0 Microsoft Great Plains is available on MS SQL Server/MSDE platform only. Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 is offered in USA, UK, Latin America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South East Asia and other countries where official language is English.

Microsoft Navision/ NAV comes to its own shell - C/SIDE, database proprietary platform: C/SIDE, etc. Navision is flexible and grows with your business. It supports to small, mid and upper-mid segment. Navision has good market in Europe, UK, and USA. Now they are expending in Gulf and South East Asia.

Microsoft Axapta/ AX is the rising star for Microsoft and it competes with mid-upper and upper segment. Axapta has modern design and its ability to expand. Integration with MS Office, Web Fronts/Business Portal/eConnect/eCommerce is the great feature in Dynamics AX.

Microsoft Solomon/ SL is made for project-driven organizations. SL has good features to handle all project related activities. If organization does not have project management software then project tracking is quite complicated task for them. Many ERP are failed to provide project management facility along with other functional modules.

Microsoft CRM 3.0/ CRM 3.0 solutions from Microsoft is a great innovation. CRM 3.0 is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP 7.5, 8.0 and 9.0(with service patch). Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, XML Web Services driven MS CRM SDK with C# and VB.Net sample code are part of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

SAP Business One, Oracle E-Business Suite/Oracle Financials ERP products are competitor of Microsoft ERP applications in SME segment.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Read information on ERP Selection for SME and Microsoft Dynamics ERP/CRM. Know about ERP Project Cost and ERP fundamentals.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 - Preliminary Highlights

Microsoft is currently on the way to release Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Current version is MS CRM 1.2. Why Microsoft Business Solutions skipped one version (2.0 or the like)? One of the Microsoft answers was - version 1.2 had too many new features (as developers we may guess - MS CRM SDK redesign - some functionality was deprecated - joke - of course MS CRM 1.2 is very impressive progress comparing to the pioneer - 1.0), so 1.2 was playing the role of skipped 2.0. This article is targeted to IT departments who do self-implementation and self-customization and we'll try to give you the info on new release, which is expected in December, 2005.

o Migration Tool. There will be migration path from MS CRM 1.2 to 3.0. According to Microsoft it should be relatively straightforward upgrade

o Pre-Callouts. N MS CRM 1.2 as you probably know - you can use post call-outs to place your custom logic. In 3.0 you can deploy he possibility to call your custom code before the commitment and so if needed roll-back the change

o Duplicates merge. Well - you probably noticed the fact that in 1.2 you can't clean up duplicate records with one or another automation tool. In 3.0 - duplicates merge is finally realized and you can merge activities and decide which phone number, or address to pick for the consolidated record.

o Marketing Module. Now you should be able to do marketing campaigns and place criteria to pick the targeted audience.

o Scheduling. You will see more features, available in MS Outlook to facilitate your work. Now you should be able to schedule "field service" type of appointments with your customers

o MS Outlook-like interface. Microsoft Outlook users worldwide count is probably something astonishing and it is logical marketing idea to capitalize on this. If you make your products to use intuitive (or trained in your alma mater university) Microsoft Office Outlook interface - clients may expect their users to speed up with the learning curve

o Installation, Administration, Support. These should be a way more simple. It is hard to believe, because MS CRM uses MS Exchange, Active Directory, etc. - but this is what it is.

o Technical Highlights. One of the most astonishing should be the possibility to integrate one-to-many custom table relationship, including MS Outlook client synchronization. Imagine - you have cargo tracking system and you use MS CRM order as shipment object. Then you can have multiple shipment one-to-many relationships, such as shipment statuses, shipment items, etc.

o MS CRM Suite. With 3.0 you do not have to purchase MS CRM Sales or Professional to get, say service module. Now you have the option to add modules in the future. However if you purchase MS CRM Professional before December 2005 - you will get full set of MS Dynamics CRM 3.0 modules

Please, do not hesitate to call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Microsoft Dynamic CRM Boosts Your Customer Management

There are many ways to manage your customer data. The easiest way is pen and paper. Grab a nice day planner from your local office supply store and use a pen to keep track of your information. There's a section for contacts, for day planning and some sheets in the back for notes. This day planner approach works for the most rudimentary of people management needs. Hopefully, one doesn't need to collect too much information about any single person. The inch or two of allotted space per entry won't stand for more than a home address, business address and maybe a birthday or note about their favorite color.

