QUESTION: I have been hearing a lot about CRM Live. Is that the next version of Microsoft CRM? What's different about CRM Live and who should consider using it?
EXPERT RESPONSE: Dynamics CRM Live is Microsoft's new hosted offering of Dynamics CRM. Microsoft announced the development of CRM Live over a year ago, but officially kicked off the early access program and announced product and pricing information at the worldwide partner conference earlier this month. CRM Live is essentially the same product as the on-premise Microsoft Dynamics CRM product, and offers several key advantages over competitors like Salesforce.com, including:
Price: CRM Live will be priced significantly less than Salesforce.com at $44 per user per month for online access and $59 per user per month for online and offline synchronization. There is even an expected promotional price as low as $39 per user per month. Long-term options: Because CRM Live and Dynamics CRM are built on the same code base and are in many ways the same product, customers will have the option of remaining in a hosted environment or converting their licenses and bringing their implementation in house at the end of their contract. This provides incredible flexibility for customers because they are not locked into either hosted or on-premise, and can make the decisions about where to run CRM according to what is in the best financial interest of their business. No other hosted CRM provider can currently offer this alternative. CRM Live is going to bring some real competition into the hosted CRM market that has been dominated by Salesforce.com. Look for CRM Live to be available later this year. You can read more about the product at www.crmlive.com.
