Microsoft says it is aggressively marketing its new customer relationship management (CRM) offering with a view to dominating the market within six years. The software giant is unfazed by its recent entry into this market and competition from Siebel, SAP and Goldmine.
"We want to emerge as the market leader in the specific CRM market segment aimed at small businesses up to lower-end corporates," says Stephen Green, Microsoft Business Solutions GM.
"Our vision is to enable businesses to realise their potential," he told over 600 delegates attending a Microsoft CRM Forum in Sandton yesterday. "The biggest challenge is to counteract the sentiment around CRM, but we believe Microsoft can act as a catalyst to generate significant interest and momentum."
"It`s a question of credibility," says Thomas Neergaard Hansen, small and mid-market solutions and partner group director. "Customers are more willing to commit to CRM because of the Microsoft name and backing, and revenue growth is exceeding our wildest expectations." Green agrees. "We are extremely excited by the response," he told journalists.
Green says although CRM is a fairly recent addition to the Microsoft stable, all the necessary knowledge and experience required to be a serious contender have become accessible through the company`s acquisition of Great Plains and the expertise of Microsoft partners.
"Integration is a key element of CRM and one of the biggest benefits of our CRM product is that it integrates seamlessly with the business solutions suite," says Green, "as well as being able to integrate with five other systems using BizTalk."
Green predicts that the tight integration of the CRM product with the business platform could enable Microsoft to reach its leadership goal within five to six years.
"The key differentiator for Microsoft CRM is the fact that it can be installed and used within a week, compared with the classic CRM set up period of three months," says Green. "We aim to have between 20 000 and 100 000 customers in SA within the next three years."
Hansen admits Goldmine is Microsoft`s strongest competition in the local CRM market, but says the market potential is huge and there is no reason the two offerings cannot co-exist in a profitable manner.
Green says CRM will be Microsoft`s priority for the next six months as it goes to market to demonstrate how its CRM offering can improve business productivity, lower total cost of ownership, scale and customise easily, and integrate with other applications including financial management tools and Web services.
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