Upside-Down Positioning: Just Who Should Be Using CRM Online and Hosted Solutions?

It's been several years since I attended a Microsoft seminar where I first heard about hosted solutions, and a prediction that this would be a hot technology subject in coming years.

Now that the prediction seems to have come true via the formal launch of Dynamics CRM Online and the emergence of SaaS (Software as a Service), together with the latest release of CRM 4.0, users now have choices if they want to start with or migrate to Dynamics CRM.

They have CRM Online; hosted CRM; and CRM on premises. What should users choose?

CRM Live was originally positioned as a good starting point for many users, which could be upgraded to hosted or, eventually, an on-premises solution. Now that CRM Live has been renamed CRM Online and is ready for general rollout, many large companies appear ready to move to the "online" solution.

The hosted solution is for me a bit questionable at large companies or multinationals, since they have an existing infrastructure, which is often maintained and hosted by some system integrator or software house. Companies offering hosted solutions invariably offer other options, like MS Exchange, MS Sharepoint and...