Microsoft Demonstrates Next-Generation CRM Release at Worldwide Partner Conference

WASHINGTON, July 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft Corp. showcased new capabilities that are coming in its next-generation customer relationship management (CRM) solution. The highly anticipated Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 — formerly code-named "CRM5" — will be publicly available as a beta release in September 2010, beginning with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

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Microsoft also announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be available in 40 markets and 41 languages by the end of 2010. In addition to 32 markets announced in April, the following eight markets are slated to be covered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Cyprus, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will deliver "The Power of Productivity" through familiar, intelligent and connected experiences for people inside and outside an organization. This release will also enable partners, including independent software vendors, global system integrators and value-added resellers, to quickly create, package and distribute Microsoft Dynamics CRM extensions and custom solutions.

To streamline solution discovery and distribution, Microsoft will be launching Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace in September 2010. This new online catalog will provide an easy way for partners to market and distribute solutions to Microsoft Dynamics customers. The marketplace will allow customers to quickly search, discover and apply industry-specific applications and solution extensions from Microsoft and its partners to help them accelerate and extend their CRM and ERP implementations. Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace will be integrated within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, allowing customers to search for applications directly from within their CRM solution.

"We are excited to get the new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The new features will give us even more power and flexibility to create and easily customize CRM solutions to meet the unique business needs of our customers and help them be more productive," said Jason Hunt, Avanade CRM and xRM evangelist. "We are also looking forward to the introduction of Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, as it opens up new opportunities that will enable us to expand our reach and get our CRM solutions out to a broader, global audience."

Partners can find more information on joining the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/marketplace.  

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Delivers Next-Generation Cloud Productivity

In June 2010, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM were recognized as "a leader" for midsize and large organizations by Forrester Research Inc. in The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites For Midsized Organizations, Q2 2010 and The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Large Organizations, Q2 2010. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will build on and extend those leadership capabilities through the following experiences:  

Familiar Experiences

• Next-generation Microsoft Outlook experience. The best Microsoft Outlook client experience yet enables CRM information to take full advantage of native Outlook functionality including previews and conditional formatting.
• Microsoft Office experience. New contextual CRM Ribbon for Outlook and browser clients delivers consistent Microsoft Office navigation and user experiences.
• RoleTailored design. Role-based forms and views ensure business professionals have fast access to the relevant information that they need and are prevented from seeing data that they are not authorized to view.
• Advanced user personalization. Customers can create personal views, add commonly used records and design personal dashboards to measure performance.

Intelligent Experiences

• Inline data visualizations. Business professionals using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can quickly create and share inline charts with drill-down intelligence to visually navigate data and uncover new insights.
• Real-time dashboards. Businesses can rapidly configure multiple real-time dashboards to actively monitor business performance and improve decision-making.
• Flexible goal management. Businesses can define key performance and business health indicators to track and measure progress against any organizational goal or metric.
• Guided process dialogs. In addition to automated processes, businesses can provide its employees with step-by-step guidance through any business process or interaction.

Connected Experiences

• Contextual documents. For organizations with Microsoft SharePoint Server, people can easily provision SharePoint document repositories and embed directly within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Cloud development. Developers can develop and deploy custom code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online using powerful tools, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. Powered by .NET Framework 4, they can also incorporate Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Communication Foundation and Language Integrated Query into their cloud solutions.
• Solution management. Solution developers can easily create, manage and help protect solutions from creation to distribution through versioning, dependencies and security features.
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. Customers can quickly find, download and apply custom solutions and extensions embedded within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

"Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will further deliver 'The Power of Productivity' through familiar, intelligent and connected experiences for customers and partners," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "For customers, it offers new levels of user productivity and collaboration that meet their specific business needs with a low total cost of ownership. For partners, it unlocks new opportunities and provides a single development environment for cloud-based and on-premise deployments. Together, this new release raises the bar in the CRM market."

More information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and beta notification sign up can be found at the Microsoft Dynamics CRM website at http://crm.dynamics.com/crm2011beta.

New Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Benefit for Microsoft Partners

As part of the October launch of the Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft is announcing that companies registered in the Microsoft Partner Network will be able to receive 250 seats of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at no charge for internal use.

More information on partner opportunities with Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be found at the Microsoft Partner Network website at https://partner.microsoft.com/global/productssolutions/dynamics/microsoftdynamicscrm.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of easy-to-use, integrated and adaptable ERP and CRM applications that enable business decision-makers to quickly respond to market shifts, take advantage of new trends, increase their competitive edge and drive business success. Microsoft Dynamics solutions are delivered through a world-class network of reselling partners providing specialized services and additional innovation to help customers excel in their industries.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.