crm.atechnisch.nl

On the Dutch Microsoft homepage (http://www.microsoft.nl/) I found a big add to get a free Microsoft Dynamics CRM trial subscription. I was under the impression that the online version was only available in the United States, so this is very good news.

I immediately subscribed myself.

When I got the welcome mail I noticed saasplaza.com in the url. SaaSplaza is a global Microsoft Partner that hosts Dynamics CRM solutions with a big office in the Netherlands. So when I connected to my free 30 day trial environment, I was not surprised to see it was the hosted version of Dynamics CRM 4.0. I think it is a good thing that Microsoft is actively pushing the online capabilities of Dynamics CRM in the Netherlands.

You can see it for yourself after subscribing at: http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/dynamics/product/crm_online_formulier.aspx

If you want to subscribe to a trial of the real Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offering you can use this link: https://signin.crm.dynamics.com/portal/signup/

Hopefully the Online version will soon be available in the Netherlands, so we can offer our customers Freedom of Choice in the Microsoft Software + Services world with the on premise, hosted AND the Online version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

During the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference 2008 the topic of the week was Software + Services.
Software + Services is Microsoft’s answer to the upcoming Saas market.

To put it simple, Microsoft wants to offer their customer the freedom of choice by offering their products in 3 versions, On-premise, Hosted and Online(Saas).
Microsoft claims to offer exactly the same products in 3 version to make hybrid solutions and switching between version very easy.
This sounds nice, but seeing is believing.

Yesterday I read a Microsoft whitepaper about switching between a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online deployment to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM On-premise deployment.
Basically the steps are requesting a copy of your Online database from Microsoft and redeploying this database On-premise. With the redeployment, you not only move your data, but also your configuration and your workflows.
This really convinced me: their claim is a promise and that they can deliver it !!!

In my opinion Microsoft has got a strong proposition with their Software + Services strategy.