2009 was the year of xRM
I admit to having a skewed view on the topic, but it really seems to me that I see/hear about xRM almost daily.
xRMVirtual took off like wildfire. We had high hopes. We talked about wanting big numbers. Who doesn’t? Well, we met those goals. Meetings always well attended. Recordings viewed over and over. It was great and the new year looks great too.
Dynamics CRM5. Not much has been let out of this bag yet, but everything we see screams “xRM!!!!!!”. At PDC there were a couple of labs, one about Solutions. With this addition of the concept of a Solution, it opens CRM up to so many more products/customizations. ISVs will now have the ability to have their own protected/managed solutions, versioning is possible, integration with customer’s customizations, more than one solution provider. Really a huge move for xRMy things.
xRM got it’s own VPC and a great story to go with it. What better way to teach the concept behind xRM than with a side by side comparison with CRM? I’ve had many many hits on my blog from folks looking for that VPC (here’s the post, you have to have partner credentials to access it).
xRM user groups are sprouting up everywhere, I’ve got 4 continents covered on my last list. So if you’re in North America, Africa, Europe, Australia, head off to a meeting. They are too far away to be practical? Let me know you’re interested, I’ll help you get started.
xRM is becoming more mainstream, In another part of my life I work in the .NET community. I work with INETA groups and also organize regional community events. I am organizing the 2nd annual Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta and we got some unsolicited session abstracts for xRMy topics. I promise I didn’t set them up, they were organic.
So what do I see in 2010 for xRM? My totally made up wish list is….
- a separate sku of some variety for xRM. Will give it more street cred and it’s earned it.
- xRMVirtual continued growth, with CRM5 coming out in 2010, why wouldn’t it just keep going?
- More on ground xRM user groups, not just CRM groups with an occasional xRMy topic (those are good too, but we have enough to talk about now, that xRM warrants its own focus).
- World Peace. (nah, just checking if you were paying attention, we’ll never have world peace, we just need to make sure the conflicts are fair).
Happy New Year!
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