Microsoft CRM has received its first 'report card' from Gartner. You can read the report here. It makes a number of interesting points that I would like to touch on.

Firstly is the idea of Microsoft v SAP. These products are in totally different categories, with totally different user requirements. I think the term 'pragmatic CRM' is a good way to describe Microsoft CRM. A lot of people have become disillusioned with CRM products, largely because their implementation failure rates sits around the 65% mark. It is very easy to get out of scope when developing a CRM system, there are just so many pieces of data that can be stored and dissected! Unfortunately people forget that someone needs to not only enter that data, but enter it consistently (otherwise your beautiful charts/graphs will be based on rubbish).

So essentially there are 2 types of customers trying Microsoft CRM. They are disillusioned customers who have had failed implementations before and people who are currently using Outlook as their CRM tool (and realising just how messy this is). This may sound like the 'reject pool', but in fact it is a huge chunk of the market. Even SAP has only 19% of their CRM licences in current use. People are upset with CRM and they want the safety of the Outlook interface and a simple solution that trains their users. That is what Microsoft CRM is.

Microsoft will no doubt add to their CRM product over the next few years, they have already earmarked several billion dollars to do so. No doubt features will be added and Outlook integration will be tightened. I just hope that they realise their success is based on simplicity and an efficient interface, not on raw features and data storage.

If you are interested in keeping up with Microsoft CRM development then check out the Microsoft CRM blog. For more general CRM news check out my blog. :-)