Arvind Raman Dot Com

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – By the numbers (April 2011 update)

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0000

It’s time for the annual ‘customary’ post regarding the Microsoft Dynamics CRM ecosystem and the current numbers as it stands. As I mentioned last year with the emergence of twitter, foursquare check-in etc, I just don’t find the mindset to actually sit down & write a blog post.

So came back last week from attending yet another Microsoft Convergence. The venue was same as last year (Atlanta). So I have been keeping track of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM numbers over time for the last 6+ years. So with the latest updates here you go

1.7 Million users
27,000 customers

Below image shows the numbers over time.

Of course 2011 was the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (#CRM2011) with both the hosted (CRM Online) and on-premise offering available now.

If you look at the customer count growth, it seems similar to last year (~23%) but the number of users has grown at a bigger rate (55% vs 23% last year). This may be due to Microsoft getting into bigger CRM deals (esp with the launch of CRM 2011). If you notice the average users/customer is now around 63 whereas in the past it has been around the 50 users/customer mark.

One thing I would love for Microsoft is to break out the customer and user count between on-premise and CRM Online. This is something Microsoft has never officially done. My personal guess is that on-premise still accounts for the majority of this and thus the reason for breaking it down. As Microsoft’s cloud story gets more traction, I think it’ll just be a matter of time before Microsoft has to show this breakdown. (Am sure the analysts will be asking for this).

Some of the talked about topics heard this year (was similar to last year)

Social CRM (A lot of discussion around this topic and seemed to be even more popular than past year. The new hashtag for this appears to be #scrm)
CRM Online (or Hosted CRM) ( I think the cloud story is just going to get stronger and stronger. But at the same time there are still use cases for those wanting on-premise software )
40,000 trials of CRM Online to date. (It’ll be interesting to see the conversion rate from trial to customer)

One of the topics that I surprisingly didn’t hear a lot about was the whole XRM (CRM as a Development Platform). It appeared there was more discussion around this last year opposed to this year. With the launch of CRM 2011, it seems like the perfect platform to push this message stronger but was somehow missing at Convergence.

Other than that, it was a great conference. It’s always nice to connect/reconnect with people in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. There is definitely something to be said about face-face interactions.

Till next time.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM - By the numbers (April 2010 update)

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Just came back last week from attending another Microsoft Convergence. So it seems like only time I find to update this blog seems to be around the Microsoft Conference times. If you want updates in between my infrequent blog posts, you can check out my twitter feed.

So for the conference since it was in Atlanta and its my home town, I didnt really have to leave town to attend which was nice. But at first I was a bit skeptical.(So I love Atlanta and I love Convergence but was just not too sure about Convergence in Atlanta) but I was proved wrong & all in all a great conference.

So as I had mentioned in my post last year, I have been keeping track of overall CRM numbers that Microsoft announces (at the CRM general sessions) just to see a general trend etc.

So here you go below.

So as of April 2010, 1.1M+ users and 22K+ customers. Pretty decent numbers but growth seems to be a bit slower compared to past years. That may have to do with the general economy or just the fact that as you get bigger, growth cant sustain the same level as when you are smaller.

Another thing I included is the average # of users/customer. Just to see how that is trending. By the numbers it shows that on average a typical Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer has around 50 users. (of course, you will have your highs & variances but interesting to see that general trend as well).

So apart from above, one of the things at these conferences, you pick up the major buzzwords that MSFT is pushing top down. In this conference, the top ones for me were

MSFT 'All-in' on cloud computing
'Social CRM' convergence
xRM, xRM & some more xRM

That's it for now. Till next time my friends.

CRM continues to rock and roll.

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Last week, Gartner released their 2008 CRM Report. Details can be seen here.

