Microsoft CRM not quite ready
Posted by Keldyn on 16 January 2003 - 13:28 · no comments & 103 views
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Microsoft is still struggling to ship Microsoft CRM, which was promised by the end of last year but is now in Release Candidate 3 stage.
Partners now expect the company to release the software to manufacturing next week, barring further problems. But, they add, the story out of Redmond changes day-to-day. Microsoft would not comment on timing for release-to-manufacturing dates but confirmed that partners now have Release Candidate 3 in hand.
Microsoft CRM, ostensibly aimed at the low-end small-business space, has managed to dominate most CRM conversations across businesses of all sizes even though competitors are quick to characterize it as a "one-dot-zero" release from a company that takes three major versions before producing a solid product.
"The big story not just in CRM but in accounting software and across the board is Microsoft's entry into this market," said one East Coast solution provider specializing in accounting and CRM implementations.
"My Photos" displays digital pictures stored in your computer and triggers a slide show. A music section accesses digital tunes stored on your hard drive. Live television flows right through this PC as well, and an on-screen television guide makes it easy to record shows.
This computer can be connected to the computer monitor or television set, though you won't be able to effectively see its computer functions from a TV screen.
Unfortunately, you can't get local radio stations or create a mix of your digital music with the Media Center PC. Microsoft, which designed the computer's operating system, said some of these features may be added soon.
Different Media Center PC makers have different visions for this device. Microsoft sees it as the first step in becoming the centerpiece for home entertainment. Gateway, to further that end, has come out with a $4,000 ver sion that includes a 42-inch flat screen television.
Hewlett-Packard, though, sees this as a powerful PC and not a living-room centerpiece.
"I don't want to set people's expectation that this is a DVD on steroids," said Bruce Greenwood, product marketing manager for consumer desktop computers. "This is a PC with extra functionality."
While this computer pushes the edge of innovation by trying to combine the PC, TV, DVD and stereo, it doesn't conform to the will of the living room.
When I first got the com puter, I wanted to place the keyboard and moni tor on a table adjacent to the television. I wanted to connect the television and flat-screen computer monitor to the computer so I could jump on the sofa to use the music and television portions of the computer or sit in a makeshift desk to work on the PC.
It is technically possible to do this, but Hewlett-Packard's Media Center PC doesn't include cords nearly long enough to handle those tasks.
So I wound up putting the computer on my coffee table and making it my sole television. Even with this design I ran into some problems.
The existing cords wound around the floor like vines from a dead houseplant. Because the keyboard and mouse don't work wirelessly, I couldn't sink into my couch, plop the keyboard on my lap and type.
Even if it did accommodate interior design, couples, families and friends wouldn't be able to replace their old computers or televisions with the Media Center PC.
The PC's 17-inch screen isn't big enough to replace many televisions. As a computer, it does too much to be used as a home's lone PC. What happens if someone wants to use the Internet and another wants to watch television? So instead, this expensive, high-powered computer would serve as secondary machine in a den or study.