1 normal criticism of Microsoft;s cloud-hosted offerings could be the online/hosted versions frequently lag by months their on-premise software counterparts. As well as when the delivery gap isn;t so onerous, the on-line versions might be missing for months countless of the functions of the on-premises ones.It appears Microsoft will break that pattern with Dynamics CRM five, the next release of its CRM product.Final month, Microsoft officials mentioned each the on-premises along with the internet versions of CRM 5 would debut just before the end of calendar 2010. Nevertheless they didn;t delve into which of the two releases would roll out first.Via a tweet on May well five from Directions on Microsoft analyst Rob Helm, I learned that Microsoft is promising to deliver the CRM 5 Online services release prior to it delivers the CRM five software. Even though each products are built around the very same code base, CRM 5 Online is nonetheless on track to ship late this yr, however the on-premises version won;t be on the market till 2011, Helm mentioned.I asked a Microsoft spokesperson for verification. This really is all the business is willing to say: “CRM5 will probably be on the market late 2010 beginning with Via the internet in 32 markets and 41 languages, followed by the on-premises version.”(Quite simply, no comment on when the on-premises edition will make it to consumers.)“Exchange Server 2010 got its out-of-town tryout as a company — the Live@edu e-mail service for educational institutions was apparently running that version just before it was out there to consumers. However, this will probably be the first time I;m aware of that Microsoft has started running a version of its software in its commercial hosted services prior to it was ready to ship that version to consumers,
Microsoft Office 2010,” Helm stated.“It;s an interesting step forward for Microsoft;s cloud strategy, also as a sign how of how seriously Microsoft takes Salesforce.com,” he added.I;ve been hearing that Microsoft is encouraging its partners to lead with its Internet wares (CRM On the web, SharePoint Via the internet, Office Communications On line, the Internet business Productivity On the internet Suite, etc.), especially when pitching to small/mid-size company (SMB) clients. I wonder whether, going forward, we;ll see the Online versions of all of Microsoft;s growing stable of cloud wares be very first out of the gate, instead of the other way around….