Microsoft drops price to partners for Dynamics CRM 4.0
528560
InfoWorld - Microsoft plans to reduce the price its partners will pay for its newest customer relationship management software, code-named Titan, the company's latest foray into software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRM.
324287
Dynamic Software has added support for MSN adCenter as part of their overall bid management system, BidMaximizer 4.0. According to Al Costanzo of Dynamic Software, BidMaximizer 4.0 will be &#8220;the only commercial bid management tool that will support all three PPC engines, including Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN adCenter.&#8221; Costanzo says that developing BidMaximizer 4.0 for [...]
211441
Microsoft is offering a new subscription model to small businesses that will allow them to use the company&#39;s software for less cost than the currently available licensing model.The plan, called Open Value Subscription program, is part of Microsoft&#39;s effort to give small businesses more flexible and affordable options for purchasing software, said Cindy Bates, Microsoft&#39;s general manager for U.S. small business.The new plan costs about a third of the license-only expense for the current licensing program open to small business, called the Open Value program, Bates said. The plan is cheaper because Microsoft offers upfront discounts for software purchased through the subscription program, and also allows customers to increase or decrease pricing over the three-year subscription period if their business needs change, she said.Open Value Subscription includes Microsoft&#39;s Software Assurance program, the company&#39;s software maintenance and support program for business customers.Microsoft defines small businesses as those with 50 employees or fewer. Bates called 50 employees the &quot;break point&quot; for when a company hires IT management. Up until that number, &quot;usually it&#39;s the business owner or office manager&quot; handling the IT system, she said.Businesses will be able to sign up for the Open Value Subscription program beginning in March, Bates said. Microsoft products available through the program include Microsoft Office Small Business, Office Professional +, Windows Vista Business Upgrade, Small Business Server Client Access License (CAL), Core CAL, Desktop Professional Suite, and Small Business Desktop Suite.As part of its small-business outreach, Microsoft also this week is unveiling a partner program called &quot;Big Easy,&quot; which invests about $10 million in subsidies to small businesses purchasing products through partners.Through the program, small businesses purchasing certain products through authorized specialist partners will get a certain percentage of money back that they can use to purchase other services from those partners, Bates said.For example, a small business would get a maximum of 22 percent of the money it spends if it buys six or more products that are on the approved list. Bates said Microsoft has figured the average return will be about 15 percent to 17 percent on purchases for small businesses.Products available for subsidies under the Big Easy program include Microsoft Office products, Exchange Server, Forefront Security for Exchange Server, System Center Essentials, Project, Visio, Office SharePoint Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, among others.More information about Open Value Subscription can be found on Microsoft&#39;s Web site. The company also provides more information about the Big Easy on its Microsoft Small Business Community Blog.
499666
Microsoft has rolled out an update to its CRM&#160;suite in eight of 25 languages that the software will eventually support.
123707
InfoWorld - Microsoft partners introduced to the company&#39;s software-plus-services strategy this week at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) applauded the plan, though they noted a few challenges as the company makes the transition from selling business software to offering more hosted and Web-based services.
547233
com September 21, 2004, 4:05 PM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
37014
com October 4, 2004, 9:13 AM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
532817
Targeted mainly at its VAR (Value Added Reseller) channel, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 4.0 was released to manufacturing this week.Version 4.0, code-named Titan, will be available in several versions: an on-premises application, a partner or VAR-hosted version plus a version of Dynamics hosted by Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, the Microsoft-hosted deployment.All versions will share a single code base and the hosted versions use a multi-tenant architecture.Addressing its new upgrade message to its VAR channel, Microsoft officials said Version 4.0 includes an upgraded version of multi-tenant that will support multiple customers per server.Other upgrades include a choice of 25 languages and support for multiple currencies and embedded BI capabilities, including an ad hoc reporting wizard that will allow nontechnical users to create custom reports.Version 4.0 will also integrate with Microsoft?s unified communications platform, Microsoft Office Communications Server, along with its presence and location features.Although Microsoft will offer to host a version on its Live platform, the channel is the backbone of its strategy, according to most industry analysts.Josh Greenbaum, principal analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting said that the Microsoft channel is so strong in the SMB market that it is the envy of all the other software vendors.?Everyone is trying to steal Microsoft channel partners. If you are an enterprise ISV there is no better and more mature channel than Microsoft,? Greenbaum said.Microsoft and Novell have the two oldest legacy channels in the industry, and Greenbaum called them, ?the nuts and bolts wizards.?In a prepared statement, Microsoft said it relies on its strong network of partner companies to bring technology to customers in the SMB marketplace, claiming over 400,000 partners.Dynamics CRM 4.0 is expected to be available in the first quarter.
589387
In a joint statement, Microsoft and Dassault said using the Microsoft platform will cut ownership and integration costs of using the Dassault software, widening the potential customer base.
320990
Blog: The software maker details its pricing for the "Live" version of its CRM software, as well as more information on the cut partners will get for selling it.
372760
com September 16, 2004, 7:58 AM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
584663
com September 23, 2004, 4:49 PM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
677305
com September 13, 2004, 8:47 AM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
310165
EnterpriseWizard this week is releasing the 2.0 version of its CRM application, a product built on top of its SaaSWizard Web application development platform and designed to be easily customizable.
441994
com October 4, 2004, 5:39 PM PT. This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half.
