Solution Providers Await Microsoft's CRM Offering

The product, also known as MS CRM, fills a gap between Microsoft's bCentral offerings for small businesses and its Great Plains/Siebel Front Office bundle for

larger midsize companies, the company said.

"This is more of a simplified solution than Siebel, so implementations will be shorter and less expensive," said Orgad Gratch, CEO of Toronto-based TGO Consulting, a Great Plains reseller.

When Microsoft acquired Great Plains in 2000, it picked up the Great Plains/ Siebel licensing pact. Microsoft said the current contract lasts until the end of the year. As of last month, Siebel and Microsoft were negotiating an extension, with Microsoft pressing for a two-year deal that would free the company to pursue enterprise CRM down the road, company sources said.

MS CRM is targeted at businesses with 25 or more employees and no dedicated IT staff, whereas the Great Plains/Siebel offering is geared toward larger companies that have IT resources and need more customization, said David Thacher, Microsoft's general manager of CRM. The small and midsize enterprise market, which Thacher thinks could hit the $40 billion mark in five years, "is plenty big for us," he said.

Jay Fruin, president of New York solution provider Leveraged Technology, said he expects MS CRM to compete with offerings such as SalesLogix and find a home in companies that have no CRM implementations.

"If you realize how mature the [current enterprise CRM products are, how stable and extensible, Microsoft would be crazy to compete with them now," he said.

Microsoft has positioned MS CRM as an on-premises offering to be sold via the Great Plains channel. It plans to showcase early versions of software,plus links to the upcoming Great Plains Dynamics Release 7 and eEnterprise Release 7 accounting software,next week at its Convergence conference in Florida.