Highlights

Worldwide CRM Market grew 12.5% (from 2007-2008)
Microsoft experienced the strongest growth around 75% (from 2007-2008)
Salesforce.com grew 42.7% (from 2007-2008)
Estimated 2008 Microsoft Revenue for CRM around $581M
Estimated 20088 Salesforce.com CRM revenue around $965 M
SaaS (Sofware as a Service) continues gaining momentum representing 20% from just over 15%

My observations

CRM as a whole continues to rock and roll.
Makes sense that SAP and Oracle are still market leaders with their legacy software being around for a long time (Peoplesoft, Siebel etc) but the market shares are definitely flatlining if not declining
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce continue their hot growth.
Emerging markets will be the next big growth area
One of the things that I dont think is accurate is the estimated Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue of around $581M. That number seems too high to me. My guesstimate will be that Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue will be b/w $400M - $500M. (Explanation below)

Ever since Microsoft stopped reporting the Dynamics (formerly known as Business Solutions group) revenue separately in 2006, its not been easy to get the numbers.

Back in 2006, the last time Microsoft officially reported Business Solutions group revenue, it was around $919 million. That included CRM, AX(Axapta), NAV (Navision), GP (Great Plains), SL (Solomon) and other products in the Dynamics product line.

At Convergence 2008, Kirrill Tatarinov (Head of Dynamics) mentioned that Dynamics revenue was around $1 billion. Internal sources within Microsoft had Dynamics CRM being around 20-25% of overall Dynamics Revenue. Even if we take the high end of that 25%, which means Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue was around $250M. Taking into account 75% growth, that will be around $440M. With a 10% buffer either way, it bumps it upto around $485M. So my guesstimate will be b/w the $400 - $500M figure.

Now, one thing I am unclear is if Gartner included the other Dynamics product lines such as AX, NAV which have a quasi-CRM module in the overall CRM revenue figure for Microsoft? Although AX (Axapta), NAV (Navision) have a semiCRM module they are mainly ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) products.

So
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft's CRM revenue consists of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV, then yes $581M for 2008 is definitely possible.

But
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft CRM's revenue is solely Microsoft Dynamics CRM, $581M seems too high.

But that being said, Microsoft Dynamics CRM continues to be a rockstar and it along with Salesforce keep gaining momentum and traction.

Update from Microsoft WPC -

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:30:00 +0000

So here I am writing the next blog post and coincidentally, its regarding another Microsoft event I'm attending. This time its the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and am back in New Orleans. Partners are a big focus effort for Microsoft. In fact, 95% of Microsoft's revenues comes via its Partner channel.

What have the key takeaways been so far after Day 2?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Below are the takeaways and my observations

- Microsoft CRM had double digit growth in FY09: In past years, Microsoft announced 100%+ growth. Obviously, the economy has had an impact on all software companies and as Microsoft CRM has grown, its hard to keep up the 100%+ run rate.

- Microsoft Dynamics CRM crossed the 1 million user milestone. They announced they have over 1 million users and 20000 customers. In Convergence (March 2009), Microsoft announced 900,000 users and 18000 customers. So thats 2000+ customers and 100,000+ users in the last 3+ months. Not bad.

- Microsoft also announced 3 accelerators. Social Networking, Partner Relationship Management, Portal Integration. Of these they showed the Social Networking accelerator with the integration to Twitter at the keynote sessions.

- Microsoft placing a big bet on xRM. Its basically using the CRM Application as a Platform where the x can be anything such as Employee, Project, Product, Legislation, Supplier, Property. So its Legislation Relationship Management, Property Relationship Management. Essentially, building LOB (Line of Business Applications) using the Dynamics CRM as a Platform.

- Microsoft product team also had a Jack Bauer style 24 hr countdown to build a XRM application within 24 hours. Essentially, folks voted over twitter on what the X in XRM should be. The choices were Emergency Response Management, Sports Team Management etc. On Monday, the final votes were tallied and it was 'Sports Team Management' which they had to build by the Tuesday sessions. One of the cool things was in the demo on Monday, they showed the Social Networking accelerator and how twitter was integrated into CRM and tallying the different tweet responses.

Just by coincidence, the tweet they showed in the session while demo'ing was your very own truly's voting for Sports team management (and specifically Cricket Team Management). Didn't get the Cricket wish but they did build out the Sports team management application and showed it at today's demo which was pretty cool.

