Microsoft versus the piggybackers

No word yet on Microsoft plans to merge its CRM product with other enterprise software carrying the Dynamics brand and ERP systems, Microsoft representatives have come out to address another issue as the company attempts to establish itself in the customer relationship management (CRM) market are facing a new challenge: resellers using other Microsoft technologies to reduce the license fees.

Business software advisory service Software Choice managing director Meredith Thompson has said that many she consulted with were reluctant to explore the Microsoft’s CRM offering because of the named-user pricing model; this model results in an imbalanced system wherein companies are to pay full price for staff who only rarely have to access the system.

Says Thompson at www.silicon.com, “You want the whole organisation to use it, but that’s expensive.” Resellers have avoided this problem by using Microsoft SharePoint intranet technology, enabling access to the CRM application, Thompson said. Australia Microsoft CRM lead product manager Ross Dembecki contradicted such claims by claiming that “with MS Dynamics CRM 3.0, we’ve actually gone to rather simplified licensing and pricing structures.”

Whilst earlier releases had separate licenses for servers and users, plus additional fees, MS Dynamics CRM 3.0 offers one price reportedly lower than the average user paid on the old. However, Dembecki did admit that “if you are a user of CRM, you need a CRM client access license. The only exception is [to use] an External Connector License.” Again, this is paid on a per-server basis. “Paying for that would not necessarily be cheaper than paying per-user fees for many organisations,” Dembecki said.