The Power of Choice - be a good host to your employees and customers (3/3) - How?
Welcome to the third and final part of the blog post series on The Power of Choice. In this post I’ll focus on how you and your customers get the train rolling. So, not much talk, just right down to the stuff you’ll benefit from on both levels of The Power of Choice - the company’s IT Environment and the users Access.
The Power of Choice - level 1: Environment
Different environments can co-exist and be adjusted to the needs of each company. Whether you or your customer wants full or partly hosting for the CRM (or any other IT) solution, the real Power of Choice is to be able to combine it with on-premise or prefer one over the other according to the IT and business strategies.
Microsoft is renewing the focus on the right platform, with Windows Azure as an offer to companies to escalate the use of the cloud. You can think of Windows Azure as a new service-based operating environment specifically targeted for this new cloud design point, striking the best possible balance between two seemingly opposing goals. Windows Azure will be the highest scale, highest availability, most economical, and most environmentally sensitive way of hosting services in the cloud.
So, the combination of Software and Services gets fuelled and rockets away with Azure.
The Power of Choice - level 2: Access
When it comes to the access for the users they have different opportunities as discussed in part one. Again, one or more of them as the correct and optimal choice according to the process or users role in question, will give highest level of benefits and best user experience. For mobile users there are several solutions available for accessing CRM and thereby the customer data to support the best dialogue and business with them. In addition to our own CRM Mobile Express solution and framework, here are some mobility vendors for CRM supporting Windows Mobile:
For partners - The Software-plus-Services Roadmap for ISVs
A new online portal specifically for your hosted ISV customers, providing easy access to S+S resources across all Microsoft online properties from a single location. The portal is available at: https://www.microsoft.com/hosting/ISV/default.mspx.
More good resources
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile Express Datasheet
Microsoft Success Stories with Software + Services
Mobility in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
I hope this series was relevant and useful. And I wish you benefit and fun with The Power of Choice.
Enjoy! :-)
Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team