In summary: Microsoft’s Q4 release guide leaves a few questions unanswered, SAP gets powered by HANA, and a SugarCRM IPO in 2013? Microsoft kicked the month off with the publication of their much anticipated Q4 release guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, following the last minute postponement of the key features Continue Reading

Back in July I posted that Microsoft’s six monthly development schedule seemed to be in some disarray. If anything’s clear from November’s ‘Microsoft Dynamics CRM December 2012 Service Update – Release Preview Guide’, it’s that their CRM development strategy is still in a state of flux. Back in 2011 the Continue Reading

In summary: the social arms race continues, Oracle appoints a new guest antagonist, and Microsoft’s surprising marketing acquisition…. When we left off last month Oracle OpenWorld 2012 was just kicking off in a San Francisco recently vacated by Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event. In contrast to Dreamforce, OpenWorld represents a much broader Continue Reading

In summary: duelling conferences, the implications of Dreamforce, and guerrilla marketing at Oracle OpenWorld It’s perhaps counter intuitive that at a time of rising fuel costs, restricted budgets, environmental concerns, and a plethora of technologies designed to make face to face meetings largely unnecessary, that live events and conferences should Continue Reading

In summary: Salesforce.com, Salesforce.com, more Salesforce.com, and is IBM shaping up to buy SugarCRM? I imagine the conversation in most CRM companies went something like this: ‘well, it’s the Olympics and people will be away on holiday, so let’s keep new announcements on ice until September’.  But in a conference Continue Reading

July was the month that Microsoft and Salesforce.com stumbled, the acquisition feeding frenzy continued unabated, financial results seemed to exceed expectations, and an EU court ruling was delivered that could have far reaching effects for software vendors. So, first to Microsoft. A somewhat under the radar blog post from Microsoft Continue Reading

As of Friday, Microsoft’s new agile six monthly development schedule looked to be in some disarray. Twelve months ago the arrival of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 seemed to signal a new dawn for Microsoft. Not only were there an array of functional enhancements, but the software was now available as Continue Reading

I’d barely pressed the publish button on a blog post suggesting that Microsoft might be in denial on social media when rumours circulated – based initially on an overheard conversation in The Creamery in San Francisco – that Microsoft was in the process of acquiring Yammer, a social collaboration tool. Continue Reading

I met up with Chris Bucholtz, editor of CRM Outsiders, who was in town for the Gartner conference, on Tuesday, and was bemoaning the fact that I didn’t get to write as many pieces about implementation strategy these days (which has been our traditional fare over the years), because there’s Continue Reading

I wonder, when we look back, how significant the last thirty or so days will prove to be in the battle for the enterprise CRM market. First Oracle bought social engagement company Vitrue for an undisclosed sum, but thought to be in the region of $300 million. Then Salesforce.com bought Continue Reading