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Earlier this year, Microsoft promised to deliver the new version of its CRM software, CRM 4.0, then code-named Titan, by the end of the year. Now, the company's owned up to its promise.

Last Friday, Microsoft released CRM 4.0 to manufacturing. This week, the new software will be available for customers and hosting partners to download online.

Microsoft points to CRM 4.0's multitenant architecture as one of the main new features for Microsoft CRM. That gives both Microsoft and its hosting partners the ability to host CRM in much higher volumes, setting the stage for a showdown with the likes of Salesforce.com.

Despite CRM 4.0's release, the Microsoft-delivered software-as-a-service version, known as CRM Live, won't be available for most customers until sometime in the second half of 2008. On one hand, it gives Microsoft's hosting partners a bit of wiggle room to get into customer sales cycles before Microsoft starts homing in on their market. However, it also gives competitors like Salesforce.com and others who have long had a SaaS model a few more months of lead time against the upstart Microsoft.

CRM 4.0 should have the effect of increasing Microsoft's potential customer base. CRM Live and the multitenanted partner-hosted versions of the software will give Microsoft a stronger potential for small business uptake. Microsoft CRM general manager Brad Wilson says that though CRM 4.0 was all about increasing scale, CRM 4.0 scales to the higher end better than previous versions as well.

Other new features include user-selectable multilanguage support, new business intelligence and user reporting capabilities, and a move from an old workflow engine that had been specific to Microsoft CRM to the company's Windows Workflow for easier federated workflow across Microsoft apps.

Recently, Microsoft has added integration with the company's unified communications platform, Office Communication Server, to CRM 4.0's feature list. That means users can launch video conferences, Web conferences, and calls from directly within the CRM app, and also can see who's online and available to be called.

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