Microsoft acquires FieldOne, for Dynamics CRM

Today, Microsoft announced the acquisition of FieldOne Systems LCC, makers of the cloud based field services management software FieldOne.

In an announcement by Bob Stutz, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, today’s acquisition is described as a “great fit” for Dynamics CRM to help expand its customer service capabilities. The strengths of FieldOne that Microsoft hopes will bolster Dynamics, their Customer Relations Management software platform which competes with other platforms such as Salesforce.com, are described as:

“Their industry-leading solution specializes in delivering a full set of capabilities that include work order management, automated scheduling, asset contract, inventory and procurement management, workflow capabilities and mobile collaboration – providing enterprises with a comprehensive modern field service solution. This gives companies the ability to do things such as adjusting routing on the fly and delivering service arrival estimate times within a smaller window, which is essential for more personal customer engagement.”

In today’s announcement, Stutz also says that the purchase of FieldOne is part of Microsoft’s investment in delivering true systems of intelligence. Stutz goes on to say that Microsoft will help companies leverage predictive field services through a combination of FieldOne, Azure IoT, and Cortana Analytics; offering a solution that moves away from a reactive field service model of just fixing things when it breaks, to a predictive model.

If more predictive intelligence is brought to Dynamics in addition to this acquisition, Dynamics CRM would gain abilities greater than the sum of its parts, potentially differentiating the CRM solution from its competitors.