With Microsoft CRM 3.0 coming out soon and having loads of new features and being easier to use and easier to install with better integration in Outlook why would anyone buy Microsoft CRM now? Why not wait?

Well first of all Microsoft is offering a couple of incentives:
Buy one and get three free:
Any customer that purchases any module of CRM 1.2 Professional today gets full-suite rights to the next release of Microsoft CRM i.e. buy a sales pro module today and get Sales, Service, Service Scheduling and Marketing in 3.0.
Existing customers with 1.2 will be able to upgrade when CRM 3.0 is Released to Manufacturing (RTM) which is due around end October/early November. Customers waiting for 3.0 will have to wait until General Availability (GA) which is likely to be January 2006.

Secondly, if there are good business reasons for needing CRM then doing nothing for a few months could be costing you money and lost opportunities.

Thirdly, upgrading from 1.2 to 3.0 is straightforward. See my earlier notes which show how much effort Microsoft has put into the upgrade process.

Fourthly, we find that many organizations take a couple of months to get used to CRM and roll it out across the company. Most customers take a while to start exploring the capabilities of CRM and thus will not need the extra capabilities for a couple of months and thus can start now with 1.2.

We are advising companies to look at a pilot on 1.2 now and rollout with 3.0. For some customers we are buying 1.2 now and are working with them to implement on 3.0

Microsoft have a whitepaper on why you should invest in CRM today which you can download here.

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