Microsoft CRM Live is slated to make its public debut on Wednesday at the company"s Convergence 2007 conference in San Diego. Brad Wilson, general manager of Dynamics CRM, will do the honors during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer"s keynote Wednesday afternoon. Microsoft CRM Live, which shares the same underlying code base as the upcoming partner-hosted and on-premise versions of Microsoft CRM, has been tested by a select group of partners since January. The first customers are due to go live with CRM Live in the third quarter, Wilson told CRN. The Redmond, Wash., company had been aiming for a summertime launch.
Wilson said the hosted edition, which runs on Microsoft"s Windows Live data center, will enable VARs and development partners to customize and even clone applications that can be built once and sold again and again. Such application cloning has become one of NetSuite"s claims to fame for its hosted ERP suite. CRM-as-a-service leader Salesforce.com also is positioning its AppExchange as the de facto development platform for partner-created vertical and specialized applications, all of which are available only in the hosted model.