Redmond, WA February 19, 2003 Microsoft this week touted the early success of its customer relationship management solution among independent software vendors (ISVs) and the company's network of reselling partners.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant released its CRM solution last month (see related story), and today the company said that more than 850 resellers have signed up to sell the solution, while more than 100 ISVs have committed to providing enhancement solutions or customizing Microsoft CRM for specific industries
The solution is the first Microsoft business application built on the.NET infrastructure, and it integrates with such other business systems as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains and third-party systems. Microsoft is targeting its CRM offering at mid-market businesses.
"The enthusiasm I've witnessed among Microsoft Business Solutions' reselling partners and ISVs is a great indicator that we've hit the mark in this critical area of business," said David Thacher, general manager of CRM at Microsoft Business Solutions.
Epicor Software is one company that has recently signed a global agreement with Microsoft Business Solutions to resell both the professional and standard editions of Redmond's CRM offering and to extend the features and functionality of the application through its Clientele CRM suite of solutions to provide specific combined offerings for its customers.
"We believe that teaming with Microsoft provides us with an additional option in serving the [small and midsize business] market," said Doug Berry, vice president and general manager of Epicor's clientele group.
In other Microsoft-related news, Amphire Solutions, a provider of supply chain relationship management solutions, today announced it has completed the conversion of its code and begun testing Microsoft's .NET framework across its suite of Internet hosted applications.
"Our initial tests indicate significant improvements, including 30 percent less code resulting in substantial improvements in maintainability," said Mark Barnekow, president and CEO of Amphire Solutions.
Barnekow said the company planned to unveil the .NET versions of its applications in April, along with performance metrics identifying the key improvements realized from .NET.
