• Illustration: MBS Roadmap at a Glance—Supplemental Products

The Microsoft Business Portal (MBP), FRx financial reporting, Forecaster budgeting, customer relationship management, and retail management solutions will all be incrementally updated at least once before the end of 2006. Though not as well known as Microsoft's main ERP products, such as Great Plains and Axapta, these products round out the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) portfolio and help position it as a one-stop shop for business management software for small and mid-size companies. However, while some of these supplemental products appear to be on well-defined release tracks, several others have delayed or scrapped planned releases, suggesting their strategies are still under development.

Products Round Out MBS Portfolio

The supplemental products in the MBS portfolio extend the feature sets of the core ERP product line and the reach of MBS into business management areas beyond core ERP.

These additional products fall into three general product categories:

ERP support products, such as the MBP, the FRx financial reporting application, and the Forecaster budgeting tool, extend the feature sets of MBS's ERP product lines.

Customer relationship management. Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft CRM) helps companies manage customer relationships (generating and tracking sales leads, for instance).

Retail management. Two Microsoft products support retail point-of-sale operations for small and mid-size businesses. Retail Management System is intended for retailers with one or more retail locations; Point of Sale is intended for single-store retailers. (Microsoft also makes specialized editions of its Windows XP Embedded OS for retail device vendors.)

Incremental Improvement and Integration

Similar to the ERP product lines, releases in MBS's supplemental products typically contain targeted feature improvements, as opposed to sweeping functional and architectural changes. In general, updates serve to refine existing features in mature products, such as FRx, and address deficiencies in more recent offerings, such as Microsoft CRM. In some cases, new features improve integration with mainstream Microsoft products, such as Office. In most cases, MBS customers purchase support or maintenance plans that cover the cost of these incremental releases.

(For a graphical overview of the MBS supplemental product releases planned through 2006, see the illustration "MBS Roadmap at a Glance—Supplemental Products".)

Unlike the ERP lines, however, a consistent cross-product release strategy has yet to emerge for MBS's supplemental products. For example, all ERP releases over the next several years will incorporate a set of common design themes—each will use Windows SharePoint Services as its underlying portal technology, adopt a consistent user interface and navigation model, and improve integration with SQL Server features, such as Analysis Services.

Although some common themes are evident among MBS's supplemental products (for example, all interact in some way with one or more of the MBS ERP product lines), Microsoft's strategy appears to be mainly opportunistic. The company will adjust plans as necessary to target new market opportunities and drive uptake of MBS products by adding new products, tweaking features, or improving integration with other MBS products (and other Microsoft products, such as Office). These efforts will position MBS as a one-stop shop for business software, as its products expand to cover a broadening cross-section of functional areas, business sectors, and markets.

ERP Support Products

Several products extend the capabilities of the MBS suite of ERP products. The MBP adds intranet-based access for Great Plains and Solomon; FRx and Forecaster offer financial reporting, analysis, and budgeting capabilities.

Microsoft Business Portal

Introduced in Apr. 2003, MBP provides access to ERP information in a browser for individuals in particular roles. This could allow, for example, a manager working with Great Plains to view only the sales reports relevant to his region, without having to use Great Plains' client application.

MBP 2.0. MBP 2.0, announced in Jan. 2004, brought the product's underlying technology in line with Microsoft's most recent portal technology—Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Initial versions of MBP were built on an older technology, called the Digital Dashboard Resource Kit, which uses Web Parts based on Active Server Pages (ASP) technology rather than the newer ASP.NET. Along with the increased security, performance, and stability inherent in ASP.NET-based Web sites, moving to WSS gets the MBS group on track with the rest of Microsoft, whose corporate portal strategy is based on WSS.

MBP 2.5. With the release of Solomon 6.0 in Oct. 2004, MBS announced availability of MBP 2.5. MBP 2.5 includes Solomon Project Center, a portal site that consolidates project-related information and allows workers to access and update 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.

