Salesforce.com to Microsoft: Is that all ya got?

Salesforce.com to Microsoft: Is that all ya got?

Microsoft this morning announced pricing, rollout plans and a free early access program for its upcoming Web-based Dynamics Live CRM customer relationship management service. Ultimately, the company says there will be a Microsoft site where customers can go to try the service directly from the company.

But during that early period, lasting through this year, customers will need to work through one of Microsoft's partners.

At a time when people expect online services to be available "on-demand," that doesn't exactly make the grade, said Bruce Francis, vice president of corporate strategy at Salesforce.com, the main company Microsoft will be competing against in the online CRM market.

As noted previously, Microsoft's list prices are lower than Salesforce.com's list prices. But via phone this afternoon, Francis explained why he's not concerned:

"What it looks like is that Microsoft is just marking down an inferior product to what customers are actually paying right now. Also, one thing that I haven't seen is the url where I can sign up for a 30-day trial. ... I know a great multi-tenant on-demand service when I see one, and I see more of them every day. ... We could talk for hours about all the great on-demand services that are out there that I can sign up and use. Where is Microsoft? Microsoft has a price list, not a product."

Posted by at July 10, 2007 2:03 p.m.

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#40253

Posted by unregistered user at 7/10/07 4:22 p.m.

"Microsoft has a price list, not a product"

LOL. Now that Scott McNealy has gone dark, these guys at Salesforce really are the industry source for one-liners.

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#40446

Posted by unregistered user at 7/11/07 8:58 a.m.

"The world will see that MS CRM Live is a killer product."

We've been hearing how MS CRM was going to rule the world from the beginning, along with Salesforce not being the competition. Years later, MS is barely growing at the market and Salesforce, growing 3-5X that, is MS's new competitive target. I'll believe it when I see results, not promises.

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