Sunday, July 6, 2014
Honored to be included in the list of the world's top 50 Email Marketing Influencers
Really honored and humbled to be included in the list of the world's top 50 Email Marketing Influencers. (List was compiled by Vocus - a leading cloud-based marketing and public relations software)
The World’s Top 50 Email Marketing Influencers
ps - As I had mentioned earlier, I dont really blog anymore. To keep up with my musings follow me on twitter
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Microsoft Dynamics CRM – By the numbers (April 2011 update)
It’s time for the annual ‘customary’ post regarding the Microsoft Dynamics CRM ecosystem and the current numbers as it stands. As I mentioned last year with the emergence of twitter, foursquare check-in etc, I just don’t find the mindset to actually sit down & write a blog post.
So came back last week from attending yet another Microsoft Convergence. The venue was same as last year (Atlanta). So I have been keeping track of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM numbers over time for the last 6+ years. So with the latest updates here you go
- 1.7 Million users
- 27,000 customers
Of course 2011 was the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (#CRM2011) with both the hosted (CRM Online) and on-premise offering available now.
If you look at the customer count growth, it seems similar to last year (~23%) but the number of users has grown at a bigger rate (55% vs 23% last year). This may be due to Microsoft getting into bigger CRM deals (esp with the launch of CRM 2011). If you notice the average users/customer is now around 63 whereas in the past it has been around the 50 users/customer mark.
One thing I would love for Microsoft is to break out the customer and user count between on-premise and CRM Online. This is something Microsoft has never officially done. My personal guess is that on-premise still accounts for the majority of this and thus the reason for breaking it down. As Microsoft’s cloud story gets more traction, I think it’ll just be a matter of time before Microsoft has to show this breakdown. (Am sure the analysts will be asking for this).
Some of the talked about topics heard this year (was similar to last year)
- Social CRM (A lot of discussion around this topic and seemed to be even more popular than past year. The new hashtag for this appears to be #scrm)
- CRM Online (or Hosted CRM) ( I think the cloud story is just going to get stronger and stronger. But at the same time there are still use cases for those wanting on-premise software )
- 40,000 trials of CRM Online to date. (It’ll be interesting to see the conversion rate from trial to customer)
One of the topics that I surprisingly didn’t hear a lot about was the whole XRM (CRM as a Development Platform). It appeared there was more discussion around this last year opposed to this year. With the launch of CRM 2011, it seems like the perfect platform to push this message stronger but was somehow missing at Convergence.
Other than that, it was a great conference. It’s always nice to connect/reconnect with people in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. There is definitely something to be said about face-face interactions.
Till next time.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - By the numbers (April 2010 update)
Just came back last week from attending another Microsoft Convergence. So it seems like only time I find to update this blog seems to be around the Microsoft Conference times. If you want updates in between my infrequent blog posts, you can check out my twitter feed.
So for the conference since it was in Atlanta and its my home town, I didnt really have to leave town to attend which was nice. But at first I was a bit skeptical.(So I love Atlanta and I love Convergence but was just not too sure about Convergence in Atlanta) but I was proved wrong & all in all a great conference.
So as I had mentioned in my post last year, I have been keeping track of overall CRM numbers that Microsoft announces (at the CRM general sessions) just to see a general trend etc.
So here you go below.
So as of April 2010, 1.1M+ users and 22K+ customers. Pretty decent numbers but growth seems to be a bit slower compared to past years. That may have to do with the general economy or just the fact that as you get bigger, growth cant sustain the same level as when you are smaller.
Another thing I included is the average # of users/customer. Just to see how that is trending. By the numbers it shows that on average a typical Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer has around 50 users. (of course, you will have your highs & variances but interesting to see that general trend as well).
So apart from above, one of the things at these conferences, you pick up the major buzzwords that MSFT is pushing top down. In this conference, the top ones for me were
So for the conference since it was in Atlanta and its my home town, I didnt really have to leave town to attend which was nice. But at first I was a bit skeptical.(So I love Atlanta and I love Convergence but was just not too sure about Convergence in Atlanta) but I was proved wrong & all in all a great conference.
