8/24/2004 -- Cisco Systems yesterday announced a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Communications Connector for Microsoft’s CRM offering.

The software giant’s Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) unit -- which includes assets it acquired from financial and accounting applications specialist Great Plains Software -- shipped its version 1.0 CRM product last year. Since then, Microsoft has announced a CRM 1.2 release, as well.

The new Communications Connector, which is available at no cost to qualified Cisco channel partners, integrates Cisco’s IP Communications stack with Microsoft’s CRM software. The upshot, officials argue, is that small- and medium-sized users can improve their customer service levels and reduce their operational costs by tapping the Communications Connector to support a variety of different scenarios, such as integration between Cisco CallManager-based IP telephony systems and Microsoft CRM.

One such customer, Coleman Technologies, an Orlando, Fla.-based systems engineering company, disclosed how it taps integration between Cisco’s Communications Connector and Microsoft CRM to automatically trigger screen pop-ups -- complete with relevant customer account information and contact histories -- for incoming calls. “This allows all our employees, not just help desk personnel, to more quickly and effectively respond to customer needs, resulting in more productive employees and more satisfied customers,” said Randy Olsson, director of engineering services for Coleman, in a statement.

In addition to screen pop-ups, the integration between the two offerings enables a variety of other scenarios, including click to dial, call duration tracking, call information capture and automatic customer record creation.

For the record, Cisco says it developed its Communications Connector – which is the first-ever IP Communications application to receive certification from Microsoft – in tandem with the software giant.

“Cisco and Microsoft have similar goals to help SMBs improve their productivity and deliver superior service to their customers,” said David Thacher, general manager of Global CRM with Microsoft, in a statement. “We believe that the combination of Cisco IP Communications and Microsoft CRM will help provide SMBs with a competitive advantage in the way they manage their businesses.” -Stephen Swoyer