Microsoft Dynamics CRM veterans reflect on 10 years of progress, growth

Microsoft Dynamics CRM recently celebrated its 10^th birthday, which has caused some CRM experts to wax nostalgic about their work with the product over the past decade.

For example, Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP Jerry Weinstock recalled that he went to a Microsoft event in 2003 and witnessed the 1.0 or 1.2 version of the product. Until that fateful day, Weinstock had been fixing the implementations of Goldmine, Maximizer, Talisma, and Act for his customers.

"After coming away from the demo I decided that we would shift our business model to implementing Microsoft's product," he said.

Weinstock said his company made the decision for three reasons:

1. Microsoft wasn't going to go out of business.
2. Outlook integration.
3. Partner channel focused

In hindsight, Weinstock said the decision was solid then and it has proven itself over the last 10 years. And he's looking forward to the next 10 years, beginning with Dynamics CRM 2013 and the new "Orion" user interface.

Zero2Ten's David Kohar also shared his memories of the last 10 years with Dynamics CRM, which started about 6 months earlier than Weinstock.

Kohar said Microsoft Business Solutions shipped Microsoft CRM Version 1.0 in January 2003. By October of that year, the product had gained traction in the North American market with 1,000 new customers.  By December, Microsoft had launched CRM 1.2 in in nine different languages, he said.

"Today, the solution has been adopted by over 36,000 customers and 2.7 million users and it's available in 40 countries in [more than] 40 languages worldwide, he said. "It ...