Microsoft Corp. will not make its planned end-of-year deadline for general availability of the first version of its Microsoft CRM suite, company officials acknowledged Wednesday.

The customer relationship management software, which will be at least initially targeted at the small-to-medium business segment, remains in final testing of the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) stage and will shortly move to RC2. But general availability is now slated for "early 2003," according to a company spokeswoman.

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