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Today, Microsoft and Salesforce announced that they have settled their patent dispute.

As part of the agreement, both sides will receive product coverage from the other’s patent portfolio. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, though Microsoft says that Salesforce will be paying them for licenses to use its patented technology.

Microsoft had originated the lawsuit back in May against Salesforce’s online CRM service. Microsoft appears to have warned Salesforce of the infringement allegation a year before. In response to Microsoft original suit, Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff had described Microsoft as a patent troll. “Every thriving economy has alley thugs, and we do, too, and that’s fine,” said Benioff. “Personally, I’m just disappointed to see this from a former leader of our industry, but it’s imminently resolvable, and it’s not material to our day-to-day business.”

Salesforce countersued in June, employing the services of attorney David Boies, who had represented the U.S. Department of Justice in the antitrust case made against Microsoft in the 1990s.

Publicly, both sides are content with the agreement. “We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies,” said Harcio Gutierrez, a deputy general counsel at Microsoft. “Today’s agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other’s intellectual property rights.”

“Salesforce.com is pleased to put this litigation behind us,” said Jane Hynes, Salesforce.com representative.

The two companies have been competitors in the CRM industry as well as in cloud platforms with Microsoft’s Azure and Salesforce’s Force.com.

This week was the July Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. Microsoft announced the new and updated features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Microsoft’s next version of its customer relationship management solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will have a similar interface as Microsoft Office Suite, but the new version will integrate with the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace which is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2010. Microsoft expects that the integration of Dynamics CRM with the Marketplace will enhance the overall CRM experience.

The general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Brad Wilson, said, “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011… offers new levels of user productivity and collaboration that meet their specific business needs with a lot total cost of ownership…this new release raises the bar in the CRM market.”

Microsoft plans to advance user personalization, enhance the overall Microsoft Office experience, and build on the real-time dashboard. They will also update and expand several features, including flexible goal management, inline data visualizations, guided process dialogs, and RoleTailored design.

Cloud developers will be able to deploy custom code for Dynamics CRM 2011 with tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Communication Foundation, and Language Integrated Query. Users will also be able to manage and create solutions, as well as download and apply custom solutions from the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace.

The Microsoft Dynamics 2011 Beta will be released in September of this year. If you are interested in learning more about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM app store, click here. To view a list of other CRM software vendors, click here.

This week, Microsoft is hosting its annual Worldwide Partner Conference. The Conference began Monday and will run through Thursday.

Things kicked off with a capella group Mosaic’s rendition of “I’ve Gotta Feeling” to a stadium packed with Microsoft associates in collars. The music group’s cover had a sense of occasion, with subtle lyrical modifications such as “Go out and smash it…with Microsoft!” Then, with fist bumps from the music group members and a personal theme song of “Let’s Get It Started,” Vice President Allison Watson ran up on stage like a cheery, undersized WWE wrestler. It’s not that I necessary dislike the music group. It’s the palpable attempt at being cool that’s cringe-inducing.

But we’ll ignore the question of Microsoft corporate’s coolness factor. CEO Steve Ballmer, along with his fellow Microsoft corporate heads, reiterated the company’s new dedication to cloud computing. He touted the new Windows Azure cloud platform among other Microsoft cloud innovation strategies for the future. He also made the public annoucement of Microsoft’s upcoming series of PC tablets, which will all be based on the Windows 7 OS.

Here is the rough schedule plan for today and the rest of the week:

Tuesday:

At 2 P.M. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, executives will…also talk about cloud computing.

Wednesday:

Solutions to current IT technologies for small and mid-size businesses will be discussed. Also, former president Bill Clinton will be presenting “Embracing Our Common Humanity” as a guest speaker at 9 A.M. at the Verizon Center.

Thursday:

A series of breakout sessions will cover public-sector information technology, including education, national security, and public safety.

Throughout the week, Microsoft will hold an expo of 170 exhibitions and 100 interactive sessions to demonstrate the latest products from Microsoft and its partners. Participants will also be able to play around with Windows software like Azure, Office 2010, and SharePoint at a few hands-on labs at the convention center.

Check www.digitalwpc.com/ for agendas, news, and video coverage.

Click for a Top 10 Report on Small Business CRM: Top 10 Small Business CRM

Following in Salesforce.com’s footsteps with AppExchange, Microsoft will create its own CRM application store. The Microsoft CRM 2011 marketplace will be available in beta form in September, then generally available by the end of this year.

