Conspiracy Theories And Convergence

Vista Conspiracy Theories. They're out there.

One hypothesis about the slip of Vista into next year (for consumers) is that Microsoft hopes to concentrate all its holiday marketing firepower on its new game platform. Why compete with yourself for the joysticks and dollars of the Christmas shopper?

With Sony's much-ballyhooed new PlayStation 3 to be delayed, Microsoft could make hay this holiday season provided partners can ramp up production of the hardware. Microsoft has said Xbox has been "supply constrained." Then this week, the infamous week of Vista slippage, it says that it's upping supplies.

Note: Conspiracy theorists might also think that's just playing games with games. There's nothing like claiming short supplies to drum up demand.

At any rate, whether you believe that the Vista/Office delays are part of some nefarious plot or not depends on whether you see Microsoft as a diabolical manipulator or just plain incompetent. (Come to think of it, the same thing could be said of leaders in the broader, political realm as well.)

Depending on the day, many change their minds. Just a thought.

And Now From Convergence

Meanwhile in sunny Dallas, Microsoft Business Solutions customers are lining up for hands-on sessions Saturday at the convention center.

On Sunday morning (arrrgggh!), Microsoft Business Division prez Jeff Raikes will talk up the whole role-based ERP/CRM scenario and plans for continued-and- tighter integration between the ERP lineups and Microsoft Office.

Given the recent news of delays to both Vista and Office offerings, maybe Microsoft should rethink this whole "integrated stack" message, but apparently not.

Microsoft execs say they're happy with the re-branding of the various Axapta, Navision, Great Plains, Solomon brands to "Dynamics." Some partners aren't so perky. Several said they are refusing to re-design their Web sites to reflect the change. "We're a Great Plains partner and Great Plains has a great rep. No one knows what Dynamics GP is," said one long time partner.

On the other hand, several partners report that interest in and even sales of Dynamics CRM are brisk. None of them attribute that briskness to the branding however. It's jus that Microsoft has a product now in Version 3.0 that actually works.

Microsoft may (or may not) discuss Titan, a multi-tenant version of CRM, this week. They need to say something to blunt Salesforce.com momentum, partners say.

Odds are the company will put some details around Titan at the show if only to clear up confusion.

Late last year, the company sent mixed messages about the timing of this release. CEO Steve Ballmer was promising it soon—as in this year, while CRM chief Brad Wilson played down such expectations. Last January when a reporter told MBS senior veep Doug Burgum that she was inclined to believe Ballmer given his rank. Burgum urged caution:

"We're the ones who have to build and deliver and Steve wishes everything was here yesterday so you may want to go with what MBS says," he noted.

The other big open question is whether the company will discuss plans to move its ERP wares to a per-user pricing model from the current, and complicated, per module model.

And finally, long-time Great Plains types in particular, would love to hear if Microsoft has found a new MBS leader to assume some of Burgum's duties. Burgum will stay on as chairman.

At this point, all that can be said is: Stay tuned.