MBP 2.5 also delivered features for Great Plains 8.0, which shipped in June 2004. For example, MBP 2.5 offered new modules for online requisition management and project time-and-expense entry and approval in Great Plains. MBP 2.5 also allows Great Plains 8.0 to integrate with Microsoft's Office Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley. For example, customers can attach data from Great Plains queries directly to Sarbanes-Oxley documentation via the accelerator. This should speed the preparation of compliance documentation and reporting required of publicly held companies.

MBP 3.0. The third version of MBP is planned for the fourth quarter of 2005, which coincides with the scheduled release of Great Plains 8.5. Companies using Great Plains 8.5 will be able to take customer orders through the MBP 3.0 portal. In addition, MBP 3.0 will supply new capabilities for Solomon. Specifically, users will be able to initiate requisitions (such as those for construction equipment or materials) through the portal using a Web browser; today, initiating a requisition requires access to Solomon's client application. In addition, MBP 3.0 will allow users to connect to the business portal across the Internet. Today, access to MBP is restricted to users connected to a company's intranet, either directly or through virtual private network connections.

MBP 4.0. The fourth version of MBP is tentatively planned for the fourth quarter of 2006 to coincide with the release of Great Plains 9.0. Microsoft has not provided information on MBP 4.0 features.

FRx

FRx, acquired by Great Plains in its Feb. 2000 purchase of FRx Software, enables periodic financial reporting and helps maintain data consistency for groups of financial analysts and planners. Reports are generated directly from more than 50 general ledger systems, including Great Plains, Axapta, and Solomon. FRx allows analysts to drill into source data when anomalies arise, which eliminates many problems encountered in the ad hoc, Excel-based financial reporting processes used by many companies. The default financial reporting solution for Great Plains and Solomon, FRx has more than 120,000 customers, many of whom use FRx with non-MBS accounting systems.

FRx 6.7. MBS delivered the most recent version of FRx, FRx 6.7, in the first quarter of 2004. FRx 6.7 works with Great Plains 7.5 and 8.0, Solomon 5.5 and 6.0, and Axapta 3.0. Integration of FRx 6.7 and Axapta 4.0 will be available after the latter project ships in the first half of 2006, as currently planned. As of May 2005, however, the product does not yet integrate with Navision. Microsoft intends to make FRx integration with Navision available in the fourth quarter of 2005.

FRx 6.7 SP3. Delivered in Mar. 2005, the third service pack for FRx 6.7 adds a new wizard to expedite the creation of financial reports. The wizard helps users create common reports (such as balance sheets and income statements) in just a few steps, speeding report creation for experienced users and shortening the learning curve for new FRx users. In addition, SP3 contains over 100 bug fixes, most concentrated in the product's Report Designer, a utility for selecting report data, defining relationships between those data, and formatting reports.

FRx 7.0. The next major version of FRx is tentatively planned for the first half of 2006. Although the company has not announced details about the release, integration with mainstream Microsoft technologies is a possibility. Specifically, FRx might use WSS portal technology to provide Web-based access to reports, and SQL Server Reporting Services to design and distribute reports. Today FRx provides a simple ASP-based Web site (called WebPort) for Web-based access to reports, and uses its own report server (rather than SQL Reporting Services) to schedule and distribute reports. In addition, Microsoft has suggested that the release will deliver a single login screen for access to both FRx and Forecaster; today, users must enter separate credentials for the two products.

Forecaster

Forecaster, also gained in the FRx Software acquisition, is a Web-based tool for creating, populating, and tracking budgets. It provides a central repository where financial planners and other workers can access and update budgets, obviating the error-prone and time-consuming process of maintaining and consolidating spreadsheet-based budgets. With Forecaster, financial planners can create budget baselines that follow the accounting structure of their company's general ledger system and import actuals from those systems to populate budgets. Forecaster has almost 1,000 customers.

Forecaster 6.7. The product's most recent iteration, Forecaster 6.7, was released in the third quarter of 2003. This update to Forecaster improved companies' ability to model employee pay information, improving human resource budgeting. Additionally, Forecaster 6.7 improved data import from general ledger systems, such as Great Plains, Solomon, and non-Microsoft products like MAS 500, via the product's ExpressLink feature. As of early 2005, the feature did not work against Navision general ledgers; however, ExpressLink will work with Navision by the fourth quarter of 2005.

