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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 arrives

Following up on last month's release of a hosted version of Dynamics CRM 2011, Microsoft is making the software available for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments.

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Josh Lowensohn
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The latest version of Microsoft's Dynamics CRM 2011 service, a program that helps midsize businesses track their clients, is now available for on-premises use, as well as through Microsoft's partners as a hosted solution.

The news comes roughly a month after the company made available a version of the service that was hosted on its own servers. Rollout for this particular version had originally been planned for the end of this month to allow for additional testing.

Dynamics CRM makes up one part of Microsoft's Dynamics offering, with the other part of the line focusing on enterprise resource planning tools. This new version adds new reporting capabilities, and ties in better with the company's Outlook product. Microsoft also says the new version is able to scale to 150,000 concurrent users, all the while keeping "sub-second response times." Full results from that benchmarking test will be available in a white paper the company plans to release early next month.

Microsoft now says that its Dynamics Marketplace, which serves as a way to sell and discover add-on services for the product, is available in 20 markets with "more than 1,400 partner offerings for solutions and services." The updated software, which includes this built-in marketplace, can be downloaded today by customers with an active Microsoft Software Assurance agreement, the company said.