Inside MS-CRM goes Outside

It all started with an email to a few guys working on a replacement lead management solution for MSN. The point of that email was that we could change the way software was built and create a new model for our partners around linking software to services in the clouds. Wow, now that I look back on it, that seems like a long time ago. Funny thing is that reading that email today brings back lots of memories of being very excited about being on the brink of something huge. When I read that email again last week while dusting off my office I realized that the excitement is still there. It's just shifted a bit for me.

The MS-CRM team has grown and changed over the last (nearly) seven years and I'm glad I was a part of it. I think the team set out to build something and after a few fits and starts actually outdid itself. We learned a lot on the way - both good and bad. I've grown and changed a lot over those same years. I've filled three roles on the CRM team: architect, developer, and overall pain in the butt. To any of those folks who dealt with me while I was on a rampage I apologize.

My decision to leave the team really didn't come as easily as a lot of people might think. There's a lot of cool work to be done on the product and I wanted to be part of that. However, I leave the product in very capable and caring hands. I trust them to do the right thing and I trust that they'll probably bounce their ideas off me on occasion just to see what the old guy says.

You know, it's kind of funny. I actually thought that MS-CRM would be the last team I'd work on at Microsoft. I really believe that the product has a future and I think the environment in which it sits today will start to adopt some of the principles that we put into the product. There were a few times where I figured this would be my last Microsoft job because I wasn't going to find anything else cool to work on. Yeah, I know, it sounds weird what with all the things that Microsoft does, but I couldn't find anything else I wanted to work on.

For the foreseeable future or the next year, whichever comes first I'm going to be working on hybrid line of business applications. One of the things I'd like to do is go back to the vision in that original email and see if we can tie all the goodness that is MS-CRM with a bunch more goodness in the clouds. So, I guess I'm going to start looking at MS-CRM as an ISV from the Outside.

This is going to be pretty damned cool.