The CRM app store will allow Microsoft partners to sell applications to complement Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft’s complex and innovative customer relationship management solution. Microsoft plans to extend the availability of the CRM App store to 40 other markets, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Chila, and Australia, by the end of the year.

The app marketplace will begin online, following Salesforce.com’s release of AppExchange in September. Microsoft is trying to keep up with its main competitor, Salesforce. Analyst, China Martens, commented on this issue. She said, “[The Dynamics Marketplace is an] important integration, since one of the reasons some customers talk about going with Salesforce.com is being able to easily identify a whole ecosystem of complementary apps and extensions around its CRM- something Microsoft does well to emulate.”

Apparently, the Microsoft CRM App store has been in the works for a while. Microsoft plans to release it alongside an updated version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will integrate better with Microsoft Office, Outlook, and Sharepoint. Microsoft is smart to keep their CRM applications connected to their Microsoft products, such as Office, because Salesforce.com does not have the same advantage.

Microsoft plans to price their CRM app store similarly to the prices of Salesforce’s applications, but the exact pricing model is currently unclear. This new Microsoft CRM App store could help Microsoft get a leg up on Salesforce.com, but unfortunately Microsoft has a long way to go. According to IDC, an analyst company’s, report, Salesforce had $885 million in application revenue in 2009. Other companies followed, including Oracle and SAP. Microsoft came in fifth on IDC’s report, at $139 million in application revenue. Microsoft probably anticipates that their CRM App store will help them climb the list a little higher.

If you are interested in learning more about other CRM vendors, check this free report of the Top 40 CRM Software Vendors.

Jelly Belly Candy Company, the famous international candy manufacturer, was in need of a customer relationship management system so it decided to deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In the last decade, Jelly Belly has grown rapidly as it has expanded its product selection and number of offices. In 2007, it installed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and needed a customer relationship management (CRM) system that would easily integrate with it. Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the answer to Jelly Belly’s needs.

Jelly Belly wanted to improve its customer relations and reduce customer churn, while increasing its revenue.The company also wanted to standardize the sales process to make it easier to track and report sales activity. For example, Jelly Belly employees regularly attended trade shows where they acquired several hundred leads, but the company had no system to ensure that these leads were followed up on in a timely manner. Dan Rosman, the Vice President of Information Technology at Jelly Belly, said, “Our manufacturing operations operate with very little waste and produce extremely consistent results. We wanted that same type of efficiency and consistency in our sales, but we needed a tool that would help us achieve that goal.”

Jelly Belly also wanted to attract new customers, on top of keeping its current customers. The Vice President of Business Development at Jelly Belly, Ryan Schader, said, “It takes a lot more time and energy to acquire new customers than to retain current ones. However, without a customer relationship management system integrated with our ERP system, there was little we could do from an organization standpoint to remedy this problem. Our customer relationship management project was critical.” In great need of a CRM solution, Jelly Belly deployed a non-Microsoft CRM system. The system was extremely complicated, difficult to deploy, and confusing to navigate. It did not integrate well with Jelly Belly’s ERP system and the technical issues made it too much of a hassle for Jelly Belly employees. After 18 months of attempting to integrate this CRM solution, Jelly Belly gave up and decided to look into other options.

Jelly Belly contacted Microsoft to look into setting up one of their CRM solutions. In two and a half months, Microsoft Dynamics CRM was completely installed. The deployment was under-budget and highly impressed the Jelly Belly staff, especially after the 18 month failed deployment of their previous CRM solution.

Now, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Jelly Belly employees have a complete view of customer information and account activity. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM serves as a transparent clearinghouse for customer information at Jelly Belly,” says Schader. “There is no longer a disconnection between customer service, order entry, and our sales representatives in the field. Every customer interaction is logged through the system, whether a sales representative or a representative on our customer service team creates it.” Jelly Belly developed a follow up system within Microsoft Dynamics CRM where they can track their customers. Employees can see which customers have not ordered Jelly Belly products in the past year, which then allows them to call the customers to follow up and create new orders. Schader explained that customers are happy to have Jelly Belly calling and reminding them about both purchase information and new products. It saves them time and increases Jelly Belly’s efficiency and revenue.

