Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has partnered with Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) and C3.ai to launch a C3 AI® customer relationship management solution powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365. This first enterprise-class Ai-first CRM solution is purpose-developed for industries, and it integrates with Adobe Experince3 Cloud and offers customer-facing operations with predictive business insight.
Partnership to take on Salesforce
The partnership will leverage the companies’ combined resources to mount an effective challenge to Salesforce.com Inc.’s dominance in the CRM sector than any of them could do individually. Research company Gartner Inc. says that Salesforce is the largest CRM software vendor with around 20% share in the $56 billion markets as of 2019, with Microsoft Dynamics 365 offering on 2.6% of the market share.
According to the agreement, the partners will integrate Adobe Experience Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and C3.ai’s industry-specific data models, AI models, and connectors to create a joint go-to-market solution. The solution will offer an integrated industry-specific AI-powered CRM solutions suite that includes sales, customer service, and marketing. They will sell the CRM solutions to dedicated sales teams that target enterprise accounts across various industries and through agents and industry partners globally. The partners will also focus on vertical markets that include oil and gas, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, automotive, and healthcare.
Digitally fortified businesses resilient during the pandemic
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that businesses that are fortified by digital tech have been more resilient and capable of transforming this year when faced with challenges like the pandemic. Nadella said that together with Adobe and C3.ai, the company hopes to deliver a new class of industry-specific AI-enabled solutions to customers to digitize operations to unlock real-time insights. Also, considering the new CRM solution will run on Microsoft Azure cloud computing infrastructure, this will boost its cloud market share.
Thomas M Siebel, the CEO of C3.ai, said that Microsoft and Adobe are reinventing the market that Siebel Systems invented over 25 years ago. He said that market dynamics s and mandates for digital transformations have changed CRM market requirements.