Microsoft CRM Product Positioning
One of the most confusing points around Microsoft CRM is its target market. Microsoft's messaging refers to small and mid-market, but the definition of both of those segments is highly variable. Figure 4.2 depicts Microsoft's wide definition of the midmarket. As you can see, this definition includes companies ranging in size from 25 to 500 employees.
Figure 4.2. Microsoft CRM's intended market space.
The short story is that Microsoft CRM's functionality, cost, and infrastructure requirements are not in line with most very small organizations. Hosted offerings of Microsoft CRM might have more appeal to smaller companies if the economics work. However, as of this writing there is only one company specialized in hosting Microsoft CRM, and their offering requires that the customer purchase or lease the software before turning it over to be hosted. At the upper end, there is nothing limiting a very large organization from implementing Microsoft CRM unless the functionality does not meet the needs of the organization. Microsoft CRM is built with the same, and in many cases more advanced, tools as other enterprise CRM packages.