Microsoft is reportedly making an attractive offer for new CRM customers, including those who use the products of its chief competitors to go with Microsoft (News - Alert) Dynamics CRM Online.

 

The company has introduced a service update to the solution, the third delivered in 18 months, with several new capabilities and features. It also announced that customers that switch from Salesforce.com and Oracle (News - Alert) CRM On Demand products can get Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online free for six months, in addition to their free 30-day trial.

 

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service update brings the following:

 

*          Fast online access. Organizations can get started with a trial or paid subscription to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in less than five minutes. Customers can access the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service through a Microsoft Outlook interface, via a Web browser or from a wide range of mobile devices: all at no additional charge

 

*          Simple contact management. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides a single, unified view of customer information that helps sales people manage accounts and drive revenue. A new Get Started Pane delivers guidance, training and access to communities, and Microsoft Knowledge Base (News - Alert) articles, allowing users of all skill levels to maximize their productivity. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online makes it easy to import data from other CRM applications

 

*          Better sales performance. Sales managers benefit from strong sales forecasting and their sales teams benefit from workflow capabilities that ensure that customer engagements happen quickly and consistently. A new home page dashboard provides real-time views into key metrics that help prioritize daily activities

 

*          Better economics. Microsoft has simplified and reduced its Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online pricing for all customers. All Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offerings are now available at $44 per user per month, and include offline support, 200 custom entities, 200 workflows and 5 GB of storage

 

The Salesforce and Oracle deals, along with the 30-day tria,l reinforces Microsoft’s focus on delivering more value at a lower cost than competing CRM vendors, whether through on-premises or on-demand CRM deployments. Eligibility requirements and other details of this offer can be found at http://offers.crmchoice.com/moreforless.

 

“The new service update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online demonstrates our commitment to simplify the customer experience, deliver rapid innovation and offer more value at a lower price,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in a statement “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online enables businesses to begin driving productivity and results in a matter of minutes.”

 

Microsoft Dynamics customers agree.

 

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a perfect fit for our business,” said Laura Tantaros, sales operations specialist for Trion Group Inc., in a statement “We were able to get started and train our employees very quickly, largely due to the Microsoft Outlook user interface, and adapt the service to our specific business needs easily.”

 

“We’ve built our business on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and we’ve helped more than 75 companies adopt the service in the past year,” Steve Bowles, CEO of Pelagic Solutions, said in a statement. “In our experience Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online simply delivered a lot more capabilities and value than other software as a service based CRM systems, at a lower price.”