Microsoft cuts ‘Titan’ CRM prices to hosting partners

In its quest to entrench  Microsoft CRM as a popular hosted alternative to Salesforce.com, Microsoft today cut the subscription fees for hosting partners by 40 percent,

These partners will now pay $15 per customer per month vs.$25 per user per month. Partners must also run Windows Server 2000 or later and SQL Server 2003 or later.

That price allows partners to build in their own margin and still be able to offer the service at a competitive price, said  Bryan Nielson director worldwide product marketing for dynamics CRM. Salesforce.com, the pioneer in CRM-as-a-service retails starting at $600 per year for five users, but most editions cost considerably more–listing for at least $65 per user per month.

The news was delivered at the company’s Convergence show in Copenhagen by Microsoft Business Division president Jeff Raikes. 

The company says its  new “Titan” hosted CRM version remains on track for end-of-year availability and the first release of the  service will ship with support for English, Dutch, german, French and Spanish right out of the chute with other languages available over the next few months. They will be distributed in free downloadable “language packs” every few weeks. Support for the major currencies will be available immediately, with others to follow in the same model.

Titan, which will likely be known as Microsoft CRM 4.0, will feature one code set available in on-premises and hosted versions. The big news with this release is that, for the first time, Microsoft itself will host it for customers who want to go that route.

Partners who bring customers into the Titan fold, with Microsoft playing the host, will receive 10 percent of revenue from that account every year the customer remains on the service and the partner is in good standing, Nielson said.

The company also added several hosting partners to its roster:  Mondo A/S out of Denmark, Jaythom Pty Ltd., of Australia,  EveryWare AG of Switzerland and Increase Ltd. of the UK.

Barbara Darrow, a Boston area freelancer, can be reached at badarrow@comcast.net.