161239
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft wants to make its Dynamics business applications more immediately relevant to customers in five vertical markets -- manufacturing, distribution, retail, services and the public sector. The vendor is due to announce its Dynamics Industry Solutions initiative Monday at its Convergence conference in San Diego. Microsoft will build in additional vertical capabilities to its ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications through a combination of internal development, small-scale acquisitions and a deepening of its Industry Builder partner incentive initiative, according to James Utzschneider, general manager of Dynamics marketing at Microsoft. Future industry-specific offerings codeveloped by Microsoft and its partners can be stand-alone offerings or ISVs (independent software vendors) can build on top of them, he said. Utzschneider doesn't see the vendor's increased vertical interest as an issue for its existing partners. "If anything we're strengthening opportunities for our partners," he said. "We're clarifying where we're going to play." Previously, Microsoft tended to rely on its partners to add on industry-specific functionalities to its Dynamics software. That situation was problematic for customers in particular industries, according to Yvonne Genovese, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Those users were largely dependent on code developed on top of Dynamics often by very small ISVs and that code wasn't backed by Microsoft. Going forward, users will have a better comfort level around guarantees of Microsoft and its partners working together. As an example of the kind of relationship Microsoft will engage in around specific industries, Utzschneider pointed to the strategic alliance the vendor recently struck with public-sector information management software vendor Tyler Technologies. With its headquarters in Dallas, Tyler has more than 6,000 customers, mostly in the U.S. local government sector. The company has 1,500 staff and annual revenue in the order of $200 million. In January, the two companies announced they'd work together to jointly develop public-sector accounting functionality for Dynamics AX suitable for out-of-the-box use by governments worldwide. The enhanced version of Dynamics should appear in the latter part of 2009, according to John Marr, Tyler president and CEO. Government users require specific functionality in areas such as fund accounting and grant management, he said. They often choose general-purpose applications and then bolt on public-sector specific capabilities. The software would be much more useful and easier to deploy if such functionalities were designed into the applications, Marr added. Tyler talked to Microsoft about working together for a number of years, but found it challenging to define a relationship that would prove beneficial to both companies, he said. Following the alliance, Tyler became a Microsoft reseller and hopes teaming up with the software giant will help it attract more international customers. Marr welcomed Microsoft's industry-focused move. "They're now saying, 'Be a part of our development team,'" he said. Microsoft also announced Certified for Microsoft Dynamics, an ISV software certification program to give customers a better sense of the 3,000-plus ISV offerings in the market and their compatibility with Dynamics as tested by third parties. Another new offering is Dynamics Sure Step, a combination of templates and models on how best to configure and deploy the applications. Microsoft previously lacked such a standard implementation methodology and relied instead on models developed by its partners, Utzschneider said. The vendor has spent the last year and a half working on Sure Step based on the implementation experiences of its customers and partners. Having a standard methodology in place should make it easier for Microsoft to train up new partners and consultants who don't have previous experience with Dynamics. Â
763317
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft hopes to better meet the back-office needs of smaller businesses with a new take on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software called Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution. The software will provide smaller organizations with finance, purchasing, and sales and marketing software. It's aimed at companies employing up to 49 staff and tops out at five concurrent users, according to Barb Edson, director, Microsoft Dynamics. Along with other ERP companies, Microsoft is looking for ways to attract startups that are starting to outgrow entry-level accountancy software like Intuit's QuickBooks and are in search of more sophisticated applications on which to run their businesses. Based on Microsoft's existing Dynamics NAV ERP applications, Entrepreneur can be seen as a stepping stone to the full-blown Dynamics NAV as a company expands its business. Microsoft said that Entrepreneur itself was more than just a scaled-down version of Dynamics NAV and had been specially developed for small businesses, particularly in terms of cutting back on the need for users to heavily customize the software. Priced at â¬795 ($1,086), Entrepreneur is set to make its debut in Europe as part of a phased worldwide rollout of the software. The product will initially be available in September in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K., Microsoft announced Tuesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Denver. As with Microsoft's other back-office applications, the software will be provided by the vendor's partners. Microsoft also announced new software to make another one of its ERP families of products, Dynamics AX, accessible from mobile devices. Costing $495 per client access license, Dynamics AX Mobile Sales software is shipping this month. The product enables salespeople to remotely place and track orders, query sales histories and manage advertising campaigns from their Windows Mobile-based devices. The software includes Microsoft Dynamics Mobile Development Tools, which customers and partners can use to build additional mobile offerings based on Dynamics. At the same time, Microsoft announced an intensification of its existing relationship with Motorola Inc. to allow their joint partners to create Dynamics-based applications for some Motorola mobile computers. Adding mobile extensions to Dynamics AX is just the start, Edson said. The overall plan is to also extend Microsoft's other Dynamics ERP families so that those families of applications can be accessed by mobile devices. As yet the company is not commenting publicly on when such capabilities will become available for Dynamics GP, NAV and SL, she added. The software giant also made a number of other Dynamics announcements at the WPC event, notably releasing initial pricing,Â product and rollout details for its Dynamics Live CRM service. Microsoft also pledged to invest $20 million in initiatives over the coming year to act as inducements to its Dynamics partners. The programs include investments in training and education for technical sales staff and new hires at Microsoft partners along with financial rewards for partners completing a process to certify their add-on applications for Dynamics ERP or customer relationship management (CRM) software. Â