Microsoft picking up CRM customers from its rivals

10.04.2006
Although a latecomer to the CRM business, Microsoft Corp. has quietly been luring customers away from more established rivals such as Siebel, now part of Oracle Corp.

Several users at Microsoft's Convergence 2006 conference here late last month said they turned to Microsoft Dynamics CRM because of its integration with other Microsoft applications, including Dynamics ERP and Office.

In addition, a half-dozen users said Version 3.0, released last fall, corrects many of the performance, data synchronization and other problems in Versions 1 and 1.2 of the Microsoft CRM software.

Global Comfort Systems plans to replace its Siebel call center application with the latest Microsoft CRM version because it's integrated with the other applications and costs less, said Andrew Fralick, IT director at Global Comfort unit Webasto Product North America Inc.

Stockdorf, Germany-based Global Comfort expects the cost of installing Microsoft CRM to be about the same as it would be to upgrade its Siebel software, Fralick said.

His unit in Fenton, Mich., has been using the Microsoft CRM software for about two years through multiple versions; he called the newly installed Version 3.0 an enterprise-class product.