COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 8, 2003 — Microsoft Business Solutions today announced that Microsoft®
Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 1.2 was released to manufacturing and will be generally available in 47 geographies worldwide starting in January 2004. To meet the needs of the international business community, Microsoft Business Solutions developed Microsoft CRM 1.2 in eight language versions in addition to U.S. English, beginning with International English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, to be closely followed by Brazilian Portuguese, Danish and Dutch.
Building upon the momentum generated by the release of Microsoft CRM 1.0 in North America, the new version of the product will help global businesses take advantage of technology and related services that were previously attainable only by large enterprises with big information technology budgets. Not simply a scaled-down enterprise solution or a bolstered small-office application, Microsoft CRM 1.2 was designed specifically for midmarket segment companies with 25 to 1,000 employees. For small-business customers that would like to benefit from collaborative CRM, the solution can be deployed with Microsoft Small Business Server. Microsoft CRM 1.2 also is a fit for departments or divisions of large organizations.
The overarching goal of Microsoft CRM is to help businesses increase their business profitability by providing the tools to help companies offer superior customer service and improve efficiency across their organization. It is Microsoft Corp.’s first business application built using Microsoft .NET technologies. Accessible from Microsoft Outlook®
and the Web, Microsoft CRM is easy to use, customize and maintain; integrates with other business systems; and scales to grow along with the needs of a customer’s business. Central to the development of Microsoft CRM is flexibility, which enables businesses to determine the degree to which they automate and share information.
Today Microsoft CRM provides sales, marketing and customer service functionality, automating the CRM strategies of more than 1,000 customers in North America. With Microsoft CRM 1.2, businesses will be able to take full advantage of additional CRM functionality that facilitates increased business productivity and performance, a strong development environment, and support of Microsoft Windows Server System (TM) 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office 2003 and, for small businesses, Microsoft Small Business Server. These technologies offer the security enhancements, availability, scalability and reliability businesses need from their operating system, servers and productivity tools.
“I was hoping to achieve a positive ROI in six to 12 months, but it wasn’t even close,” said Sam Lloyd, president of AAA Mortgage. “Microsoft CRM paid for itself in less than a month, when you consider increased productivity, increased profitability per transaction and reduced turn times.”
“We anticipate that there will be a significant increase in demand for CRM applications among small and mid-sized businesses in EMEA,” said Ed Thompson, research director with Gartner Europe. “Given that increase in demand, we believe it is critical for businesses in EMEA to be even more careful to ensure that they buy a proven solution that will meet their customer relationship needs.”
Availability
Microsoft CRM is available through a global network of local Microsoft partner organizations that can deliver the software and associated services to help ensure a rapid return on investment.
About Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions, a business group of Microsoft, offers a wide range of integrated, end-to-end business applications and services designed to help small, midmarket segment and corporate businesses become more connected with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. Microsoft Business Solutions’ applications optimize strategic business processes across financial management, analytics, human resources management, project management, customer relationship management, field service management, supply chain management, e-commerce, manufacturing and retail management. The applications are designed to provide insight to help customers achieve business success. 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.
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