Currently we have in circulation the UK demo toolkit. This consists of a PowerPoint click-thru of Microsoft CRM to be used for first-call demonstrations as well as a Virtual PC image and associated demonstration script. This image is time-bombed to expire on September 20th at 9:07pm. To check this select ‘start \ run \ then type ‘winver’. This will give you the expiration date of the VPC. After this date the image will not boot and you will not be able to use it. So what are the options for you?
1. The UK Microsoft CRM team have an image which you can use until October 2nd. If you have immediate demonstration needs you can use this image – it has CRM, MOSS, all BI products including the CRM Analytics Foundation, CRM Mobile Express, AX and Virtual Earth integration.
2. Download the extended May 2006 virtual pc image; this is the base image from Redmond which has now been extended for use until 30th June 2008. Download it from here. Please note that the data and configuration for this image is US English not UK.
3. Download the August 2007 virtual pc image; this image has Office 2007 and the CRM V3C client installed. It is time-bombed for expiry on November 30th 2008. Download it from here. Again, please note that this image has US data and configuration, not UK.
4. The Microsoft UK CRM team are working on a new image for the UK market. This will have the following products and capabilities: CRM 3.0 web and outlook clients, Office 2007, MOSS 2007, all BI products including the RTM version of PerformancePoint server and the CRM analytics foundation, CRM Mobile Express, BizTalk Server 2006 and the CRM BizTalk adapter, Virtual Earth integration, RSS feeds and Dynamics AX. This image will be available by the end of October 2007 and will be time-bombed for late 2008. Additionally, the team are recording videos of the demonstration scenarios for you and your sales team. This image should provide you with an outstanding platform to build out prototypes and customised demos. We will also supply a click-thru PowerPoint demonstration for first-call demos. Like the last UK demo toolkit it will be UK configuration and data.
5. We are working towards having a hosted demonstration environment, using the UK demo toolkit. Stay tuned for details but this will allow you to demonstrate Microsoft CRM using the standard UK virtual pc image via an internet browser connection.
6. Once Titan has gone Release-To-Manufacture (RTM) we will release another version of the UK toolkit with Titan installed, all other features will be preserved. We anticipate that this image will be available in early 2008.
We are working hard to provide you with a world-class set of sales tools for the UK market.
Kind regards from Reuben Krippner and Phil Rawlinson.