CRM User Group Plans on New SIGs, Previewing Dynamics CRM 5.0, and Major Webinar Program

The CRM User Group is the most recently formed of the four Microsoft Dynamics user groups (the others are for Dynamics AX, GP, and NAV), but now in its second year it has an aggressive lineup of activities for 2010.

Mark Rhodes, the CRMUG program coordinator, told a recent webinar gathering of members that one of the big priorities this year will be staying attentive to the differing needs of users-primarily the highly technical versus the business oriented users-so they can more effectively plan events to attend. "We definitely need better clarification of user needs...We need to do that with our webinars better...The struggle with CRM is where to draw the line."

Rhodes said that Microsoft will likely be setting up CRMUG sessions for demonstrating features of Dynamics CRM 5.0. He said the timing is uncertain, but understands that Microsoft is "close to locking in functionality."

Rhodes noted that the CRMUG has grown to six regional groups around the U.S. In addition to regional meetings are plans for more informal "meetups" involving perhaps ten or fifteen members at a local restaurant for "informal discussion." He noted that the CRMUG has more than 100 webinar recordings in its web site library. It did 60 webinars last year, and hopes to do more than that this year.

He added that the CRMUG will add special interest groups (SIGs) this year-one in the planning stage is a large company SIG. He added that the CRMUG will be more heavily involved in the Convergence conference being held in April than it has in past years, helping coordinate user sessions throughout the conference in addition to its usual first day of sessions.