Improvements for Hosters, Large Customers

Dynamics CRM 4.0’s new architecture allows multiple organizations to run securely on shared server hardware and makes the product more suitable than previous versions for hosted CRM services. In addition, enhancements in existing features and support for multilanguage and multicurrency deployments could reduce the amount of custom development and third—party add-ons required for large, multinational organizations.

Multitenant Hosting

The most technically significant new feature in CRM 4.0 is support for multitenancy, which allows a single CRM installation to host multiple, distinct organizations. Multitenancy should make the product more practical for hosting large numbers of small customers and could help Microsoft and its hosting partners offer services that compete with Salesforce.com on price, particularly at the entry level.

Because CRM 3.0 lacked this capability, service providers typically ran each customer organization on dedicated server hardware, which carries higher operating costs than consolidating customers on shared hardware and made CRM 3.0 prohibitively expensive for hosting large numbers of small customers. Although mainly intended to aid hosters, the multitenancy feature could also be useful for organizations with multiple, distinct front-office operations, such as a large holding company.