- Also announced that all of Microsoft will be running Microsoft Dynamics CRM within the next 12 months.

- Other take away was they did not really talk about CRM 5.0 so I guess its a while away.

Other observations and take aways

- Microsoft placing a big bet on Azure and the whole Software + Services model. In fact they just announced new pricing for Azure.

- Microsoft positioning Bing (vs Google), Hyper-V (vs VMWare) which is obviously to be expected.

- The Steve Ballmer keynote speeches are always a joy to watch. He is a bundle of energy and always entertaining to watch. One of the key takeaways was that for every opportunity for partners that might seem like its closing, there will be 2 0r 3 other new opportunities that will open up. He gave an anecdote that how in 1981, one of the biggest partner opportunity was writing additions to the TCP/IP stack. Well that opportunity is no longer there. This message was definitely geared towards partners and folks who are unsure with the whole S+S (Software + Services) strategy shift by Microsoft and how it might affect their business.

All in all a fun first few days. Last day for me tomorrow before I head out.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM - By the numbers

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Just got back from what seems like another one of the Microsoft conferences. Stopped counting the number after I couldnt use my 2 hands anymore.

Much like folks make the piligrimage to the 'Woodstock of Capitalist' conference to see the Oracle of Omaha, I've been doing the Microsoft conference routines. I have had my share from Convergences, World Wide Patner Conferences, BI Conference, Teched etc but one conference that I thoroughly enjoy is the Microsoft Convergence conference. Microsoft Convergence is basically geared towards the Microsoft Dynamics line of products (formerly known as Business Solutions). The Dynamics product which you may have seen ad campaigns are basically the CRM and ERP line of products geared towards business application users. The products are
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Customer Relationship Management
Microsoft Dynamics GP - Formerly known as Great Plains
Microsoft Dynamics AX - Formerly known as Axapta
Microosft Dynamics NAV - Formerly known as Navision
Microsoft Dynamics SL - Formerly known as Solomon

On an interesting note, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the only product built in-house by Microsoft. (The others were brought on board via acquisitions) In fact, MS CRM is supposed to be the first purely .NET application.

Having been in the CRM world for 10+ years and seeing multitude of vendors come & go, its been interesting to see the growth of MS Dynamics CRM. It was announced in late 2001 and finally came out in 2002. Now in its 7th years, the product is called as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Microsoft never breaks out revenue numbers by the product lines but one of the things that they do is publicly announce the CRM numbers (customers, users) at the Convergence sessions. I have been keeping track of the MS CRM numbers each time they are publicly announced and have kept a running spreadsheet to see how they do each year. Without further ado, here it is..

So basically,
March 2007
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 10,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 600,000

March 2008
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 14,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 400,000

March 2009
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 18,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 800,000

What's been impressive is that Y/Y growtn on the number of CRM users haas grown at the same level (~50%). This taking into account that b/w March 2008 - March 2009 is some of the worst economic slowdown we have seen has been impressive. Another vendor in the CRM space who has shined is our old ticker 'CRM' aka Salesforce.com which just crossed $1BN in revenue.

As I compare these numbers with other CRM vendors I know of (no names mentioned since some of them are former employers of mine :) which have been downward trending, its just a matter of time before Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com will be the only 2 shining stars in the CRM market.

Happy New Year & Bernie Madoff

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:43:00 +0000

First of all, Happy New Year to all my readers. Not sure if there are any but still a very happy new year.

Most of you now are aware of the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal that was on the news last month. Ran into this document yesterday which was pretty good reading.

The Worlds Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud

Apparently, the author of this document (who is anonymous and a derivatives expert) submitted this to the SEC in 1999 and then in 2005 again. In this he brought to attention the fact that Madoff fund a Ponzi scheme and also brought to attention several red flags in the document which basically surmized it was impossible to achieve the returns that was being generated by BM (Bernie Madoff) in a legitimate way.

Its almost sad that the SEC who is supposed to be a watchdog just let this slip thru their cracks or maybe just a case of too scared to go after the big doc.

