Microsoft Business Solutions Launches Customer Relationship Management Solution Globally

To meet the needs of the international business community, Microsoft Business Solutions developed Microsoft CRM 1.2 in eight language versions in addition to U.S. English, beginning with International English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, to be closely followed by Brazilian Portuguese, Danish and Dutch. Building upon the momentum generated by the release of Microsoft CRM 1.0 in North America, the new version of the product will help global businesses take advantage of technology and related services that were previously attainable only by large enterprises with big information technology budgets. Not simply a scaled-down enterprise solution or a bolstered small-office application, Microsoft CRM 1.2 was designed specifically for midmarket segment companies with 25 to 1,000 employees. For small-business customers that would like to benefit from collaborative CRM, the solution can be deployed with Microsoft Small Business Server. Microsoft CRM 1.2 also is a fit for departments or divisions of large organisations. The overarching goal of Microsoft CRM is to help businesses increase their business profitability by providing the tools to help companies offer superior customer service and improve efficiency across their organisation. It is Microsoft Corp.s first business application built using Microsoft .NET technologies. Accessible from Microsoft Outlook and the Web, Microsoft CRM is easy to use, customise and maintain; integrates with other business systems; and scales to grow along with the needs of a customers business. Central to the development of Microsoft CRM is flexibility, which enables businesses to determine the degree to which they automate and share information. Today Microsoft CRM provides sales, marketing and customer service functionality, automating the CRM strategies of more than 1,000 customers in North America. With Microsoft CRM 1.2, businesses will be able to take full advantage of additional CRM functionality that facilitates increased business productivity and performance, a strong development environment, and support of Microsoft Windows Server System 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office 2003 and, for small businesses, Microsoft Small Business Server. These technologies offer the security enhancements, availability, scalability and reliability businesses need from their operating system, servers and productivity tools.