Microsoft Business Solutions is to develop a "unified global solution" for its business applications, based around its SQL Server database and the .NET development environment. While it develops its all-encompassing Microsoft Business Framework, the company said it would continue to support the product families it has acquired in the past two years.
A strategy paper that emerged from last week's business solutions "Stampede" in Minneapolis set out the company's masterplan for accounting and ERP software.
The Microsoft Business Framework is its ultimate goal, but Microsoft Business Solutions said it was "committed to continuing to invest in and enhance all editions of the Microsoft Business Solutions product family including Solomon, Navision, Great Plains and Axapta".
Microsoft is working to establish its .NET development environment as the basis for Web services that will let different .NET applications co-operate with each other. Microsoft CRM, due to be launched over the next three months, illustrates how Microsoft will use .NET to develop new "horizontal" products that will expand its application portfolio. At the Stampede, MBS announced plans for retail management and professional services automation products - but has since clarified that there are no plans to deliver these products in Europe.
The new .NET applications will surround the existing ERP software families and lure users into the new environment.
"If you currently license Great Plains, Solomon, Navision or Axapta and if you stay current on the Microsoft Business Solutions Enhancement Program/Upgrade Program, you will be able to move to the Microsoft Business Solutions .NET solution without having to repurchase the functionality you already license," the strategy paper explained. "Any functionality equivalents between current solutions and the .NET solution are included as part of the Enhancement Program/Upgrade Program."
Hardware upgrades are not included and the migration offer will only apply for users who use Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and/or Axapta systems running on Microsoft SQL Server when they move to the global .NET-based solution.
The current name for this software Shangri-La is the Microsoft Business Framework. While it rolls out applications to enhance and "surround" the existing ERP families, MBS will build a new generation of applications "from the ground up" on what it calls an "enabling platform designed specifically for the next generation of interconnected global business solutions".
The paper concluded: "Microsoft Business Solutions' customers will be able to move to this unified solution when it makes sense for them to do so. This means that their investments made today and yesterday are even more valuable, because they enable the customers to manage their businesses now, while helping them prepare for the expanded benefits delivered over the coming months and years driven by .NET deliverables."
