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Headline: Microsoft’s cloud-based CRM boosts productivity of Singapore’s firm
Publication: Enterprise Innovation
Author: No writer credited
Date: 21 February 2011
URL: http://www.enterpriseinnovation.net/content/microsofts-cloud-based-crm-boosts-productivity-singapore-firms?section=news&utm_source=lyris&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily
Adrian Johnston, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics in Asia said that this new offering is a testament to what is going on in the market. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is fully embracing the cloud, providing a complete suite of powerful marketing, sales and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience.”
Johnston said that some of the advantages that this Microsoft solution offers over its competitors are the familiar look and feel and the depth of integration that it offers with other Microsoft solutions like Office.
He added another advantage was the ability to offer hosted solutions in a cloud environment hosted by Microsoft, or as an on premise solution where competing solutions could only offer one or the other. "Businesses may want to test with on premise and test in one location and then roll out into a cloud deployment," he said.
Customers or partners who develop solutions, trials and demos for specific verticals, can also put them on Microsoft's Marketplace for others to download and purchase them.
More than 11,500 customers and 400 partners have used Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 as part of the beta program, with 1500 beta customers involving 9,000 seats in Asia.
Lawry’s Prime Rib chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online because it was a right fit for their business needs.
Juan R. Jimenez, Executive Director Lawry’s The Prime Rib Singapore said that they felt that CRM 2011 had a good fit for their business and was both easy to use and familiar with the data sets easy to use and manipulate. The deployment time was also short and cost of the solution reasonably priced.
“In our continuous quest to enhance our Customers’ Experience, we needed a tool that would allow us to communicate and interact with our customers more efficiently and effectively,” said Jimenez, “We are confident that Microsoft Dynamics CRM and 3P Solutions will help us achieve these objectives. We believe that the right technology, coupled with the right partners is our winning formula to achieving our goals.”
CRM market saturation
Asked whether he felt that IT solutions companies would be facing a saturation of the CRM market, Johnston said that hosted online CRM solutions still had a lot of room to grow as most customers were still running on premises solutions. "It is partly the Asian mentality and partly the unwillingness to let go of control that has held back adoption," he explained.
What has been holding adoption back has been user adoption Johnston said. "It is not usually the technology that causes failure," he said, "Familiarity, usability and ease of adoption are the key factors to drive adoption"
