Microsoft is about to change the branding of CRM Live before CRM Live is officially out the gate, sources say.

Word is when the Microsoft-hosted customer relationship management goes fully — um — live, it will be branded CRM Online. While the hosted CRM has been in test for months, it’s slated to ship (no longer the right word I guess) by the end of June.

The latest Dynamics CRM code base underlies the on-premise or partner-hosted CRM 4.0 as well as CRM Live, er CRM Online. Thus, this generation of the product has become the poster child for Microsoft’s “software plus services” launch.

The re-labeling makes sense since Microsoft has said it wants the “Live” descriptor to represent consumer-y offerings and “online” to front business-y offerings.

Anyway … word is the directive comes from the big guy (Steve Ballmer) his own self.

Microsoft could not be reached for comment. 

[Update: On Thursday afternoon, a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that this branding change was in the works.] 

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.