Microsoft Plans New Dynamics CRM Version for Fall Release

Microsoft today offered a sneak peek at the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be available in the fall.

According to Bob Stutz, corporate vice president of Dynamics CRM, the new version seeks to make CRM "more personal."

"CRM has always been about acquiring and retaining customers, but we need something more engaging," he told CRM magazine. "It's about matching, engaging, and nurturing customers."

Engagement, he adds, "is really about what you do after you acquire the customer."

To that end, the new Dynamics CRM solution, available online as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Fall '13 and on-premises as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, will deliver more personal experiences to sales, marketing, and customer care professionals. It offers a new user interface that Stutz says will "invoke positive feelings in users," letting them access their information on a variety of devices; and delivers richer contextual information that helps people have deeper insights into customers and their needs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM also offers enhanced social collaboration capabilities through integrations with Microsoft's Yammer, Lync, and Skype products.

The app also contains a new mobile framework, codenamed "Mocha," that lets it work across multiple touch-enabled tablets, including Microsoft's Surface and Apple's iPad. "It is able to recognize the specific form factor and snap itself to that," Stutz says.

Microsoft has also added a connection to MarketingPilot, Microsoft's marketing automation solution, which lets businesses manage products, budgets, and resources and executes and monitors marketing campaigns across social and digital channels. It also helps businesses understand the digital footprint of its customers and convert it to leads, which can then be passed seamlessly to the sales system.

Shortly following the release of the new release of CRM, Microsoft plans to offer new touch-optimized mobile experiences for Windows Phone 8, iPhone, and Android phones, extending user access to CRM information on their mobile devices. "It will be able to work on pretty much any device," Stutz says.

Stutz says the application is "geared toward the full spectrum of users, from enterprises to SMBs," and can be used in any industry vertical.

The new Dynamics product, he says "is about helping people do their jobs better, with an app that they're going to love using."

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