Microsoft Dynamics Corporate VP Bob Stutz Steps Down

In a stunner today, Microsoft Corporate VP Bob Stutz stepped down from his job running Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

MSDynamicsWorld broke the story, and Microsoft has confirmed the news in a statement.

Bob Stutz will be leaving Microsoft and will take a well-deserved break.  Over the past 3.5 years, Bob and his team have transformed Dynamics CRM from an industry challenger to a clear leader.  We thank Bob for his contributions and wish him the best in his next adventure

A memo with the news went out to employees today at 4 pm, and Jujhar Singh, who has been a key player on the team, will be taking over for Stutz. As for Singh, Microsoft had this to say in a statement:

Jujhar has been a key driver of innovation in our CRM business and was responsible for the product strategy and direction of the Dynamics CRM product line and incubating newly acquired companies.

Chris Kanaracus, who is managing editor and principal analyst at Constellation Research, says it’s too soon to say how the change will affect the overall direction of the program.

“I think it is difficult for anyone to predict just what Jujhar Singh will do, but the Dynamics Convergence conference is coming up in 3-4 months. Any major strategic plans and messaging changes are going to start happening right now,” he said.

According to his online bio, Stutz was “responsible for defining the long-term strategy and technology direction as well as the development and delivery of on-premises and cloud versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM worldwide.”

The move is a big blow to Microsoft as Stutz has been a key player in building the Dynamics CRM tool, R Ray Wang is who is founder at Constellation Research told TechCrunch.

“He’s been building a team that has kept Salesforce on its toes. They turned Dynamics CRM into a worthy competitor for SFDC,” Wang said.

Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has been making a concerted effort to build up the CRM tool and try to compete more strongly with Salesforce, SAP and Oracle in the CRM market. To that end, it has built a cloud and on-premises version of the software and has a major update coming out at the end of this quarter (soon).

In an move to give upgrade the update some sex appeal, the company is integrating it with Microsoft Delve, a tool designed to help surface information, a key feature for busy sales people. It’s also integrating with the voice command module, Cortana, to enable users to interact with the program using voice commands, and it’s designed to work with the Cortana Analytics suite announced earlier this year.

All of this is designed to push the CRM tool, where Microsoft has lagged in marketshare behind Salesforce, SAP and Oracle.

There is speculation about where Stutz will land next, with some people suggesting it could be at one of Microsoft’s CRM rivals, but we will have to wait and see on that point.

Tesla Hires Google VP Of Finance Jason Wheeler As New CFO

After earnings today, Tesla has made a couple of executive announcements. First, it has named a new CFO, Jason Wheeler.

Wheeler spent 13 years at Google as its VP of Finance and let its global finance function. He replaces Deepak Ahuja who announced his retirement early this year. Ahuja will stay on for a few months to help transition to Wheeler on November 30th.

Here’s what Wheeler had to say on joining:

Tesla has also hired Jon McNeill as President of Global Sales and Service. McNeill is the former CEO of Enservio. His arrival is a double-punch for finance, sales and service at the company.

It’s more than a notable hire, especially given all of the financial gymnastics that Google, and now Alphabet, has gone through this past year. It’s been an impressive, seemingly seamless, exercise. Moving parts? Tesla has them, so Wheeler will be plenty busy.

Rocket Internet-Backed Nestpick Raises $11M To Move Entire Rental Process Online

For years you’ve been able to find a room to rent online via classified sites such as Craigslist or more vertical offerings. But once you’ve found your prospective rental, the process quickly moves off-line. Nestpick — backed, though not founded, by Rocket Internet — wants to change this.

The Berlin-based startup is aiming to ‘digitise’ the entire rental process, including eliminating the need for in-person viewings. And to aid that mission, the company has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Investors is this round include Mangrove Capital Partners, Enern and, of course, Rocket Internet.

Nestpick says the new capital will be used to create a better experience for the landlords and tenants that used the site, which since launch has broadened its target market from international students and expats to just about anybody looking for a rental. It now counts local tenants as making up over 30 per cent of its customer base.

“Our typical customer books accommodation with us for 7 months and treats Nestpick as his preferred way of moving from then on because it’s convenient, and at least four times cheaper,” Nestpick founder Fabian Dudek tells TechCrunch. “Tenants can book with us and receive confirmation in less than 48 hours with one click instead of hundreds of e-mails, calls, and scheduling conflicts.”

In addition, Dudek says the startup is attracting landlords who are already renting to tenants for between three months and three years via classifieds, but know that the process could be made more efficient.

“Landlords are tired of spending 20-40 hours each time they rent out their properties despite receiving so many enquiries, and they hate losing months of rent from the transition between tenants,” he says.

“Our challenge is to seamlessly connect these two worlds – the old fashioned real estate market made up of landlords who are uncertain about new technology and the current generation of tenants that are all mobile-first, and use apps like Instagram, Tinder, and Spotify every day.”

Fraud is another problem Nestpick is aiming to solve. Dudek claims that 1 out of 3 home seekers encounter a scammer online and that renters typically contact an average of 15 agents or 50 landlords on multiple platforms in order to secure a single viewing.

“Instead of that process, imagine walking through a new neighborhood that you love in any country, and being able to book your next home straight from your phone entirely online,” he says.

That imaginative leap may still be a stretch too far for some — given landlord horror stories, would you really want to rent a room without seeing it in person first? — but early Nestpick data suggests the timing is right. True to Rocket Internet form, the site is already active in 35 cities across eight European countries and recently launched in Australia. The company says it has listed more than 21,000 homes and transacted over €16 million in rental income for landlords in the last year.