Microsoft's announcement late last week that a Chicago auction firm has selected Dynamics AX 4.0 and CRM Online to help handle back-end transnsactions never mentions "recession," but that theme is definitely part of the background music. 

While Microsoft, as it usually does, plays up the fact that the firm, uBid, is replacing "both its Oracle E-Business Suite enterprise resource planning system and its Siebel CRM software," the bigger type goes to the idea that the "software change enables uBid to significantly reduce total cost of ownership."

Microsoft emphasizes "the Microsoft Dynamics solutions will enable (uBid) to create efficiencies in its IT platform specifically by supporting hardware, operating systems and databases, while reducing hiring needs."

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