Either way, its good reading (for those of you who like finance).

US Electon Primer 2008

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:43:00 +0000

With the election less than 6 weeks away, looks like things are getting headed up.

If you're like me, probably pretty confused about the whole election process (electoral college vs popular vote). Even though I have lived here for 14+ years, never really took the time to understand the whole process.

My canadian friend Sheldon Fernandez has an useful/humorous slant on the election. Here's the 2008 Election Primer from his perspective.

An interesting/fun-filled read.

Enjoy.

Ping.fm - Ping it Like its hot (Beta code)

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Now that I have signed up and getting hooked into these social networks (both personal & professional networks) and web 2.0 services like twitter, brightkite, facebook, linkedin, plaxo, tumblr, friendfeed, pownce etc etc - you get the idea, the list is endless, was thinking there needs to be an easy way to manage and post to different sites without having to individually go to these places.

Sure enough, there is and its ping.fm. Thanks to one of my cyber buddies for sending me a beta code and I got signed up. If you want to sign-up, their beta code is 'pingitlikeitshot'

I used to be pretty anti-social networks. So why am I on all these sites? Not sure myself. Part of me is just intrigued by all these developments taking place and another part of me is constantly thinking of the next big thing and how to make it happen :)

Tethering & watching live cricket.. got to love it..

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:11:00 +0000

We are at the airport waiting for our flight to Negril. Am tethering over my phone streaming the Ind vs Pak cricket match.
technology.. gotta love it..

Twitter for international text messaging (SMS)

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:22:00 +0000

International text messaging - Twitter to the rescue

For those who dont know what twitter is, it is basically a microblogging service over SMS (text messages). Check out Wikipedia explanation or better yet try it out Twitter or even see my Twitter page

So I started exploring/playing around with twitter late last year.

Now although text messaging aka SMS is not that big in the US (it is slowly picking up), it is really popular in Europe, Asia etc. So now, I have never been able to text my brother in India from Sprint PCS. Dont understand quite why but Sprint only allows sending SMS to select carriers in India. Here's the
list of international carriers that Sprint allows international text messaging for. Now, if you notice Bharti Airtel is not in that list for India and they have like a 50%+ marketshare. Anyways to cut a long story short, I have never been able to text my brother in India and vice-versa.

Twitter comes to the rescue?
When I was in India last month, I got my brother connected to twitter and now by sending a SMS to a US number (40404), I can send my brother a tweet (twitter lingo for a SMS) as a direct message which he receives a text (Note - direct messages are only send to the recipient) and he can do the same.

So its pretty cool as now we get to SMS/text each other all thanks to twitter.

Long time no post.. Pandora vs Last.fm

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:05:00 +0000

Havent posted in a long time.. I guess, thats what happens in the blogging world.. you start a blog and are all enthusiastic about and slowly get distracted/busy in other items.. well this time, I just need to make a better effort.

Ok now so i've been playing around with these social music services (namely last.fm and Pandora). Both of these offer a similar but differing music experiences. Pandora is more computerized/algorithmic whereas last.fm is all about user recommendation.

Here's an excellent comparison of these services by Steve Krause.

Right now, I just like to pop up either one of these and listen to similar artists and both have worked for me so far. Below are links to my pandora and last.fm pages

Pandora
Last.fm

Take a listen and let me know what you think. If any of you are on these services, link up to me.

Dilli Haat - finally caved in

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:40:00 +0000

Even after having lived in Delhi long enough and multiple visits (10+) to visit the fam, I always stayed away from Dilli Haat. Felt it was a tourist trap. Well I finally caved in today and went. and am glad I did.

Its a really cool spot with a craft bazaar and food plaza featuring cuisines from different states of India. Its a pretty nice retreat from the hussle/bustle of Delhi. Of course, it was pretty touristy with a lot of foreigners there but all the same, i would go back there.

One thing that was surprising was all the vendors spoke excellent English and it was pretty funny seeing the foreigners driving a hard bargain with the vendors.

