A new version of Solomon, an accounting and business-management suite for small and mid-size companies, improves order management and financial tracking of projects. The release also gives users browser-based access to Solomon data and applications via the Microsoft Business Portal and improves reporting by integrating Microsoft’s FRx financial reporting application. However, the release does not target new business sectors or geographies, which suggests that future developments will likely enhance, rather than expand, Solomon’s feature set, and geographic expansion will be limited.

Solomon 6.0 is the first release since Microsoft outsourced Solomon development to Plumbline Software, a new company created by Solomon’s three founders. Although the move to outsource development followed disappointing financial results for the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division, Microsoft has reiterated its ongoing commitment to the Solomon product line, and plans call for Solomon releases through 2013.

Project, Invoicing Features Improved

One of four enterprise resource planning products from MBS, Solomon targets small and mid-size project-driven businesses, such as consulting companies and construction firms. The product has about 13,000 customers, predominantly in North America, and is sold by more than 600 partners. Solomon is available in two editions—the high-end edition (called Solomon) targets companies of up to 500 employees; the lower-priced Solomon Standard Edition is geared for companies with 25 to 99 employees.

Solomon 6.0 offers a range of incremental feature updates, most importantly in the product’s project accounting and order management features:

Project accounting improvements. One of Solomon’s strengths is its ability to handle the special accounting and financial tracking needs of project-based companies. Solomon 6.0 continues to refine these capabilities. For example, when payments are recorded in Solomon’s general ledger, they can be linked to a specific project or task item within a project, which could help analysts quickly flag projects whose profitability is at risk because of delays or reduction in receivables. In addition, Solomon 6.0 can automatically generate U.S. government invoice formats, which will make it easier for contractors to comply with government accounting and reporting requirements.

Better control of invoicing. Solomon 6.0 introduces consolidated invoicing, which allows companies to define customer-specific invoicing rules. This feature gives suppliers the ability to correlate purchase orders, shippers, and invoices, and it can help customers track the invoices they receive. For example, rather than issuing individual invoices for each order received in a multipart project, a supplier could group orders according to a project’s contract number. This would allow the supplier to issue a single, consolidated invoice for all purchase orders corresponding to that project, even if the parts were delivered by multiple shippers.

Project Self-Service, Better Reporting

With the release of Solomon 6.0, MBS announced availability of a new version of the Microsoft Business Portal (MBP), which provides browser access to Great Plains and Solomon data and applications. MBP 2.5 includes a Solomon portal site (called the Project Center) that consolidates projected-related information and allows workers to access and update relevant project details. For example, analysts can view project-related financials, such as billing and receivables information, while project contributors can report time spent working on projects and view and update the status of work assignments. As did previous versions of the product, Solomon 6.0 integrates with Microsoft Project client and server, linking financial data stored in Solomon with schedule and status information stored in Project. The Project Center provides a window to Project data, allowing project managers to view and update schedules from within the portal.

Solomon 6.0 also integrates with FRx 6.7 (the most recent iteration of MBS’s financial reporting application), which customers can purchase as a module for Solomon. Thus, Solomon 6.0 customers will have access to new FRx capabilities such as the Report Manager—a mechanism for consolidating documents, reports, and other information in structures called report books—which helps users organize information for periodic reporting events, such as quarterly project reviews. For example, a report book supporting an executive project review might contain a Word document that outlined project goals and requirements, a summary PowerPoint presentation, and a set of FRx reports detailing project financials.

Solomon Futures

In June 2004, Microsoft announced plans to close its MBS office in Findlay, OH, the former headquarters of Solomon Software, and signed a contract with Plumbline Software to oversee development and support of the Solomon product line. Although the move closely followed the announcement of disappointing MBS financial results in the quarter ending Mar. 2004, Microsoft has stressed its ongoing commitment to the product—MBS has said it will continue to release Solomon through 2013.

Solomon 6.0 is the first release since Microsoft outsourced development and provides some guidance about Solomon’s future. Although the release includes important product enhancements, these enhancements refine Solomon’s strengths (e.g., features for project-driven businesses) rather than expand its capabilities (as, for example, the addition of public-sector accounting features expanded Great Plains’ capabilities). Future developments will also likely follow this path—for example, Solomon 7.0, which is tentatively scheduled for the second half of 2005, will improve the link between Solomon’s existing project accounting and order management and inventory features. In addition, whereas Microsoft has attempted to extend the geographic reach of Great Plains and Navision, it will likely not do so with Solomon and instead emphasize the markets where Solomon is popular today: the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Availability and Resources

Solomon 6.0 was made generally available on Oct. 4, 2004, and pricing is unchanged from previous versions.

More information on Solomon 6.0 can be found at www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/solomon/solomon_60_feature.aspx.

The Microsoft Business Portal is described in "Business Portal Moves to WSS" on page 18 of the Mar. 2004 Update.

Additional detail on FRx 6.7 can be found in "FRx 6.7 Adds a Report Manager" on page 18 of the May 2004 Update.

Outsourcing of Solomon development is discussed in "Reorganization, Outsourcing at MBS" on page 27 of the July 2004 Update.