123Together to Offer Hosted Microsoft Titan CRM Tomorrow

123Together.com, a hoster of enterprise-class messaging and collaboration products such as Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, has announced that it is participating in Microsoft's Early Adopter Program for the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, version 4.0, code-named "Titan", and selecting customers to receive early access to a hosted Titan product.

123Together.com (News - Alert) gears its services to SMBs who want enterprises-class messaging and collaboration products "without the technical personnel needed to maintain the servers in house," company officials say.

As part of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, 123Together.com has been given early access to Titan, and will be distributing it as a hosted service to a select group of customers tomorrow.

Last week, at Microsoft's Convergence (News - Alert) 2007 Copenhagen customer event, Microsoft officials said hosting firms from around the world are "committed to delivering on-demand customer relationship management (CRM)" products based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, formerly code-named "Titan," due out later this year.

Partners building new on-demand products on Microsoft Dynamics CRM include Mondo A/S, a Danish IT services company; JayThom, a hosted and on-premise Microsoft Dynamics CRM provider in Australia and Increase, a British-based hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM provider.

These new partners join what Microsoft officials call "an extensive range of existing partners around the world that deliver on-demand products for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) products."

Microsoft has also announced that it plans to lower the subscription licensing fees paid by its global hosting partners for Microsoft Dynamics CRM by approximately 40 percent. Microsofties say the price reduction is "consistent with Microsoft's long-standing strategy to deliver more affordable CRM technology through on-premise and partner-hosted deployments as well as the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live service."

The most significant enhancement which 123Together.com customers will experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 as a hosted service, 123Together officials think, is, well, "the ability for them to use the application immediately." Customers were previously required to purchase an additional server solely for the use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and, as a result, incurred added costs and additional set up time.

With hosted apps customers to pay for only the number of users they have, remove the requirement for dedicated hardware and eliminate the need for any long term contracts. They can also usually get preconfigured customizable templates designed for specific industries, or develop their own workflows within the application. Microsoft, for example, is offering preconfigured templates for the manufacturing industry and the public sector and will make additional templates available over the next few months.

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.