Overall, Jelly Belly met all of its needs and goals in just five months. The company achieved a 34 percent reduction in customer churn with the help of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Also, Dynamics CRM helped Jelly Belly formalize its sales processes which led to an increase of $60,000 in additional revenue each month. Microsoft Dynamics CRM paid for itself in less than three months. Schader said, “The mantra for our company right now is ‘Work smarter, not harder.’ Tools like Microsoft Dynamics CRM are helping us grow even as the economy goes through a rough period.” Microsoft Dynamics CRM was really the answer to Jelly Belly’s growth. The numbers alone show how much the CRM solution helped. Find out more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM on Microsoft’s website.

Microsoft Canada and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management have announced the creation of the Rotman Executive Programs Centre for CRM Excellence, a joint initiative housed within Rotman Executive Programs with a focus on research, building intellectual capital, and developing interactive customer relationship management (CRM) educational programs.

The CRM Centre will be unique in that it will be the first CRM research institute that utilizes the strengths of both an academic center and a large corporation. Supporters hope that it will become a global capital of CRM research and effort.

The first program running at the CRM Centre will be a three-day conference designed for executives responsible for CRM implementations, with a particular focus on social CRM. The program will help participants build IT infrastructure that satisfies their customers’ needs.

“The practice of CRM is evolving as businesses increasingly tap into the power of social networks and real-time feedback,” says Frank Falcone, CRM Lead at Microsoft Canada. “The days of simply providing better service are gone – today CRM is social, driven by personal interactions and by customers who expect control over their engagement with companies. Programs like this will help companies learn to be more responsive, transparent, and personal in their dealings with customers.”

Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light and President of the 56 Group LLC., also notes how crucial such an institute is. “The creation of the University of Toronto CRM Centre of Excellence isn’t just important, it’s seminal. As recognition for this business strategy and methodology grows, a neutral body that supports the evolution of Social CRM is important. Thanks to the University of Toronto, the new ideas, approaches, practices and refinements of this mission-critical business science have an indisputable home.”

The CRM Centre is scheduled to open November 2010.

Yesterday, Consona Corporation, a CRM business solutions provider, announced the general release of Consona Customer Management (CM) Version 7.0, formerly known as Onyx CRM.

The new CM version was designed based on client requests. The Consona CRM product is focused on reducing the system’s ownership cost and increasing productivity for all users.

“The economy is beginning to pick back up, but its impact on all of us has been deep,” says Tom Millay, general manager of Consona’s CRM products. “For one, we’ve all faced a stark reminder about the value of productivity during tough times and measuring returns on investment. Our customers have echoed this sentiment in their enhancement requests and as a result, Version 7.0 is a serious release with serious returns, which range from reducing the infrastructure footprint, need for customizations, and proprietary skill-set required to support the application, to increasing the amount of the overall solution covered by maintenance and delivering features that are going to give anywhere from minutes to hours of productive time back to system users.”

Specific features of the CRM solution version 7.0 include: data search across multiple fields with the new Consona Navigator, improved interface, better forecasting and quoting functionality, a new Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)-based business intelligence integration and data model, latest Microsoft compatibility, support for a cloud option, and social CRM additions.

We’re very pleased to deliver this kind of return to our customers,” said Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona CRM. Consona has always been a proponent of customer-driven development, founded on the sole idea that the ‘next new thing’ is not always the most practical. And while this release sets our customers up for the future, via cloud-readiness and progress on our long-term architectural vision, it also remains packed full of the features our customers have been asking for – the ones that will help them work smarter and faster today.”

At the end of last month, Microsoft Dynamics CRM was named one of the strongest leading customer relationship management (CRM) solutions by Forrester Research, a technology and market research advising company. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is particularly suitable for midsized and large companies, according to Forrester.

Forrester Research compared Microsoft Dynamics CRM to 18 other CRM solutions. They assessed the CRM solutions based on their market share, future development strategy, current product, and 513 other criteria. Between what Microsoft has now and what Forrester determined their potential is, Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM solution came out on top.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a solution that enables companies to track sales, create price lists, get leads, and track competitors, which ultimately allows companies to increase productivity while driving sales. Dynamics CRM simplifies business processes because all of the necessary applications are in one central software package enabling employees to easily access the information that they need.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM was compared to a number of other major CRM companies, including Salesforce.com, Oracle, CDC Software, and SAP CRM. According to the Forrester Wave for Midsized Businesses, pictured below, Microsoft has a stronger strategy despite having less to offer than Oracle and CDC.

In the Forrester Wave for Large Organizations, pictured below, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is still one of the strongest CRM solutions. It rivals Salesforce and SAP CRM, but still holds its leading position.

