Most readers by now have probably seen the news: Microsoft Releases Next Generation CRM Solution for On-Premise and On-Demand Deployment. The press release (see previous link) has all the appropriate high level information. You'll now see me shift my naming convention from Titan (the project codename) to CRM 4.0 (the name of the actual product).

This is a good time to de-mystify some of the terms used recently in some of the news coverage and other blogs. RTM means Release to Manufacturing. It does not mean 'release to customers/partners' aka. General Availability (GA). It simply means that the core R&D people have done their jobs - not that you can go buy the product. Now there are plenty more people down the chain who have important jobs to. The core team signed off on the product's functionality last Friday: essentially saying - we are done building features and fixing bugs. At the moment the packages (the various files which you install the product from) are undergoing intensive verification and testing. Once we are happy with the packages themselves we will then activate the various download sites (which takes a bit of time to go through the various checks and balances).

Think of it this way: BMW is making a new car. Let's call it the 4 series. They do all the design, crash testing, racetrack performance analysis and then they create the first 'batch'. Seeing the first cars roll off the assembly line is a great achievement for the team - so they get a little drunk and send out a few emails saying they have completed the 4 series. Now unfortunately some customers hear about this and they really want to buy a 4 series (because it's really cool). They walk into their local BMW dealer the next day and say: "Where are all the 4 series". We are still in the process of getting those 'new cars' to you.

If you are a customer/partner waiting for the bits as the press release says the International English version "will be available within the next seven days to new and existing partners and customers". As soon as the downloads are live I'll post a link with the appropriate information.