CRM Service Pricing, Schedule

Dynamics Live CRM, an online customer relationship management (CRM) service from Microsoft, will be available commercially in the first half of 2008 at lower prices than the competing Salesforce.com services. Aimed at firms that want flexible pricing and low startup costs for CRM, the service could appeal to many Dynamics partners, who can get an ongoing cut of Microsoft’s service revenue and incorporate the service into more specialized offerings. However, some features won’t be ready until after the launch of the service.

Live CRM will be based on the next version of the on-premise Dynamics CRM application, which is code-named Titan. Microsoft is currently taking applications for a free “early-access” trial of a prerelease version of the service. The trial, available to companies with five or more users, will run until the end of 2007, when the service goes into production mode. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Microsoft expects to release Titan and hopes that partner offerings will be available.