Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online this week, an on-demand customer relationship management service hosted and managed by Microsoft. The new Internet service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a Web browser or directly into Microsoft Office and Outlook. The solutions offers access to business that want a full-featured CRM solution with little to no IT investment or setup required.




Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is initially packaged in two service offerings:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional delivers a full suite of CRM capabilities with extensive configurability and extensibility options. Businesses get 5 GB of data storage, 100 configurable workflows and 100 custom entities. The Professional edition is priced at $44 per user per month, with an introductory offer of $39 per user, per month.

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional Plus delivers all the capabilities of the Professional version plus offline data synchronization with expanded data storage, workflow and customization options that give businesses 20 GB of data storage, 200 configurable workflows and 200 custom entities. The Professional Plus edition is priced at $59 per user per month.

So how does the solution stack up against Salesforce?

• 5 GB of storage versus 1 GB in Salesforce.com Professional Edition
• 100 workflows versus none in Salesforce.com Professional Edition
• 100 configurable entities versus 50 in Salesforce.com Professional Edition
• Significant cost savings and a dramatically lower total cost of ownership at $44 per user, per month versus $65 per user per month or more for Salesforce.com Professional Edition.