Outlook

Microsoft Front Office Client Applications

Microsoft owns and controls your workstation/desktop/laptop via the operating system and productivity suite. Microsoft CRM leverages both better than its competitors with built-in integration for both platforms. By virtue of being the software developer for the other applications, they are able to implement native integration with them. Why bring in a third party application which will feature kludgy integration at best? As Microsoft continues to improve upon and release new versions of Microsoft CRM, they will design and implement more and more tight integration with Microsoft Office, embedding CRM natively inside of the platform. User adoption is one of the biggest reasons for CRM failures. As Microsoft continues to further integrate Microsoft CRM into their office suite, the end user experience is going to become easier and more intuitive, which will increase user adoption.

Most of the competing CRM applications will require the user launching an additional application to access their product. Thus, in addition to having Outlook (and other Microsoft Office applications) open, the user will also need to launch the competitive CRM application. With Microsoft CRM, the user leverages Outlook as their CRM client. Your users already know how to use Outlook. There is neither a steep learning curve nor any additional applications forced upon your users. There is one less thing to launch on the desktop and one less vender application that needs to be supported. The user only needs to launch Outlook and continue working with an application they are already comfortable and happy with. This bears repeating and cannot be over-emphasized—Outlook works as CRM.

In addition, there is a second client that is available when the user does not have access to Outlook. For example, if your users are travelling and Outlook is not available to them for any reason, Microsoft CRM can be accessed via Internet Explorer (IE). Much like Outlook/Exchange has a web client (Outlook Web Access), Microsoft CRM can also be served up as a regular web page. Simply jump on any machine with internet access and you will have full, secure access to your CRM data.

Choice Model

• On Premise
  The traditional CRM model whereby a company purchases all necessary software licenses and hardware and installs everything on their local area network. Learn More
• Partner Hosted
  This is when a Microsoft Partner who is a member of the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) offers hosted Microsoft CRM. Learn More
• CRM Online
  This is the hosted offering of Microsoft CRM that is hosted and managed by Microsoft. Learn More
• Hybrid
  This is the hosted offering of Microsoft CRM that is hosted and managed by Microsoft. Learn More