Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4 For Dummies®

Chapter 27. The Top 10 (Or So) Add-on Products for Microsoft CRM 4

It's surprising that now, even after several years in the marketplace, there are so few add-on products for Microsoft CRM. There's a crying need for more. We're still looking for a good expense reporting system that works with CRM, for example. Now that the Enterprise version supports multi-currency, how about a real-time, automated system to update exchange rates? How about an automated way to check and update zip codes and postal codes? Maybe we've missed these. Certainly, there are good add-ons under development and still under our radar.

There is no one, good consolidated place to find all the CRM add-ons, so in conjunction with the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 For Dummies, we've created a site to review the contenders and the pretenders. Check out www.consultcore\add-ons.html. To cull the list in this chapter to approximately ten (depending on how you count), we established several criteria for making selections, including the following:

• General applicability: CRM is about managing prospect and client data. And it's about making it easier for a team of users to work together. If an add-on module didn't address one or both of these issues, it didn't make the cut.

• Integration with Microsoft CRM: Many vendors advertise their products as Microsoft CRM add-ons even when little, if any, integration exists. If there's little integration or no apparent reason for the integration, the product didn't make the cut. ...