New Solution Offerings On Microsoft's Agenda

The first series of Microsoft Solution Offerings (MSOs) will focus on enterprise portal, e-commerce, content management and business-intelligence needs, channel sources said.

The software giant also plans MSOs for CRM, ERP and human resources.

The software and services offerings will be based on the company's Great Plains software for the midmarket but will be pitched higher up the food chain, sources close to the effort said.

"Microsoft is definitely going upmarket with its Great Plains applications to compete against Oracle's financial suite," said one source who was briefed on the effort two weeks ago.

Solution provider sources said Microsoft also plans to debut an enterprise portal MSO based on its forthcoming .Net-enabled upgrade of SharePoint; an e-content management MSO leveraging the forthcoming .Net-enabled Content Management Server; an e-commerce MSO based on the .Net-enabled version of Commerce Server 2002, and several new business-intelligence offerings based on SQL Server.

Microsoft said the next series of solutions combining .Net enterprise servers with prescriptive tools, support and service to solve specific business problems will launch over the next year and a half.

"We delivered phase one, and you should expect additional capabilities on top of these in the next six to 18 months," said Valerie Olague, director of enterprise marketing at Microsoft. She confirmed there would be about 25 new MSOs.

Microsoft shipped offerings for supplier enablement and intranets last November and delivered Microsoft Solution for Internet Business in January, Olague said. The MSOs, developed under the code name Sable, are aimed at enterprises, while the Great Plains business unit focuses on the SMB market.

"Microsoft is making strides in changing their identity from a pure products company into a solutions company. It's more than about shiny CDs," said Bob Lord, COO of Razorfish.

Another Microsoft solution provider said he sees the move toward solutions as positive for channel partners.

"The most effective way to sell Microsoft products is to sell a solution that leverages the power of the individual products working in concert," said Michael Cocanower, president of ITSynergy, Phoenix. "The bottom line is that the product sales are still going to be the key going forward,they are merely utilizing a smarter strategy than simply pushing license sales," he said.

"We are participating in the MSO program in the high-end environment," said an executive at a large systems integrator, noting he is familiar with CRM, business-intelligence and ERP MSOs for enterprises. "You'll see more MSOs for enterprises and new system-level agreements from Microsoft."

BARBARA DARROW contributed to this story.