March 17, 2015
By Leonard Klie, Editor, CRM magazine and SmartCustomerService.com

Microsoft Convergence Fuels Many CRM Innovations

during a morning press conference.

Many of the products announced, Singh said, are the culmination of Microsoft's recent acquisitions of Parature Marketing Pilot, and Netbreeze.

The Dynamics spring release "is step one of our integration of Parature and Marketing Pilot into a unified solution," added Angela Bandlow, director of product marketing for Dynamics CRM, in a separate session later in the afternoon.

"You will see much more of 'The One Platform' theme to Microsoft's products," Bandlow said, "bringing the whole power of Microsoft to bear in one solution set. We want them all to work together."

The products, and the integrations that accompany them, bring "out-of-the-box capabilities for sales, marketing, and service," she added.

According to many in attendance, the announcement symbolizes Microsoft's firm commitment to its Dynamics CRM line, which Kirill Tatarinov, executive vice president of business solutions at Microsoft, said is part of a "business transformation playing a huge role across Microsoft.

"Microsoft is very serious about its CRM business," he said. "It's core to what we do."

The announcements follow 42 quarters of growth for Microsoft's CRM business, which Jujhar Singh, general manager of Dynamics CRM, said continues to grow "at a rapid pace."

"Since 2013, we've been updating [Dynamics CRM] pretty regularly," he said, noting that Microsoft updated the product seven times in 2014 and has eight releases planned for 2015.

But, Singh said, this is the first release to fully integrate Parature's Knowledge Everywhere and omnichannel self-service platforms.

Intelliverse also used the conference to announce an integration of its Sales Acceleration software with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Through the integration, Intelliverse will work seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics CRM by transforming every contact into a sales opportunity. Features of the sales acceleration software include:

Click-to-Dial: Enables calling directly from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and automatically captures, tracks, and reports all calling activity;
Campaign List Dialing: Boosts productivity of sales blitzes and outbound dialing sessions;
Local Presence: Enables businesses to improve outbound prospecting connect rates by 30 percent using phone numbers that are local to the prospect being called;
Play-N-Go Voicemail: Prerecorded voicemails in the salesperson's own voice can be left for prospects with the click of a button, allowing the salesperson to immediately move on to the next call; and
Automated Activity Logging: Saves time spent manually logging and leads to accurate management data .

"Microsoft Dynamics combines the need for an integrated CRM solution with the already familiar Microsoft Office and desktop services," said Sean Gordon, CEO and president of Intelliverse, in a statement. "Intelliverse takes this a step further by offering a solution of sales-accelerated features and work flows built specifically for salespeople, bringing the average time spent on prospecting activities down. This means more time to spend on qualified prospects and, ultimately, closing deals."