First customer live on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0!

Increase CRM is proud to announce that our first Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 customer went live at 07.30am this morning.

One of our Titan Showcase customers has been testing CRM 4.0 CTP3 and RC0 releases over the last few weeks. Yesterday, Microsoft made the CRM 4.0 RTM (release-to-manufacturing) release available to Titan Showcase partners and Increase CRM was immediately able to upgrade our Titan Showcase customer to the final release of CRM 4.0.

A big thanks to all the Increase CRM Titan Showcase customers and the team for working on this upgrade all morning and over the last few weeks.

What we like about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook

There are going to be two versions of the CRM client for Outlook:

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook
2. Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook with offline access

We've started testing the pre-release CRM 4.0 RC0 version of the client, and there are a number of improvements that we think our users will benefit from:

• Much simpler installation - as a hosted service provider, we spent a lot of time assisting users with installing their CRM client, so this will save everyone a lot of time.
• Improved stability - Microsoft has worked hard to improve the stability of the client which should alleviate the need to repair or re-install the client from time to time.
• Automatic Updates - as Microsoft releases CRM hot-fixes or update roll-ups they will automatically be installed on your CRM client for Outlook.
• Access to all the functionality - some functionality, particularly the Settings area, was available only in the web-client, but now all the web-client functionality is available in the Outlook client too.
• Company names sync with Outlook contacts - finally!
• CRM Phone Calls sync as Outlook Tasks - it was always awkward having to explain to a user that in order to get a reminder about a future phone call they should set an appointment. So this is a useful improvement.
• Simplified Outlook CRM toolbar - Microsoft has simplified the CRM toolbar in both the web client and Outlook clients making it cleaner and easier-to-use.
• Track multiple emails - you can now track many emails with a single button click, and even un-track them the later if you need to.

The new CRM 4.0 clients for Outlook are supported on Outlook 2003 SP1 and Outlook 2007. Users running Outlook XP/2002 or earlier will need to upgrade to use the CRM client for Outlook.