Well we've got our CRM 2006s/2 (AKA CRM 5.2) up and running and the most immediate change is the new UI. 

CRM 2006s/2 has a bit of a mixed history and is principally positioned for customers new to CRM who wanted an easy way to transition to CRM 2007.  Originally CRM 2006s/2 was never going to see General Availability but last month SAP changed their mind and announced that it was going to be generally released from December 2007 and would be in support until 2010.  This is still one year short of CRM 5.0 that enjoys support until 2011.  So I still get the sense that customers will be encouraged to upgrade to CRM 2007. 

There has also been some discussion about upgrade paths and whether they are actually available.  Until we try it we can???t say for sure how difficult an upgrade would be, but depending upon the components already implemented there does appear to be an upgrade path. 

SAP claim that users have been crying out for this new UI and I would agree that PC UI (People Centric User Interface) was never the slickest or most wieldy interface out there.  Indeed, it was not only unwieldy to use, it was typically a pain to develop in.  The new CRM Webclient is supposed to overcome these issues both from an end user and a developer perspective.  So does it live up to the hype? 

Here are my thoughts after spending a day exploring. 

What you'll immediately notice

Gone is the 3 level menu from PC UI.  This is replaced with a simplified 2 level menu down the left side of the screen.  Clicking on the first level only takes you to what SAP are calling a 'workcentre'.  This is in effect a second level menu that takes up the whole screen.