Intuit jumps into the CRM pond

The maker of QuickBooks has decided they also want some of the CRM pie:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114498&intsrc=hm_list

Good luck to them. The more competition the better. Will it work? History is against them.

Microsoft used to have an integration piece between CRM and Great Plains but this disappeared in a whimper with version 4 ('coming real soon' is the official line). There is nothing for the other ERPs in the Dynamics stable. I'm guessing they have given up on direct connection and push folk towards BizTalk (prediction of the week: Watch this space from Microsoft. There is a chasm here waiting to be filled by way of an online integration piece (think MobileMe but for business apps) and from what I'm seeing and hearing Microsoft are moving the pieces to make this happen).

NetSuite has probably had the most success bringing them together but despite huge marketing campaigns they haven't made much of a dent in the CRM space.

Sage has ERP systems and CRM systems but more often than not their customers have one or the other and integration is ad hoc. The exception would be Sage CRM, which is an afterthought of its associated accounting system. While their focus is on Sage CRM and not on the more mature SalesLogix it will be Sage's version of NetSuite.

The first company to nail the CRM-ERP consolidation will be the obvious choice for new businesses (existing companies won't swap out their ERP, its too much like hard work). Given Intuit's SFA module is still in beta I'm guessing this isn't it but there is always version 2.0...