SAN DIEGO — Oct. 17, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. announced the start of its first Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM North American Customer Summit today in San Diego. Satya Nadella, corporate vice president and leader of the Microsoft Business Solutions division, delivered the opening keynote and outlined Microsoft’s major investments in technology and solutions across the company. The event brings together business and technology leaders from selected Microsoft® CRM enterprise customers in North America to share best practices and discuss future plans with the Microsoft CRM executive leadership team. With the rapid growth of the Microsoft CRM community worldwide, Microsoft now plans to hold annual CRM customer summits in North America and Europe in addition to its popular Convergence user group meetings.
“The Microsoft CRM North American Customer Summit is a natural extension of our commitment to the success of our customers,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “It provides a forum where our customers can share their experiences and discuss the opportunities and challenges that each company faces in managing customer relationships.”
Attending the summit are leading companies in financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail and a broad range of other industries. They include the following:
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Benjamin Moore & Co. is one of the country’s leading manufacturers of architectural, commercial and industrial maintenance coatings. The company uses Microsoft CRM for its geographically dispersed sales force and high-volume call center.
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FranklinCovey is a global leader in effectiveness training, productivity tools and assessment services. Its Organizational Solutions business unit uses Microsoft CRM to provide its sales team with a 360-degree view of customers via a native Microsoft Outlook® interface.
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Getty Images, the world’s leading provider of imagery, film and digital services, selected Microsoft CRM because of its ability to support significant customization and integration into Getty’s back-end enterprise systems.
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O.C. Tanner Co. is a multinational firm that specializes in helping companies motivate employees through comprehensive recognition solutions. Microsoft CRM has helped the company realize its vision for a single CRM system, shared by its Customer Service division that provides a strong value to the company as business workflow platform. Early success has prompted an initiative to deploy Microsoft CRM across its sales division.
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Raymond James Financial Inc. is one of the largest financial services firms in the United States. The company is using Microsoft CRM to manage and grow its end customer base and create a competitive differentiator for its network of financial advisors.
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Volt Information Sciences Inc. is a global service conglomerate with businesses in technical, IT, and temporary and direct staffing; telecommunications; and information services. Microsoft CRM helped Volt achieve its No. 1 goal: to implement a CRM solution that enhances the sales cycle as opposed to creating additional work for its sales staff.
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Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, a leading U.S. health insurance provider, uses Microsoft CRM for its customer service advisors.
Microsoft CRM Delivers Enterprise Integration
As part of its enterprise CRM strategy, Microsoft announced the availability of two pre-packaged solution accelerators designed to simplify the integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with existing legacy enterprise applications. The solution accelerators simplify the process of connecting Microsoft CRM to other ERP and CRM applications:
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Integration with Siebel CRM systems via BizTalk® Server. The solution accelerator for integrating with Siebel CRM allows customers to use Microsoft CRM to deliver added usability and a more productive user experience to small or large groups of users across the organization.
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Integration with ERP applications from SAP AG, Oracle’s PeopleSoft, Oracle Corp. and other companies via BizTalk Server. The solution accelerator for integrating with third-party ERP applications enables companies to integrate ERP data and processes with Microsoft CRM and deliver a rich, roles-based user experience to every CRM user.
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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