Businesses can read more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM on Microsoft’s website, where they can also request a free demo.

Hard Rock International, a company that owns restaurants, hotels, casinos, and concert halls that display an extensive collection of music memorabilia, has a large customer base and was finding it difficult to manage their customer relations. Hard Rock did not have an efficient system to handle the tens of thousands of customer inquiries that they received every year, so they decided to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Dynamics CRM would help Hard Rock manage their customer service relations without requiring new staff members.

Hard Rock International receives around 56,000 customer inquiries every year, by email or phone, within their 157 venues across the world. Patrick Colbert, the Director of CRM and Loyalty at Hard Rock International, said “Our team handles calls and e-mails from across our operations—everything from loyalty program point balances to questions about a product online.” The number of inquiries will grow every year as Hard Rock continues to expand their empire. Frequently, the Hard Rock customer care team has to consult managers at the individual venues to get specific information. They did not have one unified application to share information, so often communication was impaired.

Hard Rock International deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM in just eight weeks. 1.5 million customer records were uploaded into the system, which allowed the Hard Rock representatives to gather information about their customer base so they could provide them with the services that they needed. Also, Microsoft Dynamics CRM gave employees one unified application which allowed managers or customer service representatives to access information easier. Hard Rock was also able to create email templates, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, to respond to routine requests. Dynamics CRM also enabled Hard Rock to track inquiries so that they made sure every issue was resolved in a timely manner. Managers could file reports onto the system so that customer representatives knew that the case was handled.

Hard Rock International rapidly ameliorated their customer relationship management system with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Customer business processes went a lot faster and smoother. Hard Rock was able to respond to the increase in inquiries. The Customer Care Manager at Hard Rock International, Davonne Minshew, said, “With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we’ll be able to keep up with 20 percent annual increases in customer inquiry volume without having to increase staff on our Customer Care Team.” Hard Rock did not even have to hire new staff to handle the growth. Employees are much more productive and efficient with Dynamics CRM. Also, Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s user interface is easy to use, which made training faster and easier.

Colbert said, “Since we began using Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Hard Rock, our response times have dropped significantly to just four hours.” Employees can resolve issues faster with the new system. Microsoft Dynamics CRM completely transformed Hard Rock International’s system by increasing customer satisfaction and expediting business processes. Hard Rock International is very pleased with the results.

You can read more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM here or on their website.

Two reputed and popular CRM packages are Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager: Microsoft Outlook Advantage. Many business owners do not know the difference between these products or why one is better for certain types of companies. Let’s break down the details of each software application and why one is better for one type of business over another.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps companies connect with their customers better because key customer information is recorded. Dynamics CRM can track sales and forecast. It has Microsoft Office capabilities, which allows users to create price lists and unit groups. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help businesses increase productivity, automate lead management, acquire information to help them drive sales, and streamline sales cycles. Users can track leads and put them all in one system where all users have access. Businesses can also track their competitors and how they rank against them to better evaluate their position in the market. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will ultimately give businesses the drive they need to grow. Users can also monitor offers and pricing while tracking actual revenue dollars. Overall, workflow processes are simplified as everything is in one database and customer relationship management is a lot easier.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps cut down the time it takes to do certain business processes. It is ideal for medium and large companies because it allows all employees to view the same information on one system which increases collaboration and integration. Dynamics CRM also has many out-of-the-box features, including workflow, territory management, offline access, and more. It will save companies time and money. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an affordable option, particularly in comparison to Salesforce.com’s CRM applications, and is priced at $44 per user per month.

Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager, on the other hand, is better for smaller businesses. It is a contact management solution that is easy to use. Business Contact Manager helps business owners centralize customer information, which will ultimately help with marketing campaigns and sales leads. Businesses will be able to better understand their customers with this Microsoft management solution. The 2010 Business Contact Manager has many new features, including probability charts for products and services, and the sales stage application. Users can file all of their contacts in one place, and this can be accessed from anywhere.

Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager is better for small businesses because each person has their own emails, tasks, and appointments and other users cannot view their information. This makes it harder for larger businesses because users cannot get the overall picture of the progress with a customer. For smaller companies, Microsoft’s Business Contact Manager is ideal because it is easier to use and is simple. Small businesses do not need larger complex systems. If they do grow, users of Microsoft’s Business Contact Manager can easily switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

You can view a demo of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager on Microsoft’s website.