Dynamics Profile: Creating a home in the Dynamics CRM community

When it comes to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, new MVP Scott Durow is "the best in the world." Well, at least according to his 10-year-old son.

You see, when Durow received the award recently, he was so thrilled that he immediately shared the good news with his family. Caught up in the excitement, his son James told his classmates at school that, indeed, his dad was the best in the world.

The story of how Durow attained his "best-in-the-world," er, MVP status begins back in February 2004 when he went to work for Microsoft Gold Partner Ciber in the UK. It was the early days of Dynamics CRM - version 1.2 to be exact - when the product wasn't even called Dynamics CRM but rather, Microsoft CRM.

"Back then the product wasn't even recognizable to anything we have now," Durow said. "At Ciber I was working in the local authority space (governmental agencies) with CRM."

There were a lot of transformation projects back then where local authorities were trying to unify all their departments so that citizens didn't have to call one number to deal with one issue and another number to get answers to another problem.

"Microsoft CRM at that point was an ideal choice because Microsoft provided a very attractive licensing model," he said.  And it also provided a way for the agencies to "homogenize" their various units, although Durow admitted that his company was really pushing the boundaries of what Microsoft CRM could do back then. For one particular project involving a governmental agency, Durow said Microsoft CRM was a logical choice because the agency was already using other Microsoft products.