So as I had mentioned in my post last year, I have been keeping track of overall CRM numbers that Microsoft announces (at the CRM general sessions) just to see a general trend etc.
So here you go below.
So as of April 2010, 1.1M+ users and 22K+ customers. Pretty decent numbers but growth seems to be a bit slower compared to past years. That may have to do with the general economy or just the fact that as you get bigger, growth cant sustain the same level as when you are smaller.
Another thing I included is the average # of users/customer. Just to see how that is trending. By the numbers it shows that on average a typical Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer has around 50 users. (of course, you will have your highs & variances but interesting to see that general trend as well).
So apart from above, one of the things at these conferences, you pick up the major buzzwords that MSFT is pushing top down. In this conference, the top ones for me were
- MSFT 'All-in' on cloud computing
- 'Social CRM' convergence
- xRM, xRM & some more xRM
Friday, July 24, 2009
CRM continues to rock and roll.
Last week, Gartner released their 2008 CRM Report. Details can be seen here.
Highlights
Ever since Microsoft stopped reporting the Dynamics (formerly known as Business Solutions group) revenue separately in 2006, its not been easy to get the numbers.
Back in 2006, the last time Microsoft officially reported Business Solutions group revenue, it was around $919 million. That included CRM, AX(Axapta), NAV (Navision), GP (Great Plains), SL (Solomon) and other products in the Dynamics product line.
At Convergence 2008, Kirrill Tatarinov (Head of Dynamics) mentioned that Dynamics revenue was around $1 billion. Internal sources within Microsoft had Dynamics CRM being around 20-25% of overall Dynamics Revenue. Even if we take the high end of that 25%, which means Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue was around $250M. Taking into account 75% growth, that will be around $440M. With a 10% buffer either way, it bumps it upto around $485M. So my guesstimate will be b/w the $400 - $500M figure.
Now, one thing I am unclear is if Gartner included the other Dynamics product lines such as AX, NAV which have a quasi-CRM module in the overall CRM revenue figure for Microsoft? Although AX (Axapta), NAV (Navision) have a semiCRM module they are mainly ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) products.
So
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft's CRM revenue consists of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV, then yes $581M for 2008 is definitely possible.
But
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft CRM's revenue is solely Microsoft Dynamics CRM, $581M seems too high.
But that being said, Microsoft Dynamics CRM continues to be a rockstar and it along with Salesforce keep gaining momentum and traction.
Highlights
- Worldwide CRM Market grew 12.5% (from 2007-2008)
- Microsoft experienced the strongest growth around 75% (from 2007-2008)
- Salesforce.com grew 42.7% (from 2007-2008)
- Estimated 2008 Microsoft Revenue for CRM around $581M
- Estimated 20088 Salesforce.com CRM revenue around $965 M
- SaaS (Sofware as a Service) continues gaining momentum representing 20% from just over 15%
- CRM as a whole continues to rock and roll.
- Makes sense that SAP and Oracle are still market leaders with their legacy software being around for a long time (Peoplesoft, Siebel etc) but the market shares are definitely flatlining if not declining
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce continue their hot growth.
- Emerging markets will be the next big growth area
- One of the things that I dont think is accurate is the estimated Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue of around $581M. That number seems too high to me. My guesstimate will be that Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue will be b/w $400M - $500M. (Explanation below)
Ever since Microsoft stopped reporting the Dynamics (formerly known as Business Solutions group) revenue separately in 2006, its not been easy to get the numbers.
Back in 2006, the last time Microsoft officially reported Business Solutions group revenue, it was around $919 million. That included CRM, AX(Axapta), NAV (Navision), GP (Great Plains), SL (Solomon) and other products in the Dynamics product line.
At Convergence 2008, Kirrill Tatarinov (Head of Dynamics) mentioned that Dynamics revenue was around $1 billion. Internal sources within Microsoft had Dynamics CRM being around 20-25% of overall Dynamics Revenue. Even if we take the high end of that 25%, which means Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue was around $250M. Taking into account 75% growth, that will be around $440M. With a 10% buffer either way, it bumps it upto around $485M. So my guesstimate will be b/w the $400 - $500M figure.
