Vibe – Social Networking for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Posted by Ryan Toenies on May 26, 2010  |  Comments (2)

In my last post I pointed out that Vibe stacks up pretty well against Chatter for Salesforce.com.  In this post I thought I would provide you a little more detail on what Vibe looks like when it’s being used.  But before I begin, there’s a key component to Vibe that I feel makes it very powerful.  Vibe is a WPF client that runs on the host PC.  It leverages One-Click deployment technology and will automatically check for product upgrades.  Upgrades are managed in the cloud so that users are assured of the latest product changes whenever they log into Vibe.  This is a great way of leveraging cloud computing with the rich interface that WPF brings to the table.  It’s the best of both worlds.

Vibe supports both On Premise and Internet Facing Deployments.  This works well for companies who have users travelling but might not be able to connect via VPN to their native network. 

Vibe provides users with an easy-to-use search feature.  You can search by text, author, feed and/or date range.  The search is performed against the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database and returns the results in-window.  This works extremely well.  In honor of the Chicago Blackhawks making it to the Stanley Cup Finals I searched on “blackhawks” for this example.  ;-)

Vibe allows you to drill down into specific feeds and see recent posts.  In this example, I clicked on myself and can see who/what I am following, those who are following me and my most recent posts.  I am following 61 people, groups, or topics and have 24 followers.

Here are some quick takeaways:

• Vibe is 100% dependent on Microsoft Dynamics CRM (it’s the brains behind the user interface)
• Vibe is just another example of why Microsoft Dynamics CRM is truly a XRM platform
• Vibe has become a critical way we communicate information internally at Sonoma Partners
• Vibe will send you email recaps of information posted on a daily/weekly basis
• Vibe utilizes the Windows Workflow Foundation to automatically post feeds based upon CRM data (like new leads, cases, accounts, opportunities, orders, or any other custom entity created)
• Vibe allows end users to create and maintain their own workflow feed rules
• Vibe can integrate to internal and external applications allowing posts to be created from other sources (we have integrated Vibe to our blog site)
• Vibe is available for our customers today
• Vibe is not sold as a standalone product – we provide Vibe to our customers at NO COST

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM – The Possibilities are Endless!