T-Systems to offer hosted Navision service

Germany’s T-Systems International will extend its portfolio of hosted CRM (customer relationship management) services for medium-size businesses with an offering from Microsoft’s Navision enterprise application unit.

“We hope to add Navision to our range of hosted CRM services within the next few months,” said T-Systems spokesman Stefan König in an interview at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, which opens to the public on Thursday.

T-Systems is the IT systems and international network infrastructure arm of Deutsche Telekom. Last month, the company rolled out a hosted CRM service based on technology from Siebel Systems.

König was unable to confirm whether T-Systems would offer a discount for the Navision offering, similar to the one for Siebel.

Companies signing up for Siebel’s CRM OnDemand service pay a fixed monthly price of €70 ($93) per user and no software license is required. Those subscribing to the service by May 16 will receive the first month free and a 20 percent discount for a one-year contract, König said.

The German IT service provider also offers a hosted CRM service from rival SAP, according to König. “We are providing this service as part of our comprehensive offering of SAP products,” he said.

The Navision unit was formed after Microsoft acquired Danish application developer Navision A/S in 2002. Since then, the Redmond, Washington, software giant has been taking steps to become a significant player in the mid-market enterprise applications market.

In addition to the Navision offering, T-Systems plans to bundle its voice and data services with other Microsoft products, including its Office package, said T-Systems Chief Executive Officer and Deutsche Telekom board member Konrad Reiss, at a news conference. “We aim to offer customers one-stop product and services,” he said.

Under the strategic partnership, T-Systems customers requiring support with Microsoft software products can contact the German IT service provider, which will bring in Microsoft technicians if necessary, according to König.

T-Systems is also in talks with Cisco Systems about new network technology and EMC about new storage systems aimed at medium-size companies, according to Reiss.

As part of its reorganization, T-Systems is now responsible for 60 multinational companies and more than 160,000 large, medium and small-size companies, as well as the entire networking infrastructure of the Deutsche Telekom group worldwide.

Last week, the U.K. government short-listed the German company to bid on the data-entry part of the country’s planned nationwide toll system for trucks.

T-Systems is a member of the consortium that built the German toll system.

Cebit runs through Wednesday.