Now, one thing I am unclear is if Gartner included the other Dynamics product lines such as AX, NAV which have a quasi-CRM module in the overall CRM revenue figure for Microsoft? Although AX (Axapta), NAV (Navision) have a semiCRM module they are mainly ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) products.
So
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft's CRM revenue consists of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV, then yes $581M for 2008 is definitely possible.
But
If Gartner estimate of Microsoft CRM's revenue is solely Microsoft Dynamics CRM, $581M seems too high.
But that being said, Microsoft Dynamics CRM continues to be a rockstar and it along with Salesforce keep gaining momentum and traction.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Update from Microsoft WPC -
So here I am writing the next blog post and coincidentally, its regarding another Microsoft event I'm attending. This time its the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and am back in New Orleans. Partners are a big focus effort for Microsoft. In fact, 95% of Microsoft's revenues comes via its Partner channel.
What have the key takeaways been so far after Day 2?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Below are the takeaways and my observations
- Microsoft CRM had double digit growth in FY09: In past years, Microsoft announced 100%+ growth. Obviously, the economy has had an impact on all software companies and as Microsoft CRM has grown, its hard to keep up the 100%+ run rate.
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM crossed the 1 million user milestone. They announced they have over 1 million users and 20000 customers. In Convergence (March 2009), Microsoft announced 900,000 users and 18000 customers. So thats 2000+ customers and 100,000+ users in the last 3+ months. Not bad.
- Microsoft also announced 3 accelerators. Social Networking, Partner Relationship Management, Portal Integration. Of these they showed the Social Networking accelerator with the integration to Twitter at the keynote sessions.
- Microsoft placing a big bet on xRM. Its basically using the CRM Application as a Platform where the x can be anything such as Employee, Project, Product, Legislation, Supplier, Property. So its Legislation Relationship Management, Property Relationship Management. Essentially, building LOB (Line of Business Applications) using the Dynamics CRM as a Platform.
- Microsoft product team also had a Jack Bauer style 24 hr countdown to build a XRM application within 24 hours. Essentially, folks voted over twitter on what the X in XRM should be. The choices were Emergency Response Management, Sports Team Management etc. On Monday, the final votes were tallied and it was 'Sports Team Management' which they had to build by the Tuesday sessions. One of the cool things was in the demo on Monday, they showed the Social Networking accelerator and how twitter was integrated into CRM and tallying the different tweet responses.
Just by coincidence, the tweet they showed in the session while demo'ing was your very own truly's voting for Sports team management (and specifically Cricket Team Management). Didn't get the Cricket wish but they did build out the Sports team management application and showed it at today's demo which was pretty cool.
- Also announced that all of Microsoft will be running Microsoft Dynamics CRM within the next 12 months.
- Other take away was they did not really talk about CRM 5.0 so I guess its a while away.
Other observations and take aways
- Microsoft placing a big bet on Azure and the whole Software + Services model. In fact they just announced new pricing for Azure.
- Microsoft positioning Bing (vs Google), Hyper-V (vs VMWare) which is obviously to be expected.
- The Steve Ballmer keynote speeches are always a joy to watch. He is a bundle of energy and always entertaining to watch. One of the key takeaways was that for every opportunity for partners that might seem like its closing, there will be 2 0r 3 other new opportunities that will open up. He gave an anecdote that how in 1981, one of the biggest partner opportunity was writing additions to the TCP/IP stack. Well that opportunity is no longer there. This message was definitely geared towards partners and folks who are unsure with the whole S+S (Software + Services) strategy shift by Microsoft and how it might affect their business.
All in all a fun first few days. Last day for me tomorrow before I head out.
What have the key takeaways been so far after Day 2?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Below are the takeaways and my observations
- Microsoft CRM had double digit growth in FY09: In past years, Microsoft announced 100%+ growth. Obviously, the economy has had an impact on all software companies and as Microsoft CRM has grown, its hard to keep up the 100%+ run rate.
