CRM - July 2008 - (Page 28)

MICROSOFT & CRM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26 28 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JULY 2008 www.destinationCRM.com PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN LOOMIS CRM: [Targeted advertising] ties into business analytics: Where are you going with that? SB: Well, I think that’s an incredibly important area of investment for us. As I talked a little bit [about] in my keynote, line-of-business processes are interesting, but it’s not really where decision-makers live. They live in the data that informs decisions…. And I’m not talking just about the top of the top of the business, I’m talking about people that decide policy, make decisions—even if it’s on an individual customer basis, insight is important. And so the tools that we give, whether those are built on Excel or SQL, whether those come out of processes like customer management, they’re superimportant, and you’ll see that in what we’re doing with Dynamics CRM…you see what we’re doing in SharePoint, Excel, SQL—a big emphasis on the insight, analytics, and decision-making. It’s a big area. It’s been [such] a big area of investment for us that we’ve bought ProClarity as part of that investment, we’ve brought on a PerformancePoint line of products to market as part of that investment, we’ve extended Excel with the business intelligence add-ins. We’ve enhanced our SQL reporting services, we’ve made business intelligence and analytics a hallmark of Dynamics ERP and Dynamics CRM. [See “Analyzing Microsoft’s CRM Analytics” on page 27 for more on Microsoft’s ProClarity purchase and its overall analytics strategy.] CRM: Enterprise search also ties to analytics—you’ve got to be able to see your information. Your Fast Search & Transfer acquisition [announced in January 2008]—will that affect your existing investment in enterprise search? SB: No, I think it just extends it. It makes it tie in, it gives us technology that will work better in the back end. We’ll wind up having an additional high-end member of our product line…. I think it strengthens and deepens our sort of basic approach. It’s not a whole new approach. CRM: Do you think unstructured data’s going to make a change? SB: Well, with Fast it’s actually great because we get extended abilities beyond SharePoint to see into both structured and unstructured data, which I think is phenomenal. CRM: I had a good talk with Brad [Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM] and with Sean [Finnan, EDS global vice president of CRM services] and Alex [Halikias, CRM service-line leader for EDS]. I got a lot out of that; I also found your talk on stage to be very helpful there. SB: I think [the EDS deal] gives you a sense of the enterprisereadiness of the Dynamics CRM platform. CRM: Yeah. Plus, there’s customization power right there between the raw material that’s in the Microsoft platform and what EDS can do. I don’t mind saying I’m excited to see where you guys go with it. SB: It’s an exciting time to be in the business I think when we got into it five years ago there were two views: One view was we’d shake the market up and revolutionize it, the other was we wouldn’t make a difference and people weren’t sure, but it would be one of the two extremes. I think it’s clear we’re on the first extreme. Now we’re trying to really shake things up, democratize this whole area. online version is not retro at all. Demand for on-demand CRM has just begun to be tapped; Microsoft can grab a huge corner of this market Most users are filling a tactical gap: They’re moving up from a contact manager, or are in the middle of a big implementation,” he says.“Microsoft’s price and functionality add the ability to exist at many levels, so customers have a strong growth path The ability for the customer to switch is highly important.” McCabe agrees that email integration provides an opportunity. “It’s Microsoft, it’s cheaper, and it has 100 percent Outlook integration—most companies need to take a look at it,” she says, adding that price is—and should be—a factor.“They’ll consider Zoho as well,” she says, citing the Indian upstart offering free Webbased CRM for up to three users. “Salesforce.com has been able to set pricing for on-demand CRM, but not anymore.” Asked about Salesforce.com, Ballmer’s immediate response is straightforward: “High-cost,” he says, making the case yet again for MD CRM 4.0 on price.“They’ve done some good stuff, I just think it’s a high-cost infrastructure, and I think the way they built it, it’s destined to stay highcost both on sales and marketing costs as well as [on] the technology infrastructure.” Ballmer may have a point. Even Martens isn’t entirely critical when it comes to the price factor: “One thing I like about Microsoft is there are no hidden extras. You get the full CRM suite—[sales force automation], service, marketing, and the rest.” What of Salesforce.com’s “No Software” cry? Microsoft’s real “mixed”message may be that users should have the power to mix and match their delivery. “‘On-demand must be a pure-play’ is a fallacy,” Greenbaum says. “Solely on-demand players may find themselves crippled in the face of a hybrid” such as MD CRM 4.0. We can’t yet grasp the repercussions Microsoft has (and will have) on CRM— far beyond a rivalry with Salesforce.com. (Wonder why we’ve devoted so much space to comparing the two vendors? Microsoft itself is spending millions of marketing dollars doing just that.) As office productivity, and computing in general, http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - July 2008

CRM - July 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point CRM’s a Social Animal SAP Looks to ‘Change the Game' CRM on Twitter CRM to the Max A Prescription for Satisfaction Required Reading Cover Story: Is Microsoft Winning the CRM Race? Jumping into the SaaS Pool Say What? Another Bright Idea Out of Edison A Small Biz Blossoms Biting Off the Right Amount Something for a Rainy Day Connect Re:Tooling Pint of View

CRM - July 2008

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