By Chris Alliegro [bio]
Posted: Apr. 21, 2008                            

The following an excerpt of a Research Report published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Free! Executive Summary

Report provides an overview of Microsoft's Dynamics CRM product for potential customers and partners and outlines the major improvements in CRM 4.0

Free! Introduction

The role and importance of Dynamics CRM 4.0, the latest release of Microsoft's customer relationship management (CRM) server application

Free! Overview of Dynamics CRM

Review of the main capabilities of the Dynamics CRM product

Improvements for Hosters, Large Customers

Support for multitenant hosting makes Dynamics CRM more suitable for CRM service providers; however, Microsoft will also offer hosted CRM services in 2008

New Development Options for Dynamics CRM

Dynamics CRM 4.0 offers Web services interfaces and a .NET-based plug-in architecture, but customizing server applications is still complex

Future Directions

Upgrade considerations for Dynamics CRM 4.0 and likely release plans for future products and services

Requirements, Pricing, and Licensing

System requirements, pricing, and licensing for Dynamics CRM 4.0, for customers running it on-premise and for service providers hosting it for their own subscribers

Resources

Links to additional information about Dynamics CRM features and architecture, development platform, hosting platform, licensing, and other issues