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How successful is the "xRM" idea? RRS feed

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    I was part of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivery partner for a long time and the most successful implementations were "CRM". Whenever we tried to implement an "xRM" solution it was abundantly clear that the product was a CRM first and xRM was an afterthought. xRM is clever marketing.

    The idea of xRM is attractive - being able to relate entities other than customers, sales and service. However given that these entities are native to the product them the further one's entities are from these then the weaker the case.

    Fundamentally, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a COTS is the more customisation the greater the probability of failure. Which is in this case being simply less economically sound than choosing other approaches rather than simple technical failure).

    I'd like to stimulate a discussion of CRM vs xRM based on recent releases and experiences. Again I am approaching a solution that looks like xRM might do it but I'm worried.

    In particular, how does one analyse requirements and assess if an xRM solution is suitable or not?

    Leroy


    Monday, April 25, 2016 11:23 PM

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    I think is probably not the place for such a discussion but I disagree. Almost every CRM implementation I have personally been involved in or that I have seen and were designed by others has used custom entities and therefore XRM. Also, I think XRM was not an afterthought, it has been there more or less from the first version of the product. Of course, there were limitations in each new version, new capabilities are introduced.

    Wednesday, May 4, 2016 11:58 AM
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    So if the implementation is primarily CRM first then XRM is ok, is what you're saying.

    If it is not primarily CRM, e.g. contract management, then is XRM an appropriate model?

    Leroy

    Wednesday, May 4, 2016 8:49 PM
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    Not really, I don't think one can generalize that easily. It really depends on each case, the requirements and the IT/development capabilities of the customer.

    As an extreme, Dynamics CRM can be used purely in an XRM way with none of the out of the box entities used. This might be an attractive solution for some but for others they might still consider a bespoke development or an alternative product.

    SO I  think the simple answer, is it depends.

    Friday, May 6, 2016 7:45 AM
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    I don't dispute that xRM is a somewhat general development environment. 

    However, in your "attractive solution" scenario the customer will pay for entities, forms, etc and then not use them.

    So, on the surface, this would not be an economic proposition vs just developing in .NET.

    Are there any examples of pure xRM with no CRM that you can reference?

    Leroy

    Friday, May 6, 2016 8:17 AM
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    You raise a valid point with regard to developing in .NET but I again contend that for some customers, the cost of development might outweigh the CRM license costs. But of course, where a company already has a strong development team, building an app might be more attractive than paying the CRM license costs.

    I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with you, I just don't think one can make a general statement about whether XRM is cost effective or not.

    Sorry, I can't provide details of my clients.

    Friday, May 6, 2016 8:46 AM
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