Convergence 2010: Cloud Computing and Social CRM

All-in for Cloud Computing, Almost-All-in for Social CRM

Post-Script from May 10, 2010: The Customer Portal Accelerator has been released! I vaguely referred to this in the original version of this Convergence Recap article (see below), so I thought I’d post a short update here now that it’s available. First of all, you can download it from here: http://customerportal.codeplex.com/ Like all the accelerators, it’s free and runs on top of an existing Dynamics CRM organization.

Like NONE of the Accelerators (so far, anyway) this one runs on all deployment models: on-premise, CRM Online, and partner hosted. This is what I was referring to below in my point #2, and it’s a big deal for Dynamics CRM Online in particular and Microsoft’s cloud efforts generally. As has been pointed out more than a few places recently, if Microsoft is really all-in for the cloud, it’s got to start putting its money where its mouth is, and putting the development platform for its cloud apps on par with that for their on-prem counterparts is an important part of that.

Azure support in the new SDK is one of the critically important building blocks, and although I haven’t yet tested the Customer Portal Accelerator on the CRM Online platform, my guess is I’ll need to deploy some Azure-based code to get it running. (If you’ve already done it, feel free to give me any tips based on your experience!)

Welcome to the cloud, Microsoft! My advice: you can accelerate your cloud efforts by reallocating R&D funds to the Dynamics CRM Online team. They’ve set a consistent standard of excellence for the up and running and user experiences, and now (fingers crossed…) it looks like they’re going to push ahead on the developer side. 

Original article:    

The recent Microsoft Convergence conference was a good show. From my CRM-centric perspective I’ll fondly remember it as the “cloud computing and social CRM Convergence”. (Speaking of social, here’s a history of the real-time Twitter conversation on Convergence 2010. Here’s a preview of Convergence 2011!)  

Anyway…my Convergence 2010 recap:

Microsoft is all-in when it comes to cloud computing. (Did I already say that?) Putting it up there with the move to the GUI and the emergence of the web definitely drives home the point.

The poster-child Dynamics cloud app is Dynamics CRM Online. My personal view is that the CRM Online team has set the standard for how business cloud computing should be done.  There was of course lots of discussion around Dynamics CRM Online, but I was surprised by how little there was about cloud versions of the ERP apps. On the other hand, I’m so focused on CRM I might have missed that discussion…The two most important things I learned about CRM/CRM Online at the show were:

1.  May 2010 Service Update. When you’re a CRM geek and your and most of your clients’ production platforms are CRM Online, these service updates are like Christmas coming twice a year. The most important features seem to be multiple language support (which “shipped” early, by the way; I started using it on April 28), and the new eService portal/accelerator (which unless I’m mistaken is somehow related to the ADX Studio technology, but I need to learn more about this.).
2. The new SDK release, also set for May. What I’ve heard about this sounds like it will be important, and the most important new stuff sounds like the built-in Azure support. I don’t know how this will be implemented yet (although it sounds like there will be Azure web services exposed as part of it), but it will likely be especially important for CRM Online, which has been crippled compared to on-premise because of its lack of support for plug-ins, ASPX extensions and custom RS reports    

Besides the Cloud, the most important theme discussed at Convergence was Social CRM. That’s too big a topic to do justice to in a recap, so I’ll cover it in its very own article. I talked about it a little bit in my introduction to the Dynamics CRM User Group’s April meeting. Fortunately I remembered to press the “record” button in Camtasia before I started talking, so here’s the video, Enjoy!