Midmarket Attack

That, plus new Microsoft-backed credit programs and a raft of midmarket applications from Microsoft Business Solutions, could help solution providers breathe life into their stressed businesses, partners said last week at the annual Stampede conference here.

"The devil is in the details, but Microsoft certainly has the resources to make good on this [plan," said Yacov Wrocherinsky, president of Infinity Info Systems, a New York-based CRM integrator.

Many partners at the show bemoaned the down economy, prolonged sales cycles, and peaked IT budgets.

Partners selling any Great Plains or Solomon financial software between now and Sept. 27 will get an additional 4 percent margin on those sales, said Don Nelson, general manager for Microsoft Business Solutions. Sales of those products between Sept. 27 and Oct. 24 will earn 2 percent additional margin, he said.

Microsoft also unveiled Total Solution Financing to customers that would cover not only Microsoft service and software, but ISV solutions, partner services and software, said Jeff Young vice president of North American sales at Microsoft Business Solutions.

The company promised to offer competitive interest rates and to reimburse partners for deals immediately upon closing.

"We'll change the playing field with this program, move more Microsoft licenses, more partner services, more ISV services, more hardware, everything a customer needs," said Jodi Uecker-Rust, corporate vice president of global sales, marketing and services at the group. "Partners will be made whole [with full commission for the terms of a deal on day one. Typically partners get only a percentage [of money back because of risk. We will make them whole right away [under the new program."

Microsoft used Stampede not only to show off the latest beta of its long-awaited Microsoft CRM (MS-CRM) application, but to overlay the Microsoft Business Solutions brand atop existing Great Plains, Navision and Solomon applications. The low-end Attain ERP application was re-christened Navision, and the current Great Plains Dynamics and eEnterprise financial applications were merged and rebranded simply Great Plains.

Microsoft acquired Navision last summer and Great Plains Software the year before that.

The company also sought to reassure ISVs that its aggressive entry into the midmarket does not mean it is out to eat their lunch.

Doug Burgum, president of Microsoft Business Solutions and former CEO of Great Plains Software, is spearheading that effort.

The group is focusing on what it calls "core midmarket" and "lower midmarket" customers (see chart), said Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing group.

That should keep it clear of Siebel Systems, a Microsoft partner focused on enterprise CRM buys that typically go direct or through large systems integrators, the company said. Last month, Siebel and Microsoft ended a three-year old deal that bundled Siebel Midmarket Edition with Great Plains financial apps.

Solution providers at the show were particularly bullish on MS-CRM, a relatively low-priced entry that could boost CRM in small businesses.

But Burgum stopped short of saying MS-CRM would never find a home in the enterprise. "Look at ACT [content management software, now owned by SalesLogix. Where does ACT reside? There's a lot of copies in the enterprise, so I would never say we are never going to do departmental if someone wants to buy it [and if some reseller wants to put it in a corporation," he said. "What I said is the upper limit will be where our partners want to take it."

Burgum said his group is chartered to add more and more functionality to its core software that ISVs can re-use in their custom and vertical applications.

The group will make that technology,perhaps application know-how up to and including general-ledger functionality,inexpensively and widely available, he said. "We could help insulate ISVs from changes on the platform," he said.