One of the new terms that is emerging always more on the Microsoft Dynamics universe is xRM.
Do you know CRM (Customer Relationship Management)? Now take the letter “C” out of the CRM term and place a variable called “X” inside the word “Relationship Management”. The translation of this into a more technical language is simply that now you’ve to start seeing Microsoft Dynamics CRM not only like a standard CRM platform, but always more like a platform where to start building line of business applications.
The xRM concept in my opinion opens a wide range of opportunities for customers and for partners. You can work with a consolidated web platform, always updated with the latest technologies, for building your applications in an easy manner.
Working with the xRM Framework permits you to have “out of the box” features like:
- Possibility to model your entities and your form directly via a web interface
- Enhanced security (record-level security, record ownership and sharing, roles, scopes, business units etc.).
- Multi-tenant applications (more companies with data separation)
- Workflow engine based on Windows Workflow, with the possibility for the end user to self made custom workflow directly from the web platform.
- Enhanced Reporting features
- Web Services layer for interaction with the platform in a SOA environment (with all the related security features like filtered views)
- Office integration (Excel, Outlook, Word).
Building new web applications starting from this Framework is a big advantage…
But how to make xRM a winner?
I think that Microsoft should start thinking to a new licensing for having Microsoft CRM not like a standard CRM application but only like a platform where to build LOB applications. If you pay X for the standard CRM platform, you could pay X/n for having the CRM Framework itself.
If this will happen soon, prepare yourself to see always more xRM applications growing… 
Technorati Tag:
Dynamics CRM,
xRM