Microsoft To Turn Up CRM Heat With SBS Promotion

With the shipment of Microsoft CRM 1.2 in December, the company plans to launch a promotion pairing that software with Small Business Server 2003.

"There will be a promotional deal we're doing with the SBS group--an introductory offer for five users, 10 users that will last six months," Holly Holt, group product manager for Microsoft CRM, told CRN at the Momentum conference in New Orleans Thursday. She would not provide pricing details.

The promotion will not be a hard bundle. "The government frowns on that," she said, but noted that there will be some discounting on the CRM components.

The current CRM release costs $795 per named user for either Sales Professional or Customer Service Professional module. A suite including both sales and service is $695 per named user or $1,295 per named user. The sales server is now $995 and the customer service server is $995.

Jeff Young, general manager for Microsoft Business Solutions, tipped the company's hand in his keynote Thursday afternoon with an offhand mention of making Microsoft CRM even more attractive for companies with fewer than 10 users.

Young also announced that Microsoft CRM has amassed 1,000 customers since its shipment early this year. The last public milestone was in March when Microsoft said it had "hundreds" of customers.

But that 1,000 number just scratches the surface of opportunity, Young said. He estimates the target market to be more than 20 million companies worldwide, only 11 percent to 15 percent of which now run CRM.

The 1.2 release, due Dec. 1 in North America, will add better keyboard navigation so users don't have to rely on the mouse to do "multiselects," for example, Young said. Performance on the Outlook client will be significantly faster, he added.

Many solution providers are bullish on SBS, which pairs Windows 2003 Server, SQL Server 2000, Exchange Server 2003 and ISA for $1,499, including 5 client-access licenses.

Microsoft also demonstrated the tight links between Office desktop applications and MBS products, showing how easy it is to import and embed back-office data into Excel spreadsheets and from there to SharePoint Portal Services.

Also at the show, the company outlined broad channel program changes, as first reported by CRN

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