• Illustration: Microsoft Solutions Logo
• Chart: Solution Offerings Components
• Illustration: Architecture of an Integrated Solution

Microsoft has begun to roll out integrated solutions built from Microsoft server applications, detailed architectural guidelines, custom code, and consulting and support from Microsoft and its partners. Designed to deliver new functionality faster, and at lower cost than custom solutions, Microsoft’s integrated solutions still require additional configuration and customization by customers or consultants, but they are bringing Microsoft closer to the type of solutions offered by competitors—and sometimes by Microsoft partners—in carefully selected markets.

Drive to Integrated Solutions

Microsoft has recognized the need to market and sell its products as well-integrated solutions for several years, but many previous integration efforts have been little more than marketing exercises. Microsoft’s solutions Web site (www.microsoft.com/business/solutions) lists 10 "solutions," covering knowledge management, infrastructure management, customer management, and partner integration, but many of the solutions are simply descriptions of the role that Microsoft products could play in such a custom solution, rather than specifics on how to create it. Any customer interested in pursuing such a solution would need to have substantial in-house development skills or else hire Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) or a Microsoft partner to assemble a solution from individual Microsoft products.

Microsoft’s solution for customer relationship management (CRM), for example, lists 17 Microsoft products and services that could be used to build a custom solution, without describing in any detail how to put these products and services together.

But recent additions to Microsoft’s solution offerings show a much higher level of integration: customers can purchase a well-defined set of Microsoft applications, custom code, deployment guides, and support tailored to that specific solution. In addition, Microsoft will supply a list of partners trained to deliver that specific solution, including hosting partners who can offer Internet-based solutions for companies that may not have the ability or interest to run the entire solution themselves.

Known as Microsoft Solution Offerings (MSOs), the first three integrated solutions are

• Microsoft Solution for Intranets, for corporate portals
• Microsoft Solution for Supplier Enablement, for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce (connecting suppliers to business customers over the Internet)
• BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA, aimed at U.S. health industry firms that need to meet new data management requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

Web pages for MSOs bear a different logo (see illustration, Microsoft Solutions Logo) and are organized differently from Web pages promoting older solutions that lack tight integration.

The sales campaign behind MSOs is called Integrated Solutions Selling (ISS) and is being conducted by Charles Stevens’ Enterprise and Partner Group.

Solution Components

A typical MSO includes server products, additional custom code, documentation and deployment guides and scripts, partners prepared to install the solution, and support options.

Server Components

The three MSOs released by the end of Nov. 2001 all require Windows Server and SQL Server, but other components vary, depending on the type of solution. The Supplier Enablement and HIPAA solutions, for example, require BizTalk Server.

Microsoft also recommends other server software that offers additional functionality, but it is not part of the core solution. For example, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server can complement a Supplier Enablement solution by adding a firewall, which is important when creating an extranet to serve external vendors.

Some architectures pull in nonserver applications to create a complete solution. The Solution for Intranets, for example, requires Office and Windows Media Technology on client PCs to supplement SharePoint Portal Server and SQL Server.

(For information about which Microsoft products are included in each solution, see the chart "Microsoft Solution Offerings Components".)

Prescriptive Architecture

A Prescriptive Architecture Guide (PAG) provided with each solution is in many respects the most important piece in enabling the integration of individual components.

The PAG provides a detailed description of the components required and how they should be deployed and configured, and might include deployment scripts that can be run during installation. It also contains performance profiles and testing results that can help customers design a system capable of handling the expected demand.

MSOs offer, in effect, a large chunk of free consulting to customers who are willing to solve their problem using Microsoft software. Had the customer hired a consultant, the consultant would have suggested technology appropriate to solve the problem, and might have developed detailed recommendations for hardware and software, along with some preliminary code or a "proof of concept" installation.

Custom Software

Additional custom software in an MSO links its individual components, provides user and management interfaces, and otherwise tailors the components to meet a particular business need.

Both the HIPAA and Supplier Enablement solutions, for example, include special "accelerators" for BizTalk Server. These accelerators are software components that give BizTalk the basic business logic and data translation capabilities commonly required in the business or market segment served by the solutions.

An MSO can also include various interfaces required to implement and manage the solution. The Solution for Supplier Enablement, for example, has interfaces to manage accounts for trading partners, to receive and manage orders from those partners, to publish catalogs from which partners can order a vendor’s products, and to analyze the resulting sales (to determine how effective various selling channels are, for example).

Tom Rizzo, product manager for the Supplier Enablement product, says "Out of the box we provide a base set of code that customers can start with to create a business-to-business Web site. The only custom code that the customer has to add is code [such as HTML] to build their flavor of Web site, and back-end integration between their database and their Web site."

Partners

Some solutions were developed and refined by MCS, then "productized" so that a solution to solve a particular business problem for one customer could be repeated easily for others who face similar business needs.

For example, MCS helped Wilson Supply, an industrial supply company, develop a custom procurement and supplier-relationship solution. That solution was then refined and documented in such a way that the products used and lessons learned from the original deployment could be applied to other customers. It is now marketed as the Microsoft Solution for Supplier Enablement.

Because MCS lacks the staff and the mandate to install numerous instances of the same product, Microsoft is working closely with partners to bring MSOs to market. Those partners include hosting partners who can host a solution for companies that do not want to run the solution in-house, global systems integrators who can deliver a finished solution to customers (including, for example, special code for the customer's particular line of business and integration with existing systems from other vendors), and Gold Certified Solution Partners, who might not be global in scope, but who have the skills and experience to deploy the solution for customers in their region.

