Microsoft Undercuts Competition with Dynamics Live Pricing

By Greg McNevin

July 12, 2007: Microsoft is squaring up to SalesForce.com, announcing a highly competitive pricing structure and a rollout date for its upcoming CRM service, Dynamics Live.

Showing off its shiny new software at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, Microsoft announced that an early access program would kick off during Q3 this year, but not only this, it also its strategy to significantly undercut established software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors in a bid to win market share.

With its Enterprise Edition priced at US$59 per user/month, Microsoft is taking a heavy swipe at the competition, as the solution runs at roughly half the cost of similar offerings. Next to this, the Professional Edition of Dynamics Live is priced at a highly competitive US$44, with early adopters being charged just US$39 during 2008.

When it comes to features, the company says that the Professional version will offer full-suite CRM through Microsoft Outlook and browser clients, customisable workflow with Windows Workflow Foundation and extensive configuration capabilities. Enterprise will offer build on these features with offline data synchronisation.

Live CRM will also utilise the company’s impending "Titan" release of its CRM software, a multi-tenant application platform that “supports deployments in on-premise environments, in partner-hosted environments” according to the company.

The early access program begins in Q3 for US customers, while the Enterprise edition is due out in the first half of 2008, again for US customers. The company has yet to set a firm date for international release.

Comment on this story