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Microsoft Corp. made available for public download on Monday the sample code and case study documentation for its “Project Elixir”—technology that makes Outlook a front end for Siebels CRM on the back end.
Microsoft released the Elixir bits via the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network).
Based on Microsoft Office 2003, Elixir is a solution Microsoft developed for internal use to make its CRM (customer relationship management) data stored in the companys different customer back-end systems more accessible to the Microsoft sales force.
“The average big company has multiple back-end systems that dont talk to each other,” Group Project Manager Tim OBrien of Microsofts Platform Strategy Group explained.
“People forget that were an enterprise customer, too, and we need solutions & #133; That was the thought process behind sharing Elixir. This is how we handled a challenge.”
Microsoft first floated the idea of releasing its Elixir solution publicly last year, announcing that it planned to release Elixir as a set of software tools other companies could use, a move some viewed as an attempt to increase the uptake of future versions of its Office suite, and increase its market share in the CRM field.
“I suspect theyll revise the resources for Office 12, and Elixir is certainly a leading indicator of the type of application Microsoft hopes more developers will be able to create with Office 12, using simplified tools,” Burton Group senior analyst Peter OKelly told Microsoft Watch.