Here's some pics

IPL game video clip

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:05:00 +0000

Quick video clip taken from my camera phone

Cricket, Rain, India & more

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:51:00 +0000

Saw my first IPL game live yesterday. Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab. IPL (Indian Premier league) is a new initiative and cricket league to India that aims to emulate the franchise concepts of English Soccer leagues, NFL leagues etc. A lot has been written and said about the IPL (just do a google search) so I wouldnt dwell on that.

Seeing the game in the sold out stadium, the atmosphere was quite electric. Though the rain and Duckworth/Lewis put a damper on the outcome of the game, it was still a wonderful experience. I think IPL is good thing for Indian and world cricket in general. Seeing cricketers of different nations (Sehwag - India, Shoaib Malik - Pakistan, Glenn Mcgrath - Australia) playing in the same team and actually showing the team spirit and camradarie was good to see.

Here's a few pics from the game.

Sugercane modernization - what will happen to the mom & pop sugercane streetside shops>

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:57:00 +0000

A sugercane spot in Bangalore with modernization taken to the max!!!
Fully automated juicer with staff wearning gloves and maintaining top class hygiene.

what will happen to the mom & pop sugarcane streetside shops?

India Inc needs a plan as we become more modernized be it whether retail grocery stores, sugarcane juice etc etc..

Packing up and playing with the blog

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:08:00 +0000

Packing up from my India trip. Looking forward to it. Its going to be a long flight from Atlanta - Newark - Paris - Bangalore. But I loaded up my Treo with a few movies (American Gangsta, Juno) plus I picked up a book The Bogleheads Guide to Investing so I should be good to go.

Speaking of investing and bogleheads (Vanguard fans - low cost indexing), thats a whole another topic I need to post about soon. Its just surprising that even with all the knowledge and wealth of information, so many people are into these high cost funds and/or paying a financial advisor 1-2% of asset fees who are in the same funds. I realize everyone situation is different but I think for the most part slow & steady wins the race. In investing, one of the things that you as investor can control are the costs and you should strive to keep that at a minimum. I was a victim of 'financial pornography' :) (i read that quote in some book i read) getting into these high cost actively managed mutual funds, trading stock based on magazine articles trying to beat the market. No wonder the asset management, investment advisor industry is booming. I guess anytime you see any of these golf shows on TV (Master etc) and see the amount of commercials about asset management etc, i guess its a lucrative industry. Funnily enough, I have had a few FA's call me and even met a few but once I start talking about indexing, low cost they quickly run away cause am the worst kind of client. Their ideal client is someone who signs them a check and they can just collect the 1-2% fees every year.. This was meant for another post but since I was on a roll figure why stop :)

kannamochi - one of my fav songs

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:43:00 +0000

One of my fav songs when Aishwarya actually looked good

Test to see if blogger can accept video via email

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:17:00 +0000

Shot this from my phone and want to if possible to upload this to blogger via email.

Updated the blog

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:45:00 +0000

Allright. So have updated the blog with links to my other web presence (twitter, friendfeed etc).. Also, learnt how to post a song to blogger. I was pretty surprised that blogger lets you post photos, videos but no mp3 directly. so kinda have to do a hack to get a mp3 file. but figured it out.
just thought it'll be built into blogger.

Headed to India in a couple of days so not sure how much updates this blog will see but will try my best..

dolla dolla bill

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:00 +0000

Grand Canyon video

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:58:00 +0000

A family trip to Grand Canyon. Sep 2007. Me, Sushmi, Ashok & uncle (Sushmi's dad)

Beers & barbequing at paras and @snafilter juggling away

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:23:00 +0000

Chilling out having some beers and chicken at pmoney's spot.

Daughtry just rocked the house. Waiting for Bon Jovi now

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:28:00 +0000

Daughtry just rocked the house. Waiting for Bon Jovi now...

View from my office

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:15:00 +0000

Looking at beautiful I-285..

Blogging via email from phone

noreply@blogger.com (AR) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:12:00 +0000

Lets see how this works