Guest blogger and CRM MVP Jim Steger brings us up to speed on the 2nd Microsoft Dynamics CRM Incubation Week. You can read more from Jim on the Sonoma Blog and through his CRM books on Amazon.
Microsoft wrapped their 2nd CRM Incubation Week last week at the Microsoft Technology Center in Boston, MA. It was another fun and exciting week. Again, I was just blown away by the amount of work accomplished by all of the teams. The teams chosen for this event were:
| Startup | Location | Solution |
| Newton, MA |
Project Management and Resource Scheduling for Professional Services Organizations |
|
| Lancaster, MA |
OnDemand educational portal for learning 2nd Language (Spanish) |
|
|
Charlottesville, VA |
Project Management and Cost Control for AEC Market |
|
|
Lima, OH |
HR Staffing, Recruiting and Leasing |
|
| Hippamatic | Houston, TX |
Automate Mobile Radiology including Order Entry, Dispatch, Billing and Reporting for Health Care Providers |
This time, I had the chance to work a fantastic company out of Lima, OH called myStaffingCRM. Their unique Software as a Service solution really shows off Dynamics CRM xRM platform capabilities by leveraging the native CRM-based functionality with custom functionality built through Dynamics CRM and Silverlight to deliver a truly unique solution for recruiters and HR managers. Further, myStaffingCRM were excited to learn about many of the native aspects of the platform, such as Outlook synchronization, offline capabilities, import data tools, and full workflow and reporting. myStaffingCRM can now focus on the actual business functionality for their vertical market, and not waste resources rebuilding ‘plumbing’ functionality. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the ability to build a single solution that can be deployed in a hosted environment or directly with the client in as an on-premise solution. As such, myStaffingCRM can now deliver their solution the way their customers want to consume it!
Jennifer, Sandy, and Tony (pictured with me) spent many a late night working on their solution and business plan. As a result, they delivered a fantastic presentation, complete with a working demo, on Friday to many notable individuals from the CRM and financial community. Microsoft also recognized myStaffingCRM’s solution and efforts with the Best xRM Solution award last week. Nice! They were a fantastic team to work with, and I look forward to seeing their solution in the market soon!
Again, my thanks and congratulations to Microsoft and Sanjay Jain for another well run week. This is a huge undertaking and the level of opportunity and commitment for these companies is extraordinary. I also wanted to give a shout out to our friends at Proteans and Venkat Hari who really helped coordinate our off-shore development effort for the week. And many thanks to the MTC gurus, Rich Crane and Jason De Lorme, for their dedicated efforts, especially with the Silverlight. Be sure to check out Sanjay’s blog for additional information regarding this fantastic event.
The MTC was extremely gracious again and is just a great place to prototype and design solutions. They run envisioning sessions, architecture design reviews (ADS), and proof of concepts (POC) for all sorts of companies on all types of Microsoft technologies. What’s more there are numerous MTC’s all over the world. If you have a need or challenge with your Microsoft solution or architecture, definitely consider this resource.
Finally, if you are starting a technology company or would like to be a Network partner, you must check out the Microsoft BizSpark program. The resources and software provided is simply astonishing to me and really will help any startup accelerate their solution to the market.
Cheers,