Microsoft Leads in Dynamic Customer Management

Microsoft Ahead of Competition in Dynamic Customer Relationship Management
Microsoft Dynamics Crm Leads the Way

The Forrester Wave Reports released last week have revealed that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is ahead of the competition in customer relationship management (CRM) for mid and large sized organisations around the world. The Dynamics CRM solution has come out as the clear leader in the field, and was reported to shine by offering flexibility, strong usability, a favourable price/value profile and the “Power of Choice” for customers.

The report evaluated 19 leading CRM suite solutions including Salesforce.com, Oracle Siebel and SAP CRM against 516 criteria reflecting the requirements of mid to large sized organisations. The criteria included usability, price, customer service, product strategy, architecture and platform, internationalisation, eCommerce, application ownership experience, partner channel management and industry business process support.

“It is an honour to be recognised as a Leader in the CRM industry that is helping customers seize new opportunities and grow their businesses,” says Stewart Gibbs, Manager – Microsoft Dynamics for Microsoft New Zealand.

“We deliver innovation and value to companies around the world and in New Zealand through our focus on end-user productivity, business process flexibility and agility, and the ability of our customers to leverage public and private cloud deployment models.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a fully integrated customer relationship management solution comprised of a robust suite of tools and capabilities which creates and maintains a clear picture of any business relationship, from first contact through to purchase and post-sales, or service. With a raft of features and associated scalability, the software can be customised to fit any organisation – large or small. Recent customers to come on board with Dynamics CRM include The Radio Network, PGG Wrightson, Red Cross, Les Mills, Orb Communications, Perpetual, Fisher & Paykel and a number of government agencies and Ministries, including the Ministry of Economic Development and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

The Forrester reports also shows companies are beginning to invest again in their CRM capabilities, something that has been overlooked during the economic downturn. The findings emphasise the importance of managing customer information, revealing the top goal for B2B and B2C enterprises for 2010 is developing customer loyalty.

Stewart says the fact that companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of CRM systems is reflected in the growth of companies adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

“Over the past five years 450 companies have purchased Microsoft Dynamics in New Zealand with the rate of adoption steadily increasing every year, and despite the recent global economic woes Microsoft Dynamics CRM has grown in excess of 70 percent year over year – and we expect this to keep growing significantly in the future as companies realise the need to stay closer to customers and reap the benefits of our CRM platform and the cloud,” he says.

“Our customers have reported a number of benefits from Dynamics CRM, such as having the ability to identify and retain their most profitable customers, and being able to better target and manage their growing customer and sales disciplines around Sales, service and marketing and custom line of business applications built on the CRM platform being the fastest growth area.”

As a major provider of television and radio broadcast facilities, and owner of an extensive telecommunications network, Kordia requires in-depth knowledge of all its customers – and Microsoft Dynamics CRM has given the company the ability to manage and track internal resources, and maintain high quality interactions with customers.

“When the company changed business direction, the pace and scale of sales and marketing also changed dramatically – and there was no way we could manage this effectively with the manual processes we had in place,” says Drew Gilpin, Kordia Sales and Marketing General Manager.

“Since taking on Dynamics, the quality of our communications with customers and potential customers has improved, and we are better able to track all of our communications and prioritise resources around customer needs.”

In addition to customer relationships, Microsoft Dynamics can also be tailored to xRM, giving an organisation the ability to track any relationship. What may be a contact for a telecommunications company might be a patient for a hospital or a court case for a lawyer. The benefit is irrespective of the terminology – the same information can be recorded and tracked across multiple channels.

The Forrester research also found that large and mid-sized organisations have many technology options to sift through – Microsoft Dynamics CRM was one of the solutions to receive high marks for ease of use and relatively fast deployment times. The report further states, “Microsoft owns a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and buyers value the solution’s native integration with Outlook and being able to work within the familiar Microsoft technology stack. Buyers also like Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s usability, lower price and its quick time to value compared with traditional CRM applications.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 5.0 will be launched later this year as both an on-premise and online offering from Microsoft, meaning businesses will be able to access CRM through the cloud, giving customers even greater choice. Today, Microsoft is the only company that offers customers the power of choice, with their CRM product available on-premise, through partner hosting and online.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

ENDS

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