Microsoft is getting ready to roll out platform-native apps for Blackberry, Android, and iPhone, as well as its own Windows mobile.

While MS Dynamics isn't the first CRM to offer phone apps, it's the first one to go native with all the major mobile options. Word is they're also considering an HTML5 version that will work equally well on all phones. The next update of MSDynamics CRM will also work on iPads -- and for the first time on Macs. It's expected to support IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

What difference will it make?

The choice between desktop software and keeping your office in the cloud is one more businesses face every day. More applications are available in the cloud, including MS Dynamics CRM, and the benefits can be significant: lower up-front costs, easier remote access, and improved security are just a few of the reasons to use cloud-based solutions.

As those choices increase, businesses also have to choose which provider they want to use for cloud-based services.

Microsoft got together with Wired Magazine to ask Wired readers, a particularly tech-savvy bunch, what they wanted in a cloud-based office solution.

Once you get started, MS Dynamics CRM is comfortable and intuitive -- just like using Outlook. How do you get started? Dave shows you how to log on to the CRM system, how to bookmark for future access, and how to allow pop-ups so you don't have error messages.

Picking the right tech solutions can make you feel like Goldilocks. This one is too big, this one is too small. This one doesn't have the one thing you really need, while that one turns out to have the one thing you wanted -- plus thirteen other things you don't want and can't use.

It's hard to find the solution that's just right. Free trials help -- but are they just right?

Quickfind searches make a big difference in your use of MS Dynamics CRM. David Espenschied of Customer Dynamics shows you how to search fast, how to avoid common problems, and how to use wildcards and filters to get past those obstacles that sometimes arise.

There's an English TV show about a lawyer with one clerk and a receptionist. In each episode, there is one client needing help, with perhaps one or two mentioned as having issues (they'll be handled in the weeks to come). Things are always busy, but there's time for a cup of tea after the papers are filed away in the old cupboard. The clients, each one well known to the staff, are discussed over the cups of tea and it's all as cozy as all get out. These people never think of CRM solutions.

Customer relationship management is mostly about people. You need a way to store information, to make it available to the people who need it, and to associate it with the tasks it should be used for. This could certainly be done with pencil and paper and lots of meetings (or conversations over tea). If you have one client at a time and two prospects in the pipeline, that's a practical approach.

Every small business needs a CRM, yet studies show that most CRM installations fail. We don't want that to happen to you, so we're offering something very special to businesses in our area: a 30 day free trial with support.