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As a critical, well-educated audience, industry experts are familiar with many of the business and technology issues that you face every day. Their insightful commentary may help you to decide if Microsoft Dynamics is the solution of advantage for you.

• The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Apps Software Licensing And Pricing, Q4 2007(Forrester Research, Oct. 15, 2007, .pdf, 572 kb) “Extensive efforts at streamlining software and licensing for Microsoft Business Solutions have paid off. Microsoft has maintained its client-friendly concurrent user license and aligned its packaging and pricing across the Microsoft Dynamics line.” 

• Microsoft Business Solutions Leads In Enterprise Apps Software Licensing And Pricing For SMBs The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q4 2007(Forrester Research, October 12, 2007, .pdf, 208 kb) Extensive efforts at streamlining software and licensing for Microsoft have paid off. Microsoft has maintained its client-friendly concurrent user license and aligned its packaging and pricing across the Microsoft Dynamics line. Business Ready Licensing, launched in July 2006, eliminates the module and SKU complexity of legacy pricing schemes in favor of a user based licensing approach. Microsoft earned the top slot in the SMB edition, and is among the top three in the large enterprise edition, of the survey due to extensive support for provisions in the enterprise software licensee bill of rights.

• Personas Drive Microsoft Dynamics UI Design(Forrester Research, October 5, 2007, .pdf, 1.73 mb) Microsoft Dynamics Global User Experience Group continues to push the development of better persona-based user interfaces and usability for its Dynamics product line. The team employs contextual analysis, usability labs, and desirability studies to develop role-based personas and corresponding user interfaces (UIs) that are familiar and easy to use.

• The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative(Forrester Research, Sept. 24, 2007, .pdf) “Enterprise applications will be transformed by “design for people, build for change.” The packaged applications vendors have already started to respond with improvements to their existing products, and, eventually, they will embrace new architectures. Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM is a good example of “design for people” because it allows sales executives to access CRM functionality from the systems they work in every day: Outlook, Word, or Excel.”

• Microsoft Leads in Record-Centric Customer Service Management Software: The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2007 (Forrester Research, May 24, 2007, .pdf, 199 kb) "Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which delivers sufficient customer service capabilities at a low cost, has emerged as a leader among customer record-centric products. Although not as functionally rich in core customer service capabilities, Microsoft compensates through its architecture, integration, usability, and business strategy. The product shines in its ability to support agents through phone agent, blended agent, and agent collaboration tools — all of which sit on top of a solid workflow engine. In the future, look for Microsoft to exploit its Customer Care Framework, a modular XML Web Services architecture for rapid development and deployment of contact center solutions."

• Microsoft Outscores SAP in a Comparative Assessment of ERP Usability (March 2007): In a recent study of the impact of enterprise software applications on individual business productivity, Microsoft Dynamics users on average scored Microsoft 18% higher than SAP users scored SAP applications. This Microsoft-sponsored study was conducted by Keystone Strategy, an independent research firm, and was supervised by Dr. Marco Iansiti, the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

• The Forrester Wave™: Midmarket CRM Suites, Q1 2007 (Forrester, February 21, 2007, .pdf , 516 kb): The Microsoft brand gives Microsoft Dynamics CRM major momentum. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the newer products included in our evaluation, but the vendor has made impressive progress building out its solution, which emerged as a Leader for the first time in a Forrester Wave.

• The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise CRM Suites, Q1 2007 (Forrester Research, Feb. 5, 2007, .pdf, 488K): Microsoft Dynamics CRM was rated a Strong Performer in this Forrester Wave. Forrester applied two sets of criteria weightings to this analysis, one appropriate for large enterprise wide deployments and another focused on midmarket priorities - the two sets of criteria were then used to evaluate and position the solutions.

• Microsoft Financing Update: Getting a Good Deal (Forrester Research, Inc., Jan. 17, 2007, .pdf, 72K): This Forrester Quick Take examines Microsoft's new financing offerings and concludes that the offerings are "easy to buy, attractively priced, and totally separated from the product and sales divisions of the organization. "The Quick Take also comments, "there really isn't much of a downside."

• Microsoft Munich Mission: Remaking MBS With Modern Infrastructure Stack, Channel Initiatives (IDC, Nov. 2006, .pdf, 100K): This IDC Insight by Bo Lykkegaard, Erik Bruin and Albert Pang highlights the roadmap of the Microsoft Dynamics product line based on announcements and executive interaction at Convergence EMEA 2006. The authors note that Microsoft Dynamics has a renewed focus and increased investments both at the product and at the channel marketing levels. The main themes referenced in this report about the entire product line include the Microsoft Office user interface, the collaborative processes taking place, the visibility and responsiveness, and collaborative communities around Microsoft Dynamics and Snap. The authors proceed to delve deeper into these four themes and provide specific examples.

• Microsoft Unveils" Convergence" of CRM and the Desktop (AMR Research, Nov. 9, 2006, .pdf, 144K): This AMR Research Article Alert Article focuses on the announcement made at Convergence EMEA 2006 about the new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In this Article Alert, Robert Bois notes that "the new version of Dynamics CRM, which will become available upon the impending release of Office 2007, takes advantage of a number of different elements inherent to both the new operating system and Office suite."

• The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise CRM Suites, Q1 2007 (Forrester Research, Feb. 5, 2007, .pdf, 488K): Microsoft Dynamics CRM was rated a Strong Performer in this Forrester Wave. Forrester applied two sets of criteria weightings to this analysis, one appropriate for large enterprise wide deployments and another focused on midmarket priorities - the two sets of criteria were then used to evaluate and position the solutions.

• The Accounting Library: Research which business solution is best for you (October 2006): Learn how a widely used software comparison tool can help you navigate the crowded business management and accounting solutions market. Then see how our solutions measure up.

• Microsoft Dynamics Emerges From Wave 1 (Forrester Research, April 20, 2006, .pdf, 108K): A recent Forrester report details the Microsoft Dynamics strategy, noting that Microsoft Business Solutions can set the bar for applications usability by leveraging a people-centric approach and Microsoft's Office and SharePoint conventions. Forrester states that Microsoft is edging closer to competitive parity against established Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors.

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