Dynamics CRM Gets Social, Service Update

The Dynamics CRM 2011 software and the Dynamics CRM Online Microsoft-hosted service were both updated in Oct. 2011. Dynamics CRM manages sales, marketing, and customer service and provides a platform for custom business applications. The updates deliver social networking and mobile features that will help users work together on sales leads and other types of data. The update also simplifies Dynamics CRM Online administration for organizations that also buy Office 365, the Microsoft-hosted service suite that includes Exchange Online e-mail and other services.

Activity Feeds and Charting Improvements

Activity Feeds, the most prominent new feature in the updates, give Dynamics CRM users a short message service similar to Twitter or Facebook status updates. Each user can post personal status updates, subscribe to other users’ status updates, and see a consolidated “wall” feed of updates from all subscribed sources. Each Dynamics CRM record (e.g., sales lead or customer service case) has its own wall to which users can subscribe and post messages; for example, a user could post a message about action taken on a lead.