ICU MSCRM and Sonoma Partners made a nice post about our compatibility release with Office 2007 and Vista. Those blogpostings triggered me to blog as well about our soon to be released optimized "update" for Vista and Office 2007.

The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, compatible with the 2007 Office release and Windows Vista, enables a range of powerful features:

  • An enriched user experience based on the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The new release of Microsoft CRM picks up on the new Ribbon user experience of the 2007 Office release, and continues to enable users to access rich, roles-based CRM capabilities through Microsoft Office Outlook®, Microsoft Internet Explorer® and a broad range of mobile devices. 
  • Richer data visualization with Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Rich data visualization and business intelligence enhancements to Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 enable better analysis and decision-making for CRM managers and users.
  • Desktop action and insight using Windows Vista gadgets. New Windows Vista gadgets allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM activities, analytics and alerts to be placed directly onto the desktop or home page.
  • Unified communications with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The new release of Microsoft CRM enables users to store voice-mail messages in Outlook and track them automatically in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
  • Enhanced security with BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows Vista. The new BitLocker™ capability in Windows Vista helps protect confidential CRM data on laptops from being accessed by unauthorized individuals.

The questions I keep hearing from a lot of people: do we have to pay for this release and does it include updates/hotfixes. The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is categorized as a “re-release” which basically means that we will simply update our inventory with the updated version and start shipping that. In addition the various download sites will be updated so they will have the new bit available (e.g. on MS Downloads).

The new version will also serve as a roll up release of hotfixes and services packs this will simply be the “new” bits to use.