Microsoft has introduced an updated hosted CRM 4.0 offering at the end of the past week. According to Gavin Gee, a member of the Microsoft UK Software Plus Services team, the Redmond company has put together a demo and trial version of its customer relationship management platform. Via HostedMicrosoftCRMTrial, 60-day trial sessions of hosted CRM 4.0 are offered. However, the new initiative is not synonymous with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service. The software giant has simply put together a testing platform set up for its hosting partners.

"The updated trial site leverages the multi-tenancy capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0," Gee stated. "The trial instance is an organizational level deployment with administrative permissions. This means that each trial user has full access and control over their trial organization to add users and share the CRM product with others. In the previous version, the trial instance was provisioned as a business unit thus permissions were limited. A trial instance can be localized in the user's language of choice - the product is available in 25 languages (including English). Users worldwide can now experience their CRM trial the same way they'll consume it."

In addition, users will now be able to manage their passwords without any sort of assistance from Trial Support. Microsoft indicated that administrators of regional trial websites of hosted CRM 4.0 will evaluate subscriptions in accordance with specific markets around the world. The company made available Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in April 2008, as a service focused on delivering on-demand customer relationship management online.

"One capability that is not supported is Outlook integration into the trial environment. Although Outlook integration is a very compelling feature of CRM, the effort to support such an experience in a trial deployment would have presented significant support challenges given the unknown state of each user's PC/laptop configuration, OS, software, settings, etc.," Gee added.