The end of Microsoft Dynamics Marketing: Service to be discontinued in May 2018

Microsoft is beginning to alert the Dynamics 365 and CRM ecosystem that Dynamics Marketing (MDM) now has a product end of life date of May 15, 2018. At that point, the service will cease to run. The news follows the announcement in October 2016 that MDM would no longer be sold to new customers (in case any were still interested at that point).

Until May 15, 2018, customers can add users and Microsoft will continue to offer break-fix support. After that, the lights go out.

In guidance to partners, Microsoft also clarified other key details:

• Microsoft will no longer charge a monthly subscription fee starting October 1, 2017, including for added users.
• Support packages will stay in effect through the end of the customer's Microsoft Dynamics Marketing subscription or May 15, 2018, whichever occurs first.

Microsoft is recommending that MDM customers look for new solutions. For customers who need marketing automation capabilities, enterprise customers are being guided toward Adobe Marketing cloud. For SMBs, Microsoft is recommending Dynamics 365 for Marketing (Business Edition, presumably). The latest guidance for Dynamics 365 for Marketing, Business Edition, is a Spring 2018 release, with previews starting before that.

And for anyone looking for other options, Microsoft is suggesting companies look to third party ISV solutions. That guidance applies for both marketing automation - if the Adobe and D365 options don't fit - and for marketing resource management, where the end of MDM spells the end of one of the products that had been an elite competitor in the niche.

While the end of MDM may cause problems for some customers, for Microsoft and the channel, its final demise should offer a clean break. MDM never showed any outward signs of promise as a ...