Microsoft Plans to Tightly Integrate Windows Phone 7 With Dynamics CRM 2011

Microsoft Corp. will integrate its Dynamics CRM cloud strategy with the Windows Phone 7, MSDynamicsWorld.com has learned.

According to a blog post by the The VAR Guy, Cindy Bates, Microsoft's VP of U.S. Small and Medium Business & Distribution, previewed some forthcoming CRM Online 2011 enhancements, including integration with Windows Phone 7, at the recent SMB Nation conference in Las Vegas.

The VAR Guy said the strategy is an attempt by Microsoft to compete more aggressively against Salesforce.com and NetSuite.

Microsoft is being tight lipped about its plans. But a Microsoft partner was willing to speak about the software giant's plans to tightly integrate Windows Phone 7, now in the process of being introduced, with CRM Online 2011, which is currently in beta.

"Microsoft is getting ready to launch two phones with AT&T that will support Windows 7. Those have been already been tested," said the partner, who asked not to be identified. "We have a developer who has a Windows 7 phone that he's been working on and CRM Online 2011 is fully supported on it. You have access to your standard accounts contacts on the phone and custom entities are also supported on the phone. So you have pretty much a rich client experience."

The partner said, "On the Windows Phone 6.5 you can access a lot of the features of CRM 2011 as well, but Windows 7 has Silverlight capabilities whereas 6.5 does not, so you will have a richer experience with the Windows 7 phone."

He said the difference is similar to accessing your email on your mobile phone-you can pull your mail down, but if you're using Exchange Server, that's more of an ...