Microsoft Dynamics CRM Named a Leader by Two Independent Research Firms

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced Microsoft Dynamics CRM has garnered recognition as a Leader from two leading independent research firms, Gartner Inc. and Forrester Research Inc. Forrester acknowledged Microsoft Dynamics CRM for offering a flexible customer service solution, earning a Leader position in The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, Q3, 2010 (July 2010) report, while Gartner placed it as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (July 2010) report.

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These acknowledgements follow recent placements for Microsoft Dynamics CRM among the Leaders in The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Midsized Organizations, Q2 2010 (June 2010), The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites for Large Organizations, Q2 2010 (June 2010) and the 2010 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers.

"We provide a strong vision and a road map of ongoing innovation to help customers get the maximum return from their CRM investments," said Brad Wilson, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "With the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, customers will reach new levels of productivity and collaboration with a low total cost of ownership, and partners will unlock new opportunities with a single development environment for cloud-based and on-premises deployments."

Results From Gartner

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation evaluates vendors on their ability to execute and completeness of vision. Evaluation criteria weighed for each included product/service, overall viability, sales execution/pricing, customer experience and operations, and offering (product) strategy, business model, innovation and geographic strategy, respectively.

According to Gartner, "Vendors placed in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner's Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant demonstrate a market-defining vision of how technology can help the top sales executives achieve business objectives. Leaders have the ability to execute against that vision through products, services and demonstrated solid business results in the form of revenue and earnings. Leaders have significant successful customer deployments in North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific in a wide variety of vertical industries with multiple proof points above 500 users."

Results From Forrester Research

To assess the market of CRM suites customer service solutions software and see how vendors compare with one another, Forrester evaluated the customer service strengths and weaknesses of the top CRM suites vendor products against 196 criteria organized into three high-level categories: current offering, strategy and market presence. According to Forrester, vendors in the Leader category have both a strong product and strategy.

"Microsoft Dynamics CRM shines by offering customer service flexibility for large and midsized organizations," wrote William Band, vice president and principal analyst, and James Kobielus, senior analyst, Forrester Research, in the report. "It supports flexible options in deployment (on-premises, on-demand and partner-hosted deployments); how to pay (license, subscribe, finance); and how to use (Outlook client, browser, SharePoint site, other interfaces). Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides strong support for: phone agents; call center infrastructure; agent collaboration tools; knowledge base; customer data management; analytics; email response management; architecture and platform; business process and workflow tools; integration; security; and Web 2.0 tools."

Customers using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to get their sales force quickly up to speed include the following:

• IGH Solutions, a worldwide printing company, implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to dramatically reduce labor costs and to gain one additional hour of sales productivity per day for each salesperson. More about IGH Solutions' success can be found here.
• Trion, a benefits consultant, deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and enabled it to double sales efficiency, improve business insight, lower costs and gain instant feedback on marketing investments. More on Trion's success can be found here.
• Panduit, a manufacturer, increased its sales force productivity by 15 percent to 20 percent in two months after implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. More on Panduit's story can be found here.

The Gartner Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant and The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites Customer Service Solutions, Q3 2010 (July 2010) reports are available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/default.mspx. Readers who want to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM should visit http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics, follow the Microsoft Dynamics CRM conversation at http://www.twitter.com/msdynamicscrm and engage with the community at http://www.twitter.com/msdyncomm.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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.