Microsoft Adds Freebie CRM Server To ERP

The news got huge applause from a few hundred MBS partners at a session at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston when corporate vice president Tami Reller announced it.

This is a "fill in the suite" move, Reller said. "After the next wave of ERP products, we will offer full financial management, supply chain management and CRM suites," she said.

Customers will still have to pay for named user licenses for CRM, but every purchase of Dynamics GP, AX, NAV, and SL will also get the CRM server.

The company will continue to sell CRM standalone through volume licensing. But -- and this is a huge plus for many partners -- they can order CRM named user licenses "from the MBS price list and you'll get ERP partner discounts," Reller said to more applause.

This might go some way to placate MBS partners still burned that Microsoft reneged on promises to offer CRM through the MBS channel only. MBS partners are a select subset of Microsoft's channel and tend to make higher margin on products that are not available broadly or through enterprise licensing.

When Microsoft moved CRM from MBS-only to the broad channel, these partners lost significant margin on sales.

"The value is clearwe will have a great business suite, financial management, supply chain management and CRM altogether," she noted. "We will also have an amzing hyper-growth CRM business" she said.

There may be some operational wrinkles. For example, ERP will now be offered on a concurrent user basis, while CRM will continue to be priced per named user, Microsoft said.

In addition, both Axapta and Navision (Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV) ERP ship with their own CRM and that will continue.

The CRM news, plus the fact that MBS Senior Vice President Doug Burgum offered attendees Sam Adams beer during the event, caused more than a few in the audience to call it "the best keynote ever."