As part of its continued emphasis on innovation and customer value in the CRM space, Microsoft announced the availability of hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM in India. Offered through Net4India, Microsoft’s first partner in India for this initiative, hosted CRM is expected to help businesses, small, medium and large, and across all verticals increase customer loyalty and streamline customer relationship management in order to drive cost optimization that is so critical in the current economic environment. “With brand loyalty at the top of the executive agenda, companies seek increased visibility of market shifts, campaign effectiveness, buyer preferences and behaviour. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows them to do this, while also offering tremendous ease of use and cost effectiveness compared to other solutions in the market,” said Sushant Dwivedy, Director, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft India. “The hosted CRM solution now available through Net4India will offer exactly the same features with a high degree of flexibility and allow for balancing capital and operational expenses. With this customers now have “power of choice “– they can choose between on-premise and hosted offerings."

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a value-driven customer relationship management solution that delivers the ability for organizations to optimize productivity, profitability, infrastructure and their budgets. This announcement rides on the tremendous customer success that Microsoft Dynamics CRM has seen in India over the last one year, adding a significant number of customers on this including AEGON Religare, Lavasa and Sushil Finance. According to IDC's India Packaged Software Market Analysis and Forecast 2009-2013 report, the India Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions market was estimated to be US$ 81.5 million, US$ 115.7 million and US$ 140.8 million respectively during CY 2006, CY 2007 and CY 2008.

While the market has grown significantly, Microsoft has enjoyed a growth higher than the market in revenue during this time. ‘While we see growing market demand for easy to use CRM solutions, customers continue to look for ways to drive more cost and operational efficiencies. Microsoft’s hosted model for CRM addresses this very need – providing a familiar and easy to use computing environment that drives various efficiencies yet being highly affordable.’ says Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India “We are happy to partner with Microsoft to bring hosted CRM to the Indian market and continuing to add to our bouquet of services.” he added.

Market trends clearly show a business inclination towards CRM solutions, Springboard states that the SaaS CRM market will grow at a CAGR of 61% between 2006 and 2010. In Asia the SaaS CRM market was US$69 million in 2006 and is expected to reach US$460 million by 2010. Springboard also states that a substantial portion of APAC growth in SaaS CRM market will come from the SME segment. This offers a fascinating business opportunity for partners given the fact that the demand for hosted CRM looks to escalate exponentially. Hosted CRM successfully aligns CRM spending with businesses’ actual consumption, along with simplifying software budgets with a predictable expenditure per user. It also controls costs without compromising the quality of CRM solution. Net4India will also offer a range of complex services including vertical solutions to help businesses increase productivity, adoption rates, and effectiveness along with the freedom to address markets across geographies.