Five Microsoft Dynamics CRM Apps in Five Days…And the Winner Is…

The expectations were high for the five Microsoft  Dynamics CRM ISVs attending a five-day incubation program at the Reston Virginia Microsoft Technology Center. 

They were to work side-by-side with industry experts and Microsoft ISV evangelists to develop brand new applications that used Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform.  The resulting apps were then advised and judged by an expert panel including venture capitalists, academics, and authors.

By the accounts of Microsoft sponsors and judges, people came away from the incubation wee-held Dec. 16-21-with the firm belief that Dynamics CRM is not only a valuable platform, but has significant unrealized potential. In the words of CRM expert and judge Paul Greenberg, it "...showcases the Dynamics CRM platform in a good way. As a far better development tool than I thought it was."

After five days of grueling work, a distinguished panel of six judges from the venture capital community had rendered its verdict and selected a winner:

Highland Martin, which developed a flexible web form that can send data directly to Microsoft Dynamics CRM from any web page. The application used web services so not only could it communicate with Dynamics CRM, but it could be re-used to integrate to other systems as well.

According to Greenberg, "Their solution was the creation of a dynamic form that, when updated, automatically updated the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. The form, which was conveniently (and flexibly) packaged in an iframe, if used in multiple locations and even with field changes, would aggregate the data from all the locations and update the information back to the CRM database. It used dynamic web content and was ...