Microsoft is Combining ERP and CRM

One of the biggest challenges in the software world is being able to move data across various platforms and avoid situations where it exists in silos, making it difficult to leverage. In an effort to further integration, efficiency, and gain more market share, Microsoft announced today that it intends to combine its ERP products with Dynamics CRM. This move is a direct shot at its partner, Salesforce, who covets nearly 20% of the CRM market.

So why should you care? This means that Microsoft is providing one common platform that will be able to handle both “front of the house” and “back of the house” operations. This is a distinct advantage from Salesforce, which is only equipped to provide Customer Relationship Management and not the operational functions that an ERP system can offer. In addition, this gives one more option for businesses to take a step towards the cloud without having to go all the way since Microsoft still maintains both on premise and cloud code bases.

Microsoft also announced that it will launch an app store called AppSource so that developers can build and distribute apps, furthering Business Intelligence visualization and voice intelligence features available to the market.

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