Microsoft Wants MBS To Step It Up

Microsoft Business Solutions customers can expect to hear about near-term products, including Great Plains Version 8 and mobile support for Microsoft CRM, rather than distant offerings like Project Green., at Convergence 2004 this week in Orlando, Fla.

Both the mobile CRM support, to be delivered in a service pack, and Great Plains 8, with its Outlook-like interface, are due this summer, sources said. Partners expect a beta of the new Great Plains edition imminently.

MBS Senior Vice President Doug Burgum is expected to demonstrate version 8 at the show but references to Project Green will be muted since the next-gen MBS code base will not debut until after the Longhorn release of Windows. A Microsoft spokeswoman would not comment on product timing.

Microsoft's message to MBS and Microsoft "Classic" partners alike has been to turn up the volume on MBS sales. As an example, the company is recruiting CRM hosting partners who can compete with Salesforce.com.

Microsoft had hoped to disclose new partnerships at the show, but the news will now likely be delayed as the company sorts out the service provider licensing agreements (SPLAs) necessary for this model, sources said.

MBS, which fields Great Plains, Navision, Solomon, Axapta, and Microsoft CRM products, is under pressure to mimic the volume sales that Microsoft has come to expect from its other businesses.

MBS partners have long said, however, that such volumes do not come naturally to the slower, "higher-touch" business application sales process.

A hosted Microsoft CRM solution that offers just sales-force automation (SFA) features could be a placeholder for companies pondering weightier CRM implementations down the road.

"Microsoft doesn't want people installing Salesforce.com. If there's [a] thin-SFA [tool] going in, they want it to be from Microsoft," said Dan Duffy, CEO of Dallas-based ePartners, one of two current Microsoft CRM hosting partners, along with Surebridge, Lexington, Mass.