Jump to today. Paper based day planners are a far cry from today's more sophisticated Microsoft Dynamic CRM systems. The address book is replaced by an in depth customer profiling system. You will easily fit those two addresses, the birthday, favorite color... then add in the order history over the past ten years and cross-reference all related employees if you choose. Cross reference entries with others in the same virtual address book so you always have a picture of who's who and who's related to who in the big picture of your business.

The MS Dynamics CRM Application is a powerful tool beyond plain contact management. It uses a familiar Outlook style interface to bring your entire customer experience into focus. While managing each contact, you will see a wealth of related information. No steep learning curve with the familiar Outlook interface. You are up and running immediately without the need for specialized training. As familiarity grows, the power of the product becomes more and more evident. It integrates with what you (your employees) are already familiar. It is another step for an expanding business.

Delivering this power is easy using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Hosting. You can maintain the freedom of your own business servers and allow others to host your data in a safe and secure environment. Going the hosting route also leverages the power of software as a service (SaaS). It's a pay-as-you-go a la carte service where you rent only the software you need. Once rented, you gain access to it from anywhere in the world. The incredible power of SaaS can make even the smallest companies seem large. It comes complete with a dedicated IT support team. One support team committed to maintaining the integrity of your customer database. One team there for you when problems arise.

PHASE 2 can provide the software and support you need to enter into this arena. The MS Dynamics CRM Application is a powerful customer relations management tool that benefits any business. Coupled with PHASE 2's Microsoft Dynamics CRM Hosting, the power of good customer relations management is realized. PHASE 2 can set you up with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and its range of tools from basic contact management to database cross referencing. PHASE 2 moves businesses into the fast lane every day.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains and MS CRM Tandem as Corporate ERP

Microsoft Dynamics ERP products family includes both Great Plains and Microsoft CRM, so it is initial good sign for you if you are making MRP research for your company. Let's take a look at additional features of Microsoft Dynamics products and try to compare and figure out trends. However please note that both Microsoft Dynamics NAV Navision and Microsoft Dynamics AX Axapta have CRM modules in their original and so integrated modules sets. Microsoft CRM has integration tool to Microsoft Great Plains, plus such companies as Scribe Software offer advanced integration modules and scenarios. Plus consider the fact that Microsoft CRM is marketed by Microsoft Business Solutions worldwide and is localized for various countries and regions. Let's take a look at additional facts and concerns:

1. GP international marketing. Great Plains Software had grandiose plans for expansion and Great Plains Dynamics Dexterity text strings were translated into multiple languages at the end of 1990th: Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish. However when Microsoft Purchased Great Plains Software and soon after that Navision Software, it kind of decided to concentrate on Navision and later on Axapta internationalization and phase out GP advances and even support in Europe, China, and some other parts of Asia. GP is currently supported in English speaking countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Philippines, Pakistan, India, also in Arabian peninsula, South Africa, UK, Quebec and Spanish Speaking South America. Please note that in Brazil Microsoft pooled out GP and supports Axapta and Navision. Probably one of the reasons that GP does not expand to countries, such as China, Burma, etc. is the fact that Great Plains Dexterity doesn't support Unicode characters - Chinese hieroglyphs for example

2. GP implementation strategy. If you are outside of non English speaking countries, you should consider GP as ERP platform seriously. If Axapta is too large for you and Navision doesn't fit your requirements we recommend you to consider GP and CRM tandem.

3. CRM developing advancing. Microsoft Dynamics CRM - you should expect additional functionality released in rapid time, as MS CRM is marketed worldwide and is offered as separate product or with integration to Great Plains

4. Current versions. Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics GP has current version 10.0. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has 3.0, however it was released in 2005, so we expect new version release relatively soon

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving GP client in USA nationwide and Canada. Local service is available in Chicago area: Naperville, Warrenville, Oakbrook, Lisle, Downers Grove, Romeoville, Aurora, Hinsdale, Joliet, Plainfield, Morris, Orland Park, Lombard, Elgin, Crystal Lake, in Houston: Richmond, Sugar Land, Rosenberg, Katy, Galveston. Nationwide service: California, New York, Ontario, Quebec, Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois