Ericsson has launched the Ericsson Telecom CRM, which integrates customer relationship management (CRM) and billing.

The launch is the result of the strategic alliance between Ericsson and Microsoft that was announced at Mobile World Congress 2011.

Ericsson Telecom CRM will help operators increase customer satisfaction - particularly in the areas of sales and customer care - by reducing the number and length of customer interactions. The product seamlessly renders valuable billing and subscriber data and functionality in an intuitive user environment. This helps operators to more efficiently address the needs of customers who place support calls, thereby reducing opex.

Ericsson Telecom CRM 1.0 is a customer relationship management product tailored to meet the needs of the telecom industry, based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and integrated with Ericsson's BSCS Ix convergent billing solution. This product is one of the ways that Ericsson and Microsoft are realising their goal of integrating customer relationship management and business support systems, an objective that was mentioned when the companies announced their alliance in February 2011.