A new member of the Office 14 family: Office for Sales
Several years ago, Microsoft execs seemed to be leaning toward delivering different versions of Office that were tailored to particular verticals. As time went by, I assumed that plan had been abandoned. Looks like it wasn't.
Alpha testers who've started getting access to early Office 14 code are reporting there's a new server-based product known as "Office for Sales 14" that is part of the line-up. Here's what I've managed to glean from them so far about Office for Sales:
- It's an end-to-end CRM product that will incorporate both software and services components
- The product is based on and hooked inextricably into SharePoint Server
- Developers will be able to customize the system to integrate with third-party products, like Siebel CRM
- Features include the ability to store customer information in Outlook; maintenance of a centralized Sales Center SharePoint site; the creation of sales communities; and support for "sales interaction management" (SIM)
SharePoint Server 14 is expected to provide offline support and, based on what sources are saying, Office for Sales will allow users with ofline editing inside Outlook, as well.
Office for Sales is built on top of the Office Business Application (OBA) foundation. OBAs are designed to allow developers to build composite applications that extend Office and/or SharePoint.
How does Office for Sales fit in with Dynamics CRM and CRM Online, Microsoft's hosted CRM service? I don't know (yet). Anyone out there have any guesses -- educated or wildly speculative?
Update: Microsoft declined to comment about Office for Sales 14.