March 9, 2005

This is a busy week in ERP (enterprise resource planning), since both SAP, the company indisputably at the high end of the industry, and Microsoft, which is making a move directed more at smaller businesses, are having events.

Microsoft's event, Convergence 2005, is actually under the aegis of Microsoft Business Solutions, the group that is headed up by Doug Burgum and charged with attaining billions of dollars in applications revenue for Microsoft.

Burgum delivered a keynote to the attendees during which he presented a roadmap for Microsoft ERP.

Before getting into the details, Burgum noted high-level themes and tools that would unify the Microsoft ERP experience. First, Microsoft ERP "will move towards a common role-based user experience where roles will surface in our product, where the person using it will have an interface that is specific to their role..." Microsoft has mapped about 50 common roles so far.

Burgum also underlined the importance of Microsoft SharePoint Portal, which will serve as an organizational and presentation layer for workflow, connectivity, and communications.

Finally, via Web services, Microsoft ERP architecture reflects an "approach of opening up the APIs of our current product lines to allow the deep integration of other products and allow extensions to occur by your partners and by ISVs." This will be of particular benefit to larger customers with a greater need for customization and vertical-specific functionality.

Moving on to specific release dates, Burgum offered an overview of the fate of various product lines, best summarized in this information taken from Microsoft's website:

Microsoft Business Solutions--Axapta. Microsoft will release the Microsoft Axapta 3.0 Service Pack 4 in the second quarter of 2005. Availability of a beta version of Microsoft Axapta 4.0 is expected in the fourth quarter of 2005 with a release to manufacturing expected in the first half of 2006.

Microsoft Business Solutions--Great Plains. Microsoft will launch Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Extensions in the first quarter of 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2005, Microsoft Great Plains 8.5 and Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal 3.0 will be made available.

Microsoft Business Solutions--Navision. Microsoft will launch Microsoft Navision 4.01 in the third quarter of 2005.

Microsoft Business Solutions--Solomon. Microsoft Business Solutions--Solomon 6.5 is expected in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM. The next version of Microsoft CRM will be released to manufacturing in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics--Forecaster. Microsoft Forecaster 7.0 will be released in the third quarter of 2005. In the first quarter of 2006, integration of Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics--FRx 6.7 with Microsoft Navision 3.0 and Microsoft Navision 4.0 will be introduced. In the first half of 2006, Microsoft FRx 7.0 will be introduced, with Microsoft Forecaster 8.0 scheduled for launch in the second half of 2006.

Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System. Microsoft will launch a next-generation point-of-sale solution in the second quarter of 2005.

Obviously, this is a lot of functionality, but Microsoft points out that the different ERP products have different sweet spots.

Strategically, the company is betting on different product lines to match the many different segments and needs within the SMB segment. For example, Great Plains is more of a mid-market and small enterprise product and, between the other products, Microsoft covers every other subsegment. Meanwhile, some of the e-business needs of small and home offices (SOHOs) are already covered by Microsoft Office.

Interestingly, in conclusion, Burgum connected the dots between IT strategy and growth itself: "I've had the joy of having the experience of working at a startup to working at a fast growing small company to working at a midsized company to working at a very fast growing public company that was becoming global...it was an experience of how do you build a company like that."

Source: Line 56