All partners authorized to sell a given solution should receive training geared to that solution, Rizzo says, although Microsoft is not providing formal certification for each solution. The company recommends that they be Gold Certified Partners, the most advanced level in Microsoft’s Certified Partner program.

Major partners who have been trained in deploying a solution are featured on Microsoft’s solutions Web site, enabling customers to contact a partner directly if they are interested in a particular solution. In the future, says Rizzo, Microsoft is planning a Web-based profiling system that will help customers choose a partner based on the scale of their solution and the region in which they are based.

Support Options

Customers who purchase an MSO can use standard support contracts for the component applications, arrange for the implementation partner to provide support, or for the first time, can sign a solutions support contract with Microsoft itself, which will provide support through a new Global Solutions Support Center.

The support team for each MSO includes a Microsoft solutions engineer who is familiar with the particular solution and the business segment in which it is deployed. Microsoft can thus provide a single point of contact for the solution, and the MSO support team will coordinate support from other Microsoft product teams (e.g., the SQL Server support team) and the implementation partner if required.

Criteria for Markets

The MSOs developed so far appear to have been rolled out as opportunities presented themselves, and do not represent a cohesive market strategy or a comprehensive set of solutions. Furthermore, although Microsoft has hinted that additional solutions are in the works, it has not said what they are. Nevertheless, various statements by Microsoft management over the last year, and the solutions that have emerged, suggest that the company is guided by some general principles in determining which solutions lend themselves to the MSO treatment. MSOs typically

• Aim at a large or high-revenue vertical market or a widely used "horizontal" business operation
• Solve a problem faced by most or all of the players in a vertical market or market segment
• Can be implemented by the customer, by a systems integrator, or by Microsoft itself
• Rely entirely on Microsoft software, although special components—such as those required to provide advanced integration with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system—provided by a close partner might sometimes be part of the solution.

Future candidates for MSO treatment might include the less-integrated solutions currently marketed by Microsoft.

The Need for Integration

The new solutions offerings fill a critical gap in Microsoft’s product suite and are particularly important for meeting the company's sales goals for its server applications.

Competitors such as Oracle, for example, offer finished, deployable solutions, ranging from full ERP solutions to an Oracle-hosted suite of financial, accounting, and Web-based commerce functions for small businesses.

The Microsoft sales force, on the other hand, has had to pitch individual applications, such as SQL Server, that could eventually be part of a company’s e-commerce or supply chain management system, but only after months or years of defining requirements, developing a solution architecture, and writing thousands of lines of custom code. In contrast, an MSO like the Supplier Enablement Solution can typically be rolled out in less than 45 days, says Rizzo. For Microsoft, an MSO provides a partial solution that makes it more likely that customers will purchase its software to solve their problems, even if Microsoft does not have a complete solution.

The new solutions could substantially ease the task of Microsoft account managers, who have recently been given greater responsibility for developing comprehensive account plans for their customers. Rather than trying to sell SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and other components to a customer who wants to develop a B2B e-commerce initiative, for example, account managers can now offer the Supplier Enablement Solution, with a high degree of confidence that this tested solution can be scaled to meet the customer’s requirements, and can be rolled out by a particular date.

Partner and Customer Benefits

The MSOs present a substantial opportunity for both Microsoft partners and customers. Partners benefit from the prescriptive architecture, testing, and performance profiles developed by Microsoft. With this substantial groundwork out of the way, integrators and consultants can offer customers predictable and inexpensive solutions, while still adding value in the form of customization, support, and other services. Furthermore, by encouraging customers to sign support contracts with Microsoft directly, partners can be relieved of the burden of frontline support.

MSOs also broadcast an important message for Microsoft partners concerned about MCS: although MCS has a role in developing the solutions, and can be employed by customers who want Microsoft’s name on the contract, the solution offerings are open, documented solutions that do not rely on special tuning or inside product information that only MCS might be able to deliver.

For their part, customers get tested, properly scaled solutions that integrate well with their existing Microsoft applications, but that in many cases can also be integrated with applications from other vendors—for example, by using BizTalk adapters to talk to non-Microsoft databases. Because the deployment costs of MSOs can be determined with greater accuracy than those of solutions developed from scratch, customers can calculate return on investment more easily.

The Solutions Future

With its solutions offerings, Microsoft has achieved its highest-ever level of product integration for the enterprise. The strategy has its perils, however:

• It risks alienating ISVs and partners who sell similar offerings based on Microsoft products; if these partners feel a threat from Microsoft, they might move away from Microsoft-based solutions.
• A spotty and inconsistent catalog of solutions—some are well-integrated while others are piecemeal shopping lists—makes Microsoft less of a "one-stop shop" compared with the more comprehensive offerings from enterprise resource planning vendors and competitors such as IBM and Oracle. Until Microsoft offers a more comprehensive set of MSOs, it appears that the company is just learning how to create integrated solutions.
• It points out the need to deliver on promises of ongoing product support, both from Microsoft and partners, that meet customers' expectations.

Nevertheless, the integrated solutions offered thus far mark the "end of the beginning" of Microsoft’s lengthy and often-failed efforts to market competitive solutions, and they are likely to boost the attractiveness of Microsoft server solutions in both enterprise and medium-sized markets.

Resources

The Microsoft Solution Offerings and other less-integrated solutions are described at www.microsoft.com/business/solutions.

BizTalk Accelerators are described in "Microsoft and Industry Partners Accelerate BizTalk Integration" on page 5 of the July 2001 Update.

An example of a PAG is available at msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/816/msdncompositedoc.xml.

Changes to Microsoft’s sales organization that are intended to encourage more server sales are described in "Enterprise Focus of Sales Reorganization" on page 22 of the Sept. 2001 Update.