REDMOND, Wash., and PALO ALTO, Calif. Jan. 21, 2003 Microsoft Business Solutions and Crystal Decisions Inc. today announced that Microsoft® Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with reporting and business analytics technologies from Crystal Decisions was launched today in North America. Through an OEM and reseller agreement, Crystal Decisions provides the reporting, analysis and information delivery capabilities within the solution. Microsoft CRM customers can access Crystal Enterprise to gain insight into their customer data, identify high-value opportunities, analyze short and long-term revenue, and distribute information across their organization for better decision-making.
Accessible from Microsoft Outlook® and the Web, Microsoft CRM enables midmarket businesses to build more-profitable customer relationships through increased sales effectiveness and more-consistent customer service. Microsoft CRM is designed for rapid deployment, ease of use, and integration with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Business Solutions back-office solutions, increasing information reliability, employee usage and productivity.
“We are extremely pleased to strengthen our broad relationship with Microsoft and team with it to give its customers access to world-class enterprise reporting technologies,”
said Andy Handford, vice president of products for Crystal Decisions.
“This agreement allows us to extend our presence in the CRM space as well as midmarket businesses, and demonstrates our core strengths around providing value-added enterprise reporting and analysis solutions for core business applications such as ERP and CRM.”
Crystal Enterprise enables businesses to access data from virtually any data source or application, analyze it, create a report, and share the information with employees, customers and partners. Tightly integrated with Microsoft CRM, Crystal Enterprise delivers insight into customer data through a combination of operational and analytic reports, enabling companies to understand what is happening in their customer base and why.
A version of Crystal Enterprise called Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM is included with Microsoft CRM at no additional charge and is installed by default, providing customers with the ability to view, filter, print and export more than 100 predefined reports. Microsoft CRM customers also will have the ability to modify or add new reports. Also, Microsoft Business Solutions will resell Crystal Reports for Microsoft CRM licenses and other Crystal Decisions offerings
About Crystal Decisions
Crystal Decisions, a privately held company, is one of the worlds leading information management software companies with more than 12 million licenses shipped. Since 1984, Crystal Decisions has powered winning organizations with one of the fastest ways for employees, partners and customers to access the information they need to make the best decisions and ultimately reduce costs and increase productivity. The Crystal brand is among the most trusted names in enterprise reporting and more than 300 independent software vendors (ISVs) have standardized on Crystal Decisions solutions. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Crystal Decisions has more than 20 offices worldwide and can be found on the Internet at http://www.crystaldecisions.com/ .
About Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions offers a wide range of business applications designed to help small, midmarket and corporate businesses become more connected with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. Microsoft Business Solutions applications automate end-to-end business processes across financials, distribution, project accounting, electronic commerce, human resources and payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management, business intelligence, sales and marketing management, and customer service and support. More information about Microsoft Business Solutions can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and Outlook are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Microsoft Business Solutions ApS is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.
Crystal Decisions, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, Crystal Services, Crystal Care, Crystal Assist, Crystal Applications and Holos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Crystal Decisions, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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