Friday, June 20, 2008

i5 named 2008 Global Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year

[ Johannesburg, 20 June 2008 ] - South African company i5 has been named the first global winner of the Microsoft Partner of the Year award in the category, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The award is to be presented at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Texas, in July.

According to i5 CEO Glen Ansell, the award is the culmination of the company's determination and sharp focus on the Microsoft technology stack, and specifically, Dynamics CRM. "Having recognised the viability and relevance of Microsoft's CRM package soon after the inception of i5 in 2004, our company took a strategic decision to become the South African market leader in this aspect of Microsoft's technology solutions," he says.

Ansell explains that i5's primary competencies lie in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics ERP Products and Information Worker competencies, such as Portals, Collaboration and Business Intelligence.

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Despite being a relative newcomer on the scene, i5's passion and dedication to creating value for its customers has seen the company quickly build a client list which includes some of South Africa's leading blue-chip businesses.

While winning awards is not new to the company - it has received numerous accolades from Microsoft including three at Microsoft Partner Summit 2006 and Independent Software Vendor of the year in 2007 - he notes that this is the company's biggest triumph to date.

"There were over 2 000 entries in the awards programme this year from around the globe; this I believe is the result of the commitment and hard work of every individual within this business. Microsoft's recognition of our ability is testament to the dedication, innovation, symbiotic interactions and overall passion that i5 exhibits in its engagement with peers, customers and partners," he says.

Ansell believes that while this is an award of some consequence, it is just the start of the company's accelerating momentum. "Watch out, there are great things about to happen where i5 is concerned."

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Mada Communications deploys Microsoft CRM

Mada Communications (formerly Arab Telecom) has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to replace its in-house system.

"Before we were using an in-house portal to manage all our connections and clients and we found that, with our growth, we really do need something more efficient like a CRM to manage our client dealings, invoicing, and to be more efficient because we are expanding our customer base," said sales and managing director, Shahad Ibrahim.

The new CRM system went live two months ago, and Mada are already seeing results, according to Ibrahim.

"It's made staff faster and more efficient, it's much easier to track and there's easier reporting. It has had an impact and we've just been using it for the last couple of months," she said.

Mada provides wireless data and Internet services to enterprises and government institutions, and is now looking to move into the consumer market.

Newmarket Intros Hospitality Product for Microsoft CRM

By David Sims
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Newmarket International, a vendor of sales and catering products for the hospitality industry, today announced “Newmarket Connex” forMicrosoft ( News - Alert) Dynamics CRM.


This product allows hospitality workers in the central sales office to manage and source groups and meetings business from directly within Microsoft Dynamics CRM to their individual properties. Request for proposals, responses and business actuals are all exchanged between the central sales office and the individual properties through Connex.

By centralizing the groups and meetings sales process into one application, the central sales office hopes to have visibility into all the details associated with a customer, the RFP and the event, according to the company.

Newmarket officials say: “The result is the ability to respond to RFPs faster than the competition, improving the win percentage and streamlining the sales process.”

Hospitality organizations need a lead management product to “help them manage the details and logistics that go into every meeting and customer interaction,” said Sandra Andrews, U.S. hospitality industry products director for Microsoft. “Newmarket Connex, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, helps address this need by ensuring the RFP process is part of the overall CRM application.”

Features of Newmarket Connex for Microsoft Dynamics CRM include the ability to manage room block, event and meeting detail information for group and meetings business opportunities within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and to source opportunities as meetings or RFPs to your portfolio of hotels from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM product.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, described by company officials as “an adaptable business management product” offering capabilities aimed at helping users “streamline processes, reduce operational costs and manage compliance.”

The product offers “new multisite and shared services capabilities” for financial and supply chain management.

“For example,” company officials say, “the new software can run multiple legal entities on a central installation and provide a single, integrated view of financial and supply chain information from facilities around the world.”

Planning and reporting scenarios, such as consolidation and budgeting, are offered through integration with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server.

R. “Ray” Wang of Forrester (News - Alert) Research in the firm’s report “Microsoft Dynamics Gets
Renewed Focus” in April 2008, noted the “role-based user experience, improved reporting and BI capabilities, and improving platform harmonization” of the product.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Frontpages Offers Microsoft CRM 4.0

The relatively newly-minted Microsoft Gold Partner - as of January of this year - announced on Friday that it has begun offering Microsof Dynamics CRM 4.0 hosting to provide customers with an integrated on-demand customer relationship management solution.

With prices ranging as diverse as $99 for small business solutions, $495 per month for corporate and $4,595 per month for enterprise offerings, the company is seeking to serve a wide range of CRM needs with the solution.

Frontpages provides a pretty wide range of managed and hosted services, including a fairly extensive selection of Microsoft-developed products. It offers SharePoint, Exchange, Project, PerformancePoint, Office Communications Server and SQL, along with dedicated server hosting.

In early May, the company announced that it had added a set of additional management services designed to provide its dedicated customers with a more managed solution.

And in late April, the company announced it had launched a shared hosting solution for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

While some hosted Microsoft solutions, such as Exchange, are generally accepted to be the leading products in their respective markets, the company's CRM solution is one of a handful of products competing for share of a more established market. The decision to use Microsoft's solution is likely based more on the company's relationship with Microsoft, and the advantages that holds, than the product's position in the CRM market.

This, more than likely, is an important part of Microsoft's strategy in building appreciation for the CRM product. In its announcement, Frontpages says the solution integrates with Microsoft Office and Outlook to improve business processes for sales and marketing, and customer services teams.

"Our hosted CRM offerings allow customers to begin utilizing the system quicker and at a lower cost than in-house solutions," says Rob LaMear, Frontpages president, in the company's announcement.