Today marks the global rollout of the beta edition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the latest version of the company’s popular customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Released in beta in anticipation of a full rollout before the end of the year, Dynamics CRM 2011 succeeds Dynamics CRM 4.0, which Microsoft introduced in late 2007 as its first true SaaS CRM offering. The beta edition comes in a few forms, including:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, a multitenant SaaS product hosted in Microsoft’s own data centers and accessed by customers via the Web
- A traditional on-premise installation of the Dynamics CRM 2011 product at a customer site
- A hosted version of the CRM software that resides on a Microsoft partner’s servers and is accessed by a customer via the Web.