Microsoft helps business understand social networks

Set to help businesses establish insight on social networks

Microsoft today announced new CRM Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The CRM Accelerators are available at no additional cost to current Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and partners. These solutions can be deployed as packaged extensions to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or used to help develop new solutions.

“We continue to drive rapid innovation and outstanding price-to-value for customers and partners globally,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “These new accelerators expand the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to address emerging business trends in social networking and drive efficiencies in collaborative business processes.”

“In this market, insight into what customers are saying is extremely valuable,” said Warren Wilson, senior analyst at Ovum Inc. “These new social networking features can provide greater visibility into customers’ experiences and opinions, helping companies to make better decisions and, ultimately, to improve brand awareness and customer engagement. This is a smart enhancement to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.”

The Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator allows businesses to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to distribute sales leads and centrally manage sales opportunities across channel partners. It provides pre-built extensions to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales force automation functionality, including new data entities, workflow and reports. Using the PRM Accelerator, companies can jointly manage sales processes with their channel partners through a centralized Web portal, as well as extend this integration to automate additional business processes.

The new CRM Accelerators will be made available in the next few weeks.