Business Contact Manager Versus Microsoft CRM

Microsoft has only recently released the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. You might be wondering how Microsoft CRM and Business Contact Manager are different. Which should you consider deploying to your organization? This section provides you with some comparison information about the two programs so that you can adequately choose which is right for your organization.

The differences between Business Contact Manager and Microsoft CRM fall into several categories:

  • Functionality Business Contact Manager is designed as a single-user application and offers contact management functionality to help small businesses manage contacts, accounts, and opportunities. Microsoft CRM offers richer functionality such as order management, account hierarchies, competitive tracking, workflow support, and customer service functionality.

  • Architecture Business Contact Manager works on a single user's desktop and extends the functionality and features of Outlook 2003. Microsoft CRM is a full client/server application that's designed to work in a multiuser environment.

  • Integration Both applications can integrate with other Office applications. However, Microsoft CRM offers additional integration capabilities with enterprise resource management (ERM) systems as well as third-party applications via SOAP and XML.

  • Customization Business Contact Manager will meet the needs of many small business users right out of the box. However, it can be customized as has been discussed in this chapter. Microsoft CRM is designed to be customized to meet the needs of an entire business using forms, database schema changes, and reporting customizations.

  • Target Audience Business Contact Manager is aimed at the single-user installation rather than the enterprise installation. Outlook 2003 and Business Contact Manager are aimed at smaller businesses with fewer than 25 employees. Microsoft CRM is targeted at businesses with 25 500 employees.

  • Deployment Business Contact Manager can be installed, configured, and used by the end user directly out of the box. Microsoft CRM is designed to be installed by the corporate IT staff. Microsoft CRM requires changes to Windows 2000 Server, Active Directory, SQL Server, and possibly Exchange Server.

  • Distribution and Pricing Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager is included as part of the Office 2003 suite. There is no additional charge for the use of Business Contact Manager. Microsoft CRM follows a client/server pricing model and full deployment can cost anywhere from $5,000 $100,000. Microsoft CRM is available only through reseller partners.

You'll need to examine the differences between Microsoft BCM and Microsoft CRM to determine which product will meet your needs.



Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
ISBN: 0789729563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 426

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