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DYNAMICS CRM LOADING UP INFO

Craig Dewar, MicrosoftMicrosoft was busy promoting the spring release of CRM Anywhere at last week's Convergence user conference. But one of the biggest developments was the links the company is establishing with content providers such as Linkedin and InsideView. Of course, the first thing that went on in a demo by Craig Dewar was the use of mobile devices being supported in the new product, starting with the iPad, to work with the CRM packages.

Microsoft also supports Blackberry, Android, and oh yes, Windows smartphones. But more intriguing was the alliances, and that Microsoft is not following a build-everything strategy. "We have been working with Linkedin for some time to help them as an ISV to create add-in capability of CRM," said Dewar. A Dynamics CRM user would utilize Linkedin Premium service to find possible connections from within the Microsoft application. Dewar promised that "We will have more connections with Linkedin" and that there would be "very interesting things over time. The alliance with InsideView, an aggregator, is also going to provide out-of-the box capabilities for searching for and bringing information about companies and contacts. Dewar said that would enable users to update contact information more easily. InsideView, he continued, would be the first provider and "there will be others." Dewar was probably a bit too enthusiastic about the info being provided by InsideView. But InsideView agrees that embedded information will change the use of CRM. "Information within CRM is insufficient to the job," said Umberto Milletti, the company's CEO. "A limited amount of information" will be made available to Dynamics CRM users for free," he continued. But Milletti envisions CRM users wanting more. "We hope there is a certain percentage which would like the full enterprise capability," he said. InsideView gathers information on a person from Twitter and Linkedin, for example. But it would also gather information when someone has been quoted. All this is gathered into a real-time profile to enable CRM users to make decisions about which person to contact.

 

Read MoreMicrosoft also supports Blackberry, Android, and oh yes, Windows smartphones. But more intriguing was the alliances, and one point was that Microsoft is not following build everything strategy. "We have been working with Linkedin for some time to help them as an ISV to create add-in capability of CRM," said Dewar. A Dynamics CRM user will essentially have the ability to utilize Linkedin Premium service to find possible connections with contacts and prospects from within the Microsoft application. Dewar called the capability with Linkedin "wiring it into CRM". Dewar promised that "We will have more connections with Linkedin" and that there would be "very interesting things over time. The alliance with InsideView, an aggregator, is also going to provide out-of-the box capabilities for searching for and bringing information about companies and contacts. Dewar said that would enable users to keep contact information up-to-date more easily. InsideView, he continued would be the first provider and that "there will be others." Dewar was probably a bit too enthusiastic about the info being provider as InsideView said the company is providing Dynamics CRM a narrow subset of functionality. But InsideView agrees that embedded information will change the use of CRM. "Information within CRM is insufficient to the job," said Umberto Milletti, the company's CEO.  "A limited amount of information" will be made available to Dynamics CRM users for free," he continued. But Milletti envisions CRM users wanting more. "We hope there is a certain percentage which would like the full enterprise capability," he said. InsideView gathers information on a person from Twitter and Linkedin, for example. But it would also gather information when someone has been quoted. All this is gathered into a real-time profile to enable CRM users to make decisions about which person to contact.

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