\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/cba8e_gettyimages-sb10065788g-002.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Microsoft<\/a> has had a fair bit of investment action with\u00a0InsideSales<\/a>, the startup with a unicorn valuation of $1.5 billion, and today they are expanding that relationship with some product integration.<\/p>\n The companies announced\u00a0that InsideSales Playbooks will be available on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.<\/p>\n Playbooks offer customers a set of recommendations aimed at sales teams, such as the best person to call and the most likely accounts that will end up in a sale. This is all driven by artificial intelligence underpinnings, which InsideSales CEO Dave Elkington says requires a fair bit of data.<\/p>\n While InsideSales is reaching sufficient size to have a fairly substantial set of data on its own, he said, having access to Microsoft\u2019s considerable data set, including LinkedIn, gives even more data fuel to drive the information in Playbooks.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the data we get through partnerships with platform partners like Salesforce and Microsoft\u2026goes into the data lake and allow us to train the algorithms across every platform and customer,\u201d Elkington explained.<\/p>\n And of course, being partners with Microsoft means having access to its sales team, a highly valuable proposition in itself for a startup like InsideSales. \u201cMicrosoft is in a lot of new enterprise deals. Microsoft Dynamics has more traction than most people expect or anticipate in enterprise CRM. They also seem to have a strong footprint internationally, especially in [Europe and the Middle East] and we have strong footprint there,\u201d Elkington explained.<\/p>\n According to market share figures from Gartner<\/a>, Microsoft\u00a0is still far back in the CRM market pack with just 4.3 percent market share, well behind market leader Salesforce, which had 19.7 percent for 2015, the most recent year\u2019s figures available.<\/p>\n InsideSales has more than a product-level relationship with Microsoft, with Redmond being part of a $50 million investment round in January,<\/a>\u00a0and also participating\u00a0in a $60 million round <\/a>in 2015. That round was led by none other than Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Microsoft\u2019s primary\u00a0CRM frenemy Salesforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n This funding tit-for-tat takes place against a broader backdrop\u00a0in which Microsoft is trying to at once interoperate with Salesforce, while grabbing business wherever it makes sense. It certainly raised some eyebrows when it announced a big deal with HP<\/a> last year, grabbing a chunk of business from Salesforce.<\/p>\n None of that matters to InsideSales of course, which is happy to remain somewhat neutral and work with both companies to whatever extent it can. There is no upside for a startup to take sides in this. It makes much more sense to try to work as a partner with as many companies as possible, and take advantage of the traction (and the data) they\u00a0bring with their customer bases.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, we are a better company for our customers independent, at least for the time being. Our ability to be neutral and cross platform allows us to access more data and provide more value,\u201d Elkington explained.<\/p>\n That makes sense, but it\u2019s hard not to notice they seem to be more involved with Microsoft than ever before, whatever you choose to read into that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n