CRM 2011 Online – A more flexible cloud offering
Microsoft has taken a unique approach to their CRM cloud offering, allowing customers to wait up to 1 year before forcing them to upgrade to the latest version. Microsoft came up with a pretty engaging marketing campaign called ‘Don’t Get Forced’, which I discussed in a blog entry late in 2010. They even developed a nice site at www.dontgetforced.com with lots of reference stories. Many of the users referenced in this campaign are alluding to the costs of Salesforce.com and Oracle forcing them to Microsoft CRM. I see another large differentiator besides per user cost, as a driver for Microsoft CRM 2011 Online.
For customers on the majority of hosted CRM offerings, it is a forced march to their newer upgraded platforms. Microsoft is changing the game in their CRM Online environment, by providing their users a choice on when they upgrade their CRM platform. For the 2011 release, they are giving users on v4.0 until January 2012 to upgrade. This provides customers flexibility as well as significant time for testing, planning, deployment, and re-training of users. All but one of our CRM Online customers has upgraded to CRM 2011 Online in the last 6 months. Other than some early performance hits which were addressed with Rollup 1, they have all successfully adopted the new platform. Only the most customized and integrated customers are waiting until later in the year. For information on scheduling your upgrade you can visit: http://offers.crmchoice.com/crm2011-upgrade-process/
As for Microsoft’s on-premise offering, we have several CRM clients on v4.0 that upgraded to CRM 2011. There are also a few that are waiting for more roll-ups to be released before upgrading. I’ll talk in more detail in a later post about upgrading On Premise CRM v4.0 to CRM 2011 environments, and some of the things you'll need to think about in planning your upgrade.
For customers on the majority of hosted CRM offerings, it is a forced march to their newer upgraded platforms. Microsoft is changing the game in their CRM Online environment, by providing their users a choice on when they upgrade their CRM platform. For the 2011 release, they are giving users on v4.0 until January 2012 to upgrade. This provides customers flexibility as well as significant time for testing, planning, deployment, and re-training of users. All but one of our CRM Online customers has upgraded to CRM 2011 Online in the last 6 months. Other than some early performance hits which were addressed with Rollup 1, they have all successfully adopted the new platform. Only the most customized and integrated customers are waiting until later in the year. For information on scheduling your upgrade you can visit: http://offers.crmchoice.com/crm2011-upgrade-process/
As for Microsoft’s on-premise offering, we have several CRM clients on v4.0 that upgraded to CRM 2011. There are also a few that are waiting for more roll-ups to be released before upgrading. I’ll talk in more detail in a later post about upgrading On Premise CRM v4.0 to CRM 2011 environments, and some of the things you'll need to think about in planning your upgrade.
Labels: CRM 2011, CRM 2011 Online, CRM 4.0, CRM upgrade, Don't get Forced, Microsoft CRM
posted by Matt Rosen at
2:36 PM
4 Comments:
It's a good thing that Microsoft isn't forcing their users to upgrade their CRM even though there are new versions already. It would take time for users of the old version to adjust and study the new interface and features of the newer versions.
Carlene Schnitzer
An upgrade is always good news, thanks to Microsoft! With this upgrade, more services will be provided, and those will definitely be beneficial to its users. But of course, it is expected that the changes or upgrades would still be comprehensible enough and easy to use, or else it might cause inconvenience to the user. I expect Microsoft to keep it user-friendly as possible.
-Jamie Shellman
This cloud-based upgrade is certainly good news for customers, especially for those who are always on the go. It would be a lot easier for those who have upgraded to cloud-based CRM to gain access to their records even if they’re away from their workstation. It would be especially handy for emergency meetings out of the office. However, I think it would take time for users to maximize the capabilities of the new upgrades because users need to familiarize with it first.
@Darcy Grubaugh
Thanks for this wonderful information.
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