Microsoft Dynamics CRM Delivers Social Productivity to Customers

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the availability of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, as well as for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments.

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Delivering on its commitment to make sales, service and marketing professionals more productive, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update brings customers new integrated social collaboration capabilities, as well as a unified Microsoft Office 365 experience and enhancements for enterprises using Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the cloud. These new features are delivered at no additional cost to customers and add functionality to the experiences and tools that they're already using.

"Across Microsoft, we deliver social capabilities that help customers and businesses build more productive relationships," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Product Management Group. "By bringing together new social collaboration capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM with familiar collaboration technologies such as Office, SharePoint and Lync, businesses will be able to expand their relationships with customers and gain even deeper insight and understanding."

Delivering Social Productivity

Social CRM is the convergence of social technologies with CRM processes and technology, and organizations today are looking for ways to leverage social technologies to deliver improved business results and customer satisfaction. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM approach to social technologies enables people to use social CRM in a highly productive way from within the tools they already know.

With the new release, Microsoft Dynamics CRM introduces new social collaboration capabilities that include the following:

• Activity feeds. Configurable, real-time notifications on important relationships and significant business events via a blended view of micro-blog posts and interactions for a person, customer or sales opportunity.
• Micro-blogging. Status updates and notifications regarding business events and actions, providing simple experiences for users.
• Conversations. Post questions, observations, suggestions and status updates, allowing users to collaborate quickly and efficiently, locate information or expertise and gather feedback from others.
• Automated activity updates. Post information directly to the activity feed based on configurable event rules (for example, when a sales opportunity is closed). People can subscribe to or "follow" these activity feeds and consume them in a variety of ways.
• Mobile activity feeds. A new Microsoft Dynamics CRM mobile Activity Feeds application for Windows Phone 7 allows users to view their activity feeds while away from the office.^*

"As companies grow across geographical and technological boundaries, businesses need to be able to capture knowledge and disperse it effectively to ensure people have the most up-to-date information when they need it," said Jim Steger, co-founder and principal at Sonoma Partners. "To be effective, social tools need to be easily accessed and usable, they need to be searchable allowing you to filter information, and they need to be a holistic part of the CRM solution. Microsoft's approach to social productivity uniquely meets those criteria."

More information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM and a demonstration of the new social collaboration capabilities are available at http://crm.dynamics.com/nov2011.

Delivering a Unified Office 365 Experience and Enterprise Cloud Enhancements

Today, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 provide a seamless experience for end users. With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online simplifies cloud service management by offering a common administration, billing and provisioning platform with Office 365.^**

In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update offers improved disaster recovery features with in-region replication to further help protect data and offer high levels of business continuity in the event of a disaster.

More information about partners and customers deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can be found at http://crm.dynamics.com. Those who want to follow and engage with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM community can do so at @MSDynamicsCRM, #crm2011.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions empower your people to be more productive and your systems to last longer and scale as your business grows, while enabling you to derive the insights necessary to respond quickly in an ever-changing world of business.

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.

^* Data plan required. Carrier fees apply.

^** Valid for customers signing up under Microsoft Online Services Platform.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.