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM crossed the 1 million user milestone. They announced they have over 1 million users and 20000 customers. In Convergence (March 2009), Microsoft announced 900,000 users and 18000 customers. So thats 2000+ customers and 100,000+ users in the last 3+ months. Not bad.
- Microsoft also announced 3 accelerators. Social Networking, Partner Relationship Management, Portal Integration. Of these they showed the Social Networking accelerator with the integration to Twitter at the keynote sessions.
- Microsoft placing a big bet on xRM. Its basically using the CRM Application as a Platform where the x can be anything such as Employee, Project, Product, Legislation, Supplier, Property. So its Legislation Relationship Management, Property Relationship Management. Essentially, building LOB (Line of Business Applications) using the Dynamics CRM as a Platform.
- Microsoft product team also had a Jack Bauer style 24 hr countdown to build a XRM application within 24 hours. Essentially, folks voted over twitter on what the X in XRM should be. The choices were Emergency Response Management, Sports Team Management etc. On Monday, the final votes were tallied and it was 'Sports Team Management' which they had to build by the Tuesday sessions. One of the cool things was in the demo on Monday, they showed the Social Networking accelerator and how twitter was integrated into CRM and tallying the different tweet responses.
Just by coincidence, the tweet they showed in the session while demo'ing was your very own truly's voting for Sports team management (and specifically Cricket Team Management). Didn't get the Cricket wish but they did build out the Sports team management application and showed it at today's demo which was pretty cool.
- Also announced that all of Microsoft will be running Microsoft Dynamics CRM within the next 12 months.
- Other take away was they did not really talk about CRM 5.0 so I guess its a while away.
Other observations and take aways
- Microsoft placing a big bet on Azure and the whole Software + Services model. In fact they just announced new pricing for Azure.
- Microsoft positioning Bing (vs Google), Hyper-V (vs VMWare) which is obviously to be expected.
- The Steve Ballmer keynote speeches are always a joy to watch. He is a bundle of energy and always entertaining to watch. One of the key takeaways was that for every opportunity for partners that might seem like its closing, there will be 2 0r 3 other new opportunities that will open up. He gave an anecdote that how in 1981, one of the biggest partner opportunity was writing additions to the TCP/IP stack. Well that opportunity is no longer there. This message was definitely geared towards partners and folks who are unsure with the whole S+S (Software + Services) strategy shift by Microsoft and how it might affect their business.
All in all a fun first few days. Last day for me tomorrow before I head out.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - By the numbers
Just got back from what seems like another one of the Microsoft conferences. Stopped counting the number after I couldnt use my 2 hands anymore.
Much like folks make the piligrimage to the 'Woodstock of Capitalist' conference to see the Oracle of Omaha, I've been doing the Microsoft conference routines. I have had my share from Convergences, World Wide Patner Conferences, BI Conference, Teched etc but one conference that I thoroughly enjoy is the Microsoft Convergence conference. Microsoft Convergence is basically geared towards the Microsoft Dynamics line of products (formerly known as Business Solutions). The Dynamics product which you may have seen ad campaigns are basically the CRM and ERP line of products geared towards business application users. The products are
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Customer Relationship Management
Microsoft Dynamics GP - Formerly known as Great Plains
Microsoft Dynamics AX - Formerly known as Axapta
Microosft Dynamics NAV - Formerly known as Navision
Microsoft Dynamics SL - Formerly known as Solomon
On an interesting note, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the only product built in-house by Microsoft. (The others were brought on board via acquisitions) In fact, MS CRM is supposed to be the first purely .NET application.
Having been in the CRM world for 10+ years and seeing multitude of vendors come & go, its been interesting to see the growth of MS Dynamics CRM. It was announced in late 2001 and finally came out in 2002. Now in its 7th years, the product is called as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Microsoft never breaks out revenue numbers by the product lines but one of the things that they do is publicly announce the CRM numbers (customers, users) at the Convergence sessions. I have been keeping track of the MS CRM numbers each time they are publicly announced and have kept a running spreadsheet to see how they do each year. Without further ado, here it is..
So basically,
March 2007
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 10,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 600,000
March 2008
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 14,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 400,000
March 2009
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 18,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 800,000
What's been impressive is that Y/Y growtn on the number of CRM users haas grown at the same level (~50%). This taking into account that b/w March 2008 - March 2009 is some of the worst economic slowdown we have seen has been impressive. Another vendor in the CRM space who has shined is our old ticker 'CRM' aka Salesforce.com which just crossed $1BN in revenue.
As I compare these numbers with other CRM vendors I know of (no names mentioned since some of them are former employers of mine :) which have been downward trending, its just a matter of time before Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com will be the only 2 shining stars in the CRM market.
Much like folks make the piligrimage to the 'Woodstock of Capitalist' conference to see the Oracle of Omaha, I've been doing the Microsoft conference routines. I have had my share from Convergences, World Wide Patner Conferences, BI Conference, Teched etc but one conference that I thoroughly enjoy is the Microsoft Convergence conference. Microsoft Convergence is basically geared towards the Microsoft Dynamics line of products (formerly known as Business Solutions). The Dynamics product which you may have seen ad campaigns are basically the CRM and ERP line of products geared towards business application users. The products are
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Customer Relationship Management
Microsoft Dynamics GP - Formerly known as Great Plains
Microsoft Dynamics AX - Formerly known as Axapta
Microosft Dynamics NAV - Formerly known as Navision
Microsoft Dynamics SL - Formerly known as Solomon
On an interesting note, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the only product built in-house by Microsoft. (The others were brought on board via acquisitions) In fact, MS CRM is supposed to be the first purely .NET application.
Having been in the CRM world for 10+ years and seeing multitude of vendors come & go, its been interesting to see the growth of MS Dynamics CRM. It was announced in late 2001 and finally came out in 2002. Now in its 7th years, the product is called as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Microsoft never breaks out revenue numbers by the product lines but one of the things that they do is publicly announce the CRM numbers (customers, users) at the Convergence sessions. I have been keeping track of the MS CRM numbers each time they are publicly announced and have kept a running spreadsheet to see how they do each year. Without further ado, here it is..
So basically,
March 2007
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 10,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 600,000
March 2008
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 14,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 400,000
March 2009
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers - 18,000
Microsoft Dynamics CRM users - 800,000
What's been impressive is that Y/Y growtn on the number of CRM users haas grown at the same level (~50%). This taking into account that b/w March 2008 - March 2009 is some of the worst economic slowdown we have seen has been impressive. Another vendor in the CRM space who has shined is our old ticker 'CRM' aka Salesforce.com which just crossed $1BN in revenue.
As I compare these numbers with other CRM vendors I know of (no names mentioned since some of them are former employers of mine :) which have been downward trending, its just a matter of time before Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com will be the only 2 shining stars in the CRM market.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Happy New Year & Bernie Madoff
First of all, Happy New Year to all my readers. Not sure if there are any but still a very happy new year.
Most of you now are aware of the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal that was on the news last month. Ran into this document yesterday which was pretty good reading.
The Worlds Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud
Apparently, the author of this document (who is anonymous and a derivatives expert) submitted this to the SEC in 1999 and then in 2005 again. In this he brought to attention the fact that Madoff fund a Ponzi scheme and also brought to attention several red flags in the document which basically surmized it was impossible to achieve the returns that was being generated by BM (Bernie Madoff) in a legitimate way.
Its almost sad that the SEC who is supposed to be a watchdog just let this slip thru their cracks or maybe just a case of too scared to go after the big doc.
Either way, its good reading (for those of you who like finance).
Most of you now are aware of the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal that was on the news last month. Ran into this document yesterday which was pretty good reading.
The Worlds Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud
Apparently, the author of this document (who is anonymous and a derivatives expert) submitted this to the SEC in 1999 and then in 2005 again. In this he brought to attention the fact that Madoff fund a Ponzi scheme and also brought to attention several red flags in the document which basically surmized it was impossible to achieve the returns that was being generated by BM (Bernie Madoff) in a legitimate way.
Its almost sad that the SEC who is supposed to be a watchdog just let this slip thru their cracks or maybe just a case of too scared to go after the big doc.
Either way, its good reading (for those of you who like finance).
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