What have you done for me lately? Those words have been screamed with sincerity from the lips of Janet Jackson for over a decade, and some Microsoft investors have started screaming the same sentiment about the perceived-laggard Microsoft. While still a huge force to be reckoned with, Microsoft is perceived by many as a slow, bloated company that has an entrenched (read: safe) marketshare and is slowly competing against more nimble competitors in just about every space, including Internet search (Google), digital music players (Apple) and web services (salesforce.com).Let's look at Microsoft against Salesforce.com. Marc Benioff, an Oracle alum that spun away from the Larry Ellison control freak atmosphere at Oracle to found Salesforce.com over six years ago, has shaped his company in a wild and successful way. Delivering services over the web means no updates, patches or upgrades to purchase and install by IT departments -- which is a huge benefit that generally gets the gloss-over from the media.
This is also why Microsoft has been chided recently, as its move into web-based products has been almost forced by the competition more than anything. Google does not sell a product that comes in a box -- it is simply there to use if you have the mode of transportation (like Internet access). Salesforce.com is the same way -- with Internet access and a $60+ price per seat, you now can have a fully-functional sales and marketing tracking platform the communicates anytime with anyone who has Internet access from anywhere.
Yes, web service companies rely on a third party -- an Internet access provider -- where Microsoft doesn't (for its local software, anyway), but Internet connection is absolutely key. Information is not, and has not, been confined to s single machine or office network -- data has to be globally accessible anytime and anywhere to compete.
Salesforce.com knows this -- and a recent 64% surge in revenue for its fiscal second quarter proves it. With Salesforce.com reaching nearly $500 million in revenue run rate per year, Benioff says the next goal is $1 billion in annual revenue and 1 million customers. So, should MSFT holders be asking Redmond "what have you done for me lately" in the CRM web services space? As a MSFT holder myself, I demand it. Is Microsoft Great Plains a solution? No. How about Microsoft CRM Professional version 3? I'm not sure I've ran into a company using this solution yet. Instead of Steve Ballmer screaming for "developers, developers, developers" (MPG File), perhaps the battle cry should be "marketing, marketing, marketing."
[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 8-17-06]
Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.
Yes, web service companies rely on a third party -- an Internet access provider -- where Microsoft doesn't (for its local software, anyway), but Internet connection is absolutely key. Information is not, and has not, been confined to s single machine or office network -- data has to be globally accessible anytime and anywhere to compete.
Salesforce.com knows this -- and a recent 64% surge in revenue for its fiscal second quarter proves it. With Salesforce.com reaching nearly $500 million in revenue run rate per year, Benioff says the next goal is $1 billion in annual revenue and 1 million customers. So, should MSFT holders be asking Redmond "what have you done for me lately" in the CRM web services space? As a MSFT holder myself, I demand it. Is Microsoft Great Plains a solution? No. How about Microsoft CRM Professional version 3? I'm not sure I've ran into a company using this solution yet. Instead of Steve Ballmer screaming for "developers, developers, developers" (MPG File), perhaps the battle cry should be "marketing, marketing, marketing."
[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 8-17-06]
Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-18-2006 @ 10:05AM
Mike Snyder said...
You said "How about Microsoft CRM Professional version 3? I'm not sure I've ran into a company using this solution yet. "
As an FYI, there are over 7,500 companies and 250,000 users worldwide running Microsoft CRM in 22 different languages. I think you need to get out more!
8-21-2006 @ 2:10AM
Mahesh Tripathi said...
It's good to be confident and it's good to question. But it would be helpful if one gets the facts right. As someone has rightly mentioned that MS CRM has been succesfully deployed at quite a few locations. Let me confirm the same and that its not only being deployed by Small and Medium Enterprises but also at Enterprise Level. I have myself been part of a 1000 seat deployment for MS CRM 3.0. If the author hasn't run into a company using this solution than all I can see is that you haven't see too many companies in that case.