With Azure and Office 365, Microsoft already has a strong position in the business cloud market. But the company isn't resting on its laurels, it used this week's Convergence 2014 conference in Barcelona to announce a number of innovations to help enterprises gain greater benefit from the cloud.
The main announcement is that the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 release will be generally available in December this year. The new release is designed to address the growing need for businesses to deliver seamless experiences to their customers by helping them break down the barriers between divisions.
New capabilities in this release include advancements in natural user interface and integration with Cortana -- the intelligent personal assistant on Windows Phone 8.1. With Cortana, users will be able to set up meetings and reminders; search for contacts, accounts and activities; view customer lists; and create new customer records -- all using voice commands.
There will also be platform updates allowing companies to create pre-defined, configurable processes, along with API enhancements to ensure consistency across devices. Templates will be made available to help customers with industry-specific requirements.
Other announcements include a Sales Productivity solution for Office 365 and a partnership with Thunderhead.com. The Thunderhead.com link will offer a complete customer engagement solution bringing together the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform and Thunderhead.com's ONE Engagement Hub. This will enable marketers to build customer engagement by tying together customer insight, context and behavior.
There's a new version of Microsoft Dynamics AX, the company's flagship ERP solution, too. The update allows businesses to combine all the benefits of Dynamics AX and Azure in an end-to-end cloud solution. It lets companies run hybrid environments with an optimal mix of development, test and production. Plus it adds a new Point-of-Sales client for Windows tablets and phones, giving in-store staff the ability to access product and customer information at their fingertips to deliver improved shopping experiences.
Microsoft also showed off a new Dynamics NAV 2015 release that adds a tablet and touch-optimized user experience. This will allow small and mid-sized business customers to access their company data and processes regardless of location or device.
"To better engage with their customers, businesses are looking to the cloud for greater collaboration and the right insights to help them be more productive," says Microsoft Business Solutions executive vice president Kirill Tatarinov. "Microsoft is re-imagining and reinventing productivity by harnessing the power of the cloud through a flexible platform in Azure, a cloud productivity suite in Office 365, and customer-centric business applications delivered through Microsoft Dynamics solutions that are helping organizations transform the way they engage with customers and run their business".
Tatarinov's full keynote speech is available on demand if you want to learn more.
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