Rival CRM SaaS vendors targeted by Microsoft

Microsoft released its next generation CRM package to manufacturing today.

Formerly called ‘Titan’, the package is offered as two versions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live. The on-premise and partner hosted version is 4.0, while Live is targeted at Microsoft-hosted on-demand deployments, although both utilise the same code-base.

With an eye on rivals SaaS versions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM general manager Brad Wilson said, “This new release further enables us to deliver on our own software plus services strategy.”

The suite has new collaboration capabilities with Office Communications Server 2007 allowing presence indication within the application. The suite can also support multiple customers per server due to a new multi-tenant architecture, and also has new business intelligence features including cross-entity views and an end-user ad hoc reporting wizard.

The new Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service is offered only in the United States and Canada, and is currently available to a limited number of customers via the Early Access program.