Chicago-based Sonoma Partners, a reseller and customizer of Microsoft (News - Alert) Dynamics CRM, says it's seeing big business gains. In this economy that's something to write home about.

Despite many competitors reporting flat outlooks, Sonoma Partners officials say, their consulting revenues increased 44 percent in 2009: 'Equally telling is the triple digit jump in deal size for the company.  Twice named among the fastest growing privately held companies on Inc. magazine's annual list, Sonoma Partners looks to improve that ranking again this year.'  

Sonoma Partners Principal Mike Snyder attributes recent success to not only the growing popularity of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but the increasing usage and customization of the product, which is Sonoma's line of work.  

'A large part of our business upswing is attributable to our customization efforts,' said Snyder, noting that the current economic conditions are forcing businesses to 'invest in applications that not only help them get closer to their customers, but streamline the way they do business.'

Expanding upon traditional uses of CRM is driving the company's success, Sonoma officials say, adding that they're using so-called XRM opportunities to spur development.  'XRM' refers to any relationship that needs to be managed, such as vendors, employees, prospects, dealers, as well as other types of business relationships including properties, assets, projects, grants, legislation and more.  

Examples of this type of work by Sonoma Partners would include a new system for tracking election-day activities and judges in a major metropolitan area and a commercial real estate firm that uses XRM to manage leases and available space.

Founded in 2001, Sonoma Partners works exclusively with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and has twice been awarded Global Microsoft CRM Partner of the Year. Sonoma Partners has written multiple books about Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Press as well. But we bet they still use iPods.

Last May, TMC (News - Alert) reported that BigMachines, which offers a platform of Web-based software and services, saw their integration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a cross-functional customer relationship management application providing sales, marketing, and customer support modules, as allowing customers to 'sell more and sell faster,' as if such results would be attractive in this day and age.