Ratcheting Up the Social Networking Opportunities and Content Options for Microsoft Dynamics Community

Microsoft Dynamics Community is offering newly expanded networking features for its rapidly growing member contingent.

In addition to an array of existing communication tools, including forums and newsgroups, Microsoft Dynamics Community has just strengthened its business networking features, highlighted by people search and business card exchange features."We wanted to build a form of social networking into the site," says Liz Hallen, senior product manager.

Registered users can search out other users according to Microsoft Dynamics program, geographic location, and company size, among other demographics. They can then make inquiries about the users' experiences with Microsoft Dynamics products.

Users can also exchange business cards with other users who have similar interests and face similar challenges.

In just the last nine months, the Microsoft-sponsored online service has seen its membership nearly double to more than 17,000 users from 9,000 announced last June.

At a Convergence Copenhagen 2008 session last month, Hallen demonstrated the new features. She also announced that Microsoft Dynamics Community has arranged content alliances with four publications-news outlets: CFO, The Partner Channel, Thomson-Reuters, and MSDynamicsWorld.com.

The session at Convergence Copenhagen featured a regular user, Arijit Basu, principal consultant of Price Waterhouse Coopers, India, explaining how he benefits from Microsoft Dynamics Community. "I have introduced this (Microsoft Dynamics Community) to many of my customers," he said. "If they have problems, they get their problems resolved very quickly" via feedback from other members.

"This is a very structured community, where things are managed well," he stated.

Microsoft Dynamics Community has further plans for extending its value. It is examining ways to improve the visibility of training benefits from within