In follow up to Michael Park’s blog to attendees of OpenWorld, I thought of some other interesting things to think about as companies plan future ERP/CRM investments. One thing that often goes overlooked in the evaluation process is the associated support, service and maintenance plans.
Michael alluded to a few of these in his blog calling out Maintenance and Support saying “Microsoft Dynamics offers the option to purchase maintenance and support separately, so customers can make the right choice for their budget, business needs and requirements. Customers can get support directly from Microsoft or from a broad partner ecosystem that can address local verticalization and on-site needs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offers customers a choice of implementation – on-premises, online or hosted – as well as an industry-leading service-level agreement that provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee.”
Decoupling support from maintenance benefits customers because it puts the customer in control of who they want to support their mission critical system. Our approach is to provide a rich set of benefits in our Business Ready Enhancement Plan and Software Assurance but allow the customer to choose the right support option that best fits their industry, geographic region and price point. Microsoft does provide a direct support option but the power to choose sits with our customers based on the best fit and value to their organization. Ray Wang highlights Microsoft Dynamics in his blog “Decoupling Support From Maintenance – What Apps Vendors Can Learn From Microsoft Dynamics”. Gartner recently formed an advocacy council around the issue of Maintenance and support contracts driving for a “Code of Conduct” it wants enterprise application vendors to follow (here). Microsoft Dynamics believes in this approach and personifies it with our message of choice when it comes to service and support.
Another hot topic relative to maintenance and support is the rising cost. Many enterprise software vendors are adjusting their maintenance calculations every year per Consumer Price Index (CPI). As opposed to expecting customers to pay more for maintenance and support each year, Microsoft Dynamics customers who stay current on their enhancement benefit from a predictable price that they can plan for each year because the original purchase price serves as the basis on which we calculate future Business Ready Enhancement Plan renewals.
If you are interested in learning more about leveraging the power of services for your Dynamic business check out my blog here.
David V. Pennington
Director, Annuity Product Management
MicrosoftDynamics
