Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, with Cortana integration, now generally available

Microsoft's latest CRM release, Dynamics CRM 2015, is generally available today, December 1.

In early November, Microsoft officials said to expect CRM 2015 -- both the on-premises and cloud versions -- would be generally available in December 2014.

Dynamics CRM Online 2015 is available in 130 markets and 44 languages today, officials said in a December 1 blog post. The 2015 update of Microsoft Dynamics Marketing also is generally available today, officials said.

"We are now firmly on a path for continuous and consistent innovation with a six month release cycle," said Bob Stutz, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in today's blog post.

Dynamics CRM 2015, codenamed "Vega," aims to break down silos between sales and marketing. It includes integration with Microsoft's Cortana personal digital assistant technology, as well as integration with Social Listening social analytics capabilities.

Via Cortana, Dynamics CRM 2015 users will be able set up meetings and reminders, search for contacts, accounts and activities, view customer lists and create new customer records using voice commands. Microsoft also is building Cortana into Windows 10, although Cortana support is not yet enabled in the publicly available Windows 10 technical preview.

The free, downloadable CRM 2015 Release Preview Guide details all of the features in the 2015 wave of Dynamics CRM products.

Update: Administrators are the ones in charge of setting the rollout date/schedule for their users for the new 2015 updates. More information on that is here.

Update No. 2 (December 2): Microsoft also has made Dynamics GP 2015 generally available, as well as a new update to Dynamics AX 2012 R3 (which includes a new "modern" point of sale app.)