Microsoft plans to expand Dynamics CRM Online, its competitor to the successful Salesforce.com cloud service, into 32 more markets later this year, the company said Sunday.The expansion will happen in near conjunction with the next version of Microsoft's customer relationship management service, known internally as Dynamics CRM "5." There are 1.1 million paid users of the CRM line, said Marie Huwe, general manager for Microsoft Dynamics marketing.
"This is a really big thing for our business. We're making a big bet on CRM Online," she said. "I'm sure you've heard Steve Ballmer say, 'We're all in.'"
Indeed, the Microsoft CEO in March told an audience of University of Washington computer engineering students that the software superpower is playing its hand for cloud computing. CRM Online is just one of Microsoft's many cloud services. And like many of the others, CRM Online has a formidable online foe – in this case, market-leading Salesforce.com.
