On the Horizon: How Does MS Dynamics Stack Up in Race to Develop New Customer Service Applications?

by Jason Gumpert
Editor, MSDynamicsWorld.com
The customer support center of the future will be a much different animal than today’s call center and online FAQs, smoothly integrating Internet and call center functionality. Major developers are currently racing to put these new applications together. According to Gartner, Microsoft Dynamics has a number of advantages, and disadvantages, in this race. The analyst group says “Microsoft is working on end-to-end process support by integrating (through SharePoint and other middleware) the CRM products with, for example, Outlook, BizTalk, Exchange, MapPoint, Instand Search and Office, to foster tight integration, internal collaboration around the customer and, later, to support customer communities.” But Gartner points to several Microsoft disadvantages, including:
  • MS CRM Dynamics 3.0 “has little demonstrated ability in areas such as role-based case assignments, integration with logistics or legacy system, multichannel capabilities or for complex contact centers”
  • It has “no industry-specific capabilities.”
  • It needs “more seamless integration with knowledge management systems.”
Gartner figures there is a 70% chance that by 2009, “a global version (bidirectional, Double-Byte Character Set, multicurrency, with accompanying documentation) of the multitenant architected Microsoft CRM Dynamics SaaS product will be available” For the full Gartner report, see http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/146508.html
Dynamics CRM Manufacturing
About Jason Gumpert

As the editor of MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason oversees all editorial content on the site and at our events, as well as providing site management and strategy. He can be reached at jgumpert@msdynamicsworld.com.

Prior to co-founding MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason was a Principal Software Consultant at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), where he implemented solutions, trained customers, managed software development, and spent some time in the pre-sales engineering organization. He has also held consulting positions at CSC Consulting and Monitor Group.

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