Competitors eye Microsoft's CRM moves
C|Net | at | by Mike
Microsoft says it's aiming for small businesses with its move into the customer relationship management software market. But industry watchers say the software giant will almost surely move upstream. Microsoft's long-anticipated entry into the CRM niche, announced in February, put it in direct competition with Onyx, Pivotal, and other software companies targeting small businesses.
"Microsoft...will inevitably move upstream. That's how the market works," said Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst with Enterprise Applications Consulting. The reason Microsoft has to enter the business applications market and build an ever-larger and more enterprise-ready set of technologies is simple, according to analysts: The company needs to enter new software markets to increase its revenue.