Forecaster 7.0. Microsoft plans to release a new version of Forecaster in the third quarter of 2005. The new release will streamline setup, reducing the time it takes to get the product up and running. The release will also get a major interface overhaul, mirroring efforts across MBS to model product navigation methods and user interfaces on Outlook 2003.

Forecaster 7.x. Microsoft has indicated that a version of Forecaster is in the works for the second half of 2006. However, the company has not divulged details about features.

Microsoft Business Network

To help small and mid-size businesses automate and manage supply chains, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Business Network (MBN) in Oct. 2003. MBN combines onsite software and subscription-based, Microsoft-hosted Web services to help companies connect to their partners and exchange business documents, such as purchase orders and invoices. Users interact with these components using Outlook 2003 and Excel 2003, and the product integrates with Great Plains.

MBN 1.0. The first version of MBN shipped in Oct. 2003. Microsoft has no plans to release a second version of the product.

Microsoft CRM

Microsoft CRM helps small and mid-size businesses manage customer relationships. Sales and customer service personnel can record, track, and update customer interactions, such as sales leads or inquiries about service requests, using Outlook or a Web browser as the client.

Microsoft CRM was first released early in 2003 and initially sold only in North America. As of early 2005, Microsoft CRM ships in 16 languages and is sold in 53 countries. The product has secured over 3,500 customers and is supported by a network of about 1,700 partners.

Microsoft CRM 1.2. The current version of Microsoft CRM shipped in Dec. 2003 and added support for eight additional languages. Microsoft CRM 1.2 also simplified setup and added support for Small Business Server 2003, which Microsoft hoped would help some small businesses with limited IT budgets and expertise overcome reluctance to deploy Microsoft CRM. Although Microsoft partners are working to integrate Microsoft CRM with Navision and Axapta, as of May 2005 the product integrates out-of-the-box only with Great Plains 7.5, although Microsoft has produced a download that enables Great Plains 8.0 to integrate with Microsoft CRM 1.2.

Microsoft CRM 2.0. Microsoft originally planned to release Microsoft CRM 2.0 in the first quarter of 2005 but pushed the release into the second quarter of 2005. A Feb. 2005 announcement further delayed the release of Microsoft CRM 2.0, which Microsoft now plans to release to manufacturing in the last quarter of 2005. Announcements regarding the slip reiterated Microsoft CRM 2.0's previously disclosed focus on improving marketing (e.g., support for managing marketing campaigns) and service management capabilities (service call dispatch and scheduling, for instance). The company has also suggested that Microsoft CRM 2.0 will have improved integration with Office, although it has not said what new features or capabilities that integration will provide.

In addition, Microsoft CRM 2.0 will get improved setup, a feature that is often shortchanged in initial Microsoft product releases and fixed in subsequent product iterations. Fast and efficient setup could assuage one common concern of small companies investing in complex business management software such as Microsoft CRM; specifically, these companies are typically unwilling to tolerate (and unable to afford) protracted setup and integration periods before realizing a return on those investments. Microsoft also plans to expose Microsoft CRM data and functions as Web services, which the company hopes will make Microsoft CRM more amenable to vertical solution development and easier to integrate with other business applications and data.

Microsoft CRM 3.0. As of late 2004, Microsoft had suggested that a third major Microsoft CRM release was on the horizon, planned for sometime in 2006. Although specifics were light, the company had indicated the release would focus on further integration with Office and enhancing automation in the product (for example, allowing Microsoft CRM workflow to be triggered by external sources, such as a Web service). However, Microsoft did not discuss the release at Convergence 2005 (which was held in Mar. 2005) nor has it suggested how the delay of Microsoft CRM 2.0 might affect the schedule for Microsoft CRM 3.0, suggesting plans for the latter release are tentative at best.

Retail Management

In its May 2002 acquisition of Sales Management Systems, Microsoft gained retail point-of-sale and inventory management applications, which it rebranded the Retail Management System (RMS). Adopted by over