Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Microsoft CRM Revenues Too Good To Be True?

The rare public look provided last week by market researchers at Gartner into vendor-by-vendor CRM revenues is raising some critical attention.

In a blog post Monday, Constellation Research Principal Analyst and CEO R "Ray" Wang argues the figures, especially Microsoft's $1 billion in 2012 CRM revenues, "do not meet the general sniff test."

For the record, Wang notes that he thinks the revenue figures for Oracle and SAP are inflated, too, although he agrees with the headline of Gartner's research -- that Salesforce.com claimed the top CRM spot from SAP in the last year.

With experience both as an analyst and as head of CRM analyst relations for PeopleSoft back in the mid-2000s, Wang acknowledges that it "is hard work" divining revenues from software vendors, who would just as soon hide their sales or lead analysts to more positive conclusions than reality warrants.

Nonetheless, Wang zeroes in on Microsoft's past public statements about overall Dynamics revenues, including both ERP and CRM. From that basis, he argues for Constellation Research's estimate that overall Microsoft Dynamics revenues totaled between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion in 2012. CRM would have had to grow exponentially and ERP would have had to crater, Wang contends, for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to hit $1 billion on its own.

For what it's worth, Microsoft has been quiet about the alleged milestone, as well. There are no mentions of $1 billion in CRM revenue in the Dynamics newsroom or in Microsoft's section on analyst coverage or in the official Dynamics blog. That could mean Microsoft is throwing a wet blanket on the numbers or simply that the software giant doesn't want to call attention to a fourth-place finish.

Related:

Posted by Scott Bekker on May 07, 2013


Featured

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.

  • Windows 365 Reserve, Microsoft's Cloud PC Rental Service, Hits Preview

    Microsoft has launched a limited public preview of its new "Windows 365 Reserve" service, which lets organizations rent cloud PC instances in the event their Windows devices are stolen, lost or damaged.

  • Hands-On AI Skills Now Outshine Certs in Salary Stakes

    For AI-related roles, employers are prioritizing verifiable, hands-on abilities over framed certificates -- and they're paying a premium for it.

  • Roadblocks in Enterprise AI: Data and Skills Shortfalls Could Cost Millions

    Businesses risk losing up to $87 million a year if they fail to catch up with AI innovation, according to the Couchbase FY 2026 CIO AI Survey released this month.