CRM 3.0 is the star of the Microsoft Partner Conference

We attended the Microsoft Partner Conference in Minneapolis from July 7th through July 10th. After catching up with our customers from being out of the office last week, I finally have a few minutes to share what we saw at the conference regarding Microsoft CRM 3.0:

• The Microsoft CRM Vision Breakout Session (presented by Brad Wilson) had huge partner demand and over 200 people were turned away from Thursday's session because the room was FULL. Microsoft had to scramble and create two new CRM Vision Breakout Sessions to accomodate the crowds. Believe me, this was very very unusual!

• The Microsoft CRM product team gave live previews of CRM 3.0 on the trade show floor. It was easy to find the booth because there were literally masses of people (5 to 7 people deep) swarming the monitors trying to get a peek of CRM 3.0. Of course, the new feature set and UI were well received by everyone.

• Speaking of CRM 3.0 reviews, everyone is buzzing about how the next release will provide a major competitive advantage over competing CRM applications. I don't have the verbatim quotes but Brad Wilson shared some strongly worded quotes from industry analysts about how impressed they were with Microsoft CRM 3.0. Even just walking around the conference and talking with other Microsoft CRM partners you could feel the excitement for the new release.

• We attended a party hosted by the Microsoft CRM product team, and spoke with a bunch of the CRM product team. The food and drinks were great, but it was also cool to hear some of the 3.0 "war stories" directly from the source.

Overall, Microsoft CRM 3.0 was the star of the show and almost every single Microsoft Partner wanted to learn more about the product.

On a related note, Microsoft awarded our company Sonoma Partners as the 2005 Global Microsoft CRM Partner of the Year! With over 6,000 Partners attending the conference and tens of thousands of Microsoft Partners worldwide, this award is obviously a great honor. After winning this same award in 2003, we are very proud that our time and technology investment in the Microsoft CRM product is continuing to pay off.