Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is an easy to use program that helps businesses and home users alike keep track of their contacts. Microsoft is currently on release 3.0 of CRM, however they decided to skip the anticipated 2.0 release of the software. The newest version of CRM aligns with Microsoft Outlook making doing everyday business tasks easier than ever.

Microsoft CRM offers sales, marketing, and customer service modules so your business can store, manage and analyze business and vendor contact information. Utilizing the technology behind Microsoft Excel and SQL Server Reporting Services, CRM is able to analyze and then helps with making sales decisions, marketing, problem solving, and future business plans. This version of CRM will also include a new scheduling module that is capable of suggesting the best time to schedule events and phone calls. New functionality also includes e-mail tracking to customer accounts, ability to trigger external applications and exporting of reports into Excel spreadsheets.

The latest version of CRM offers a small business version that will run on Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) and has an extensive customer relationship manager that is simply installed.

Outlook itself has various CRM aspects, such as a contact database, however; obviously it is limited in its functionality as compared to Microsoft CRM 3.0. One major aspect of CRM that Outlook lacks is the ability to help with the dynamic side such as: sales decisions, marketing and problem solving. Another customer relationship management system option is Act! produced by Sage Software. Act! has different versions based on the size of your business. The individuals and small business version of Act! has contact information, a calendar and customer communications records. Act! for teams of 6 or more has all the same options as the small business version but it also has more of the dynamic functions of CRM to help with complex business services.

CRM is a Microsoft program and therefore is familiar even if you have never used it before. If your company is already utilizing Microsoft Office adding CRM to your systems will be an easy transition that will integrate smoothly. The information that is stored in CRM can be easily used by other Microsoft programs to make sending emails or letters easier and streamlining the process of recording customer communications. User interfaces can be customized to fit any businesses needs and contact information can be shared between the various users on your companies many teams. Your company can work through Outlook or a web browser for ease of use and to access information on any PC or handheld device when employees are not in the office. Furthermore, Microsoft CRM is available in different languages for those businesses that would prefer to work in Dutch, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew…and the list goes on.