Microsoft Reiterates ERP Game Plan

The company posted a broad-stroke ERP road map to its Web site Wednesday morning.

At the annual Convergence customer conference in March, Microsoft Senior Vice President Doug Burgum outlined upgrade plans for the four major business solutions lines and promised to support the current portfolio till 2013.

But in the wake of the blockbuster news last week that Microsoft had toyed with, and ruled out, an acquisition of ERP giant SAP, the company may have felt the need for message reinforcement. So on Wednesday, it once again pledged a Great Plains 8 version this summer and significant enhancements to Navision, Solomon, Axapta in the next 12 months.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft also disclosed that it was outsourcing future Solomon product development to a third party but would retain intellectual property rights to that line, so it may also have felt it necessary to stress continuity for Solomon customers.

The pressure is definitely on MBS--and its partners--to boost sales in the wake of last quarter's lackluster showing, several partners said.

Opinion was mixed as to whether the SAP move had confused Microsoft's SMB message. The fact that the software giant engaged in high-level talks with the enterprise ERP kingpin certainly countered Microsoft public pronouncements that it is not interested in attacking the enterprise applications market. The company has repeatedly said that its focus is on business applications for SMBs, although it left wiggle room by saying MBS wares will also find their way into departments and divisions of larger companies.

One east coast MBS partner said the SAP news is beside the point. "Microsoft is really gearing up for MBS this year and [today's announcement] is part of the awareness campaign. Better get used to it, you're going to hear tons of it. Microsoft is finally serious about biz apps," he said.

Even at Convergence 2004 in March, the message was more on near-term deliverables "aka products that can be sold--versus pie-in-the-sky futures like Project Green , the common code base that the company said will underlie all of its next-generation ERP offerings.

Perhaps the only real news in Wednesday's position paper is the five customer-centric technology themes for its ERP offerings. But even they had a familiar ring. The oddly worded pillars are: Best Total Cost of Ownership, Adaptive Processes, Empowered Users, Connected Business and Insightful.

The company also tried to parse out its often overlapping product lines and delineate their differences. Axapta targets advanced manufacturing and supply chain management for bigger companies. It is strongest in Europe. Great Plains focuses on mid-market customers and offers more out-of-the-box features and functions. Navision targets lower midmarket to midmarket niches and touts easy customization. Solomon's strength is in project management and distribution applications, according to the posting.

Even MBS resellers say that lineup is confusing to customers and even the partners themselves.