Business Software Suites

Champ: Microsoft

By Jennifer Lawinski, ChannelWeb

3:00 PM EDT Fri. Apr. 14, 2006
From the April 17, 2006 issue of CRN

Microsoft should be pleased to find itself at the top of the business software game. The Redmond, Wash., software giant was the clear Channel Champion in the business software suites category.

Microsoft clocked in at 80.2, which was 4.7 points ahead of second-place Oracle's 75.5 rating in the 2006 Channel Champions partner satisfaction survey. SAP scored 74.3 and Sage Software, 72.3.

"They're very stable and it's a good company to work with," said Linda Rose, president of Rose Business Solutions, a longtime Microsoft partner in San Diego. "I'm pretty happy with how things are."

Apparently so are a lot of partners. The Microsoft Dynamics software collection, formerly called Microsoft Business Suites and including its Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Navision and CRM products, earned the highest rating on all four technical criteria, with a composite score that was 5 points ahead of Oracle.

Microsoft's technical strengths included ease of integrating professional services, ease of adding features and price/performance. Solution providers judged Microsoft's product quality and reliability only slightly higher than Oracle's.

Solution providers also gave Microsoft the highest marks in channel program satisfaction. It rose 8.6 points higher than Oracle in vendor support and 7.1 points ahead in technical education. It also showed strength in service revenue opportunities, keeping solution providers informed and ease of sale of core products.

"The channel programs were wonderful because we are able to offer the software through that channel very successfully," said Bill Burke, president of Merit Solutions, Wheaton, Ill., a Microsoft ISV with a compliance solution for Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains. "Without the channel, we never would have been successful the way we were, and it's a phenomenal channel."

If Microsoft had any weaknesses in the eyes of solution providers, it was in its responsiveness to solution provider feedback, where it came in even with SAP and Oracle, and in reducing channel conflict, where it tied with SAP.

In past surveys, channel conflict was a much larger challenge for Microsoft, as it dealt with problems associated with integrating product lines and partner programs. Partners now seem to be saying that, with its rebranded lineup, Microsoft is in a good position to tackle the SMB market.

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