Does the Emergence of Dynamics CRM Live Mean Salesforce.com’s Days Are Numbered?

I'm not saying salesforce.com will go out of business. Rather, I am suggesting that the salesforce.com as we know it today, as a stand-alone leader in the on-demand CRM world, is in trouble.

SFDC has done a great job of bringing small and medium-size businesses (SMB nation) into the multi-dimensional, multi-entity world of CRM. True CRM is much more than a contact management system and SFDC was the leader in bringing true CRM to the SMB buyer. That being said, I believe SFDC is being rapidly eclipsed in the market and will not continue to exist in its current form for much longer.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and CRM Live, which were introduced last year through Early Adopter programs, equal or exceed SFDC's offering in terms of features...and at a much more reasonable price model.

Here are a few key points that I believe clearly illustrate the major vulnerability SFDC faces,which it does not appear to be addressing:

First off, the SFDC business model and strategy are expensive, illogical and outdated. ASP, SAAS, Hosted, On-demand, whatever you want to call it, has been around a long time now and is more of a delivery mode than a business model. The market needs hosted and on-premise offerings and easy portability and movement between the two delivery modes. There are many reasons why one delivery mode or the other is better for a particular client at a certain time. It is only logical that a smaller client's needs, requirements and understanding may change and it will want to bring the data and application in-house.

Enterprises also have the infrastructure and resources to manage the applications in-house. Also, some financial and medical companies are regulated so as not to lose ...