A breif explanation of my current configuration:

My laptop is a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad Z61p with Intel DualCore 2Ghz, 1GB RAM, 100GB SATA HDD, Windows XP Pro SP2, Office Professional with SP2

CRM 3.0 Small Business runnning on SBS Premium 2003

 

First off, if Microsoft's CRM wasn't so stink sweet and intuitive and easy to use, I wouldn't bother. I've used SalesLogix by Sage Software, and though that is a great CRM app, I think Microsoft's is by far better. It integrates with Outlook 2003 in such a way that you don't need to access another program to run CRM, its all inclusive in Outlook. Appointments and contacts sync seamlessly between the two so you can sync it from your computer to any PDA. There's a mobile version of CRM for Microsoft Windows Mobile but I havent installed it yet. Have you? Is it worth it?

 

I've been running CRM 3.0 for a few months now and I do really love it, but its a resource hog! The MSDE it installs on takes about 200MB RAM, which isn't bad for my laptop, but my coworkers have lesser laptop and it bogs their systems down a lot. Also, it does chew on the processors a lot without any release (unless I close Outlook).  When my computer is idle, CRM is offline, and Outlook 2003 SP2 is set to Work Offline, outlook.exe utilizes about 40-55% of my processors! What is Outlook thinking about? When this happens, it takes 10-15 seconds to open Word and Excel files and even write an email in offline mode. When CRM is online and Outlook is also online and I'm local to the CRM server (over ethernet) it does the same thing.

 

Its a little bearable for myself because even at half processor availability, i can get most of my work done, once in a while i'll close outlook just to get some functions done. With Outlook closed, Word and Excel open quickly as expected for these hardware specs. My coworkers are on slower computers and laptops and their outlook will lock up for 2-4 minutes between opening and closing.

 

I just reinstalled Outlook 2003 and SP2 and have not installed CRM yet and everything is quite happy. Processor is idling around 1-5%. I'm going to install CRM in a few days, once I know Outlook is happy and try it again, but I know from experience, its going to bog my computer again.

What can be done? Is anyone else experiencing similar issues? Microsoft, help!