Microsoft's Web-based software for sales teams, Dynamics CRM Online, will start selling on Jan. 17.
The customer relationship management software helps sales departments manage contacts and accounts.
Until now Dynamics was available only as traditional software, installed on computers and corporate servers. The new Dynamics CRM Online will be offered as an cloud service in 40 countries.
"Our universal themes for CRM are simplicity, value and agility," said Michael Park, corporate vice president for Dynamics at Microsoft.
The company is aggressively going after the CRM market, where it competes with Salesforce.com and others. Last week, Microsoft offered a $200 cash rebate per user to companies that switch to Dynamics from Salesforce's product.
The software is also priced lower than Salesforce's.Dynamics CRM Online will cost $34 per user per month, compared with $120 per user per month for Salesforce.com's enterprise service, Microsoft said. The idea behind the $200 rebate was to help companies with transition costs of moving data from the Salesforce.com platform to Microsoft's.
Dynamics will also be available in its traditional on-premise version for installation on computers and corporate servers in April.
Park said Dynamics will offer more "embedded business intelligence" than Salesforce.com, such as the ability to manage more from a single dashboard rather than having to go to different applications. The software will also work with Office and Outlook. Park also said the software will be more customizable than its competitor -- allowing users to choose bar graphs over pie charts, for instance.
Both companies appear to be using customer-relationship management software as a gateway to get companies to build other applications in the cloud.
Salesforce.com has been building up its platform, Force.com, as a cloud environment where any developer can create applications. Park said Monday that by switching to Dynamics, companies can also take advantage of Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform.
Update 5:16 p.m.:
Salesforce.com's enterprise edition of its CRM software costs $125 per user per month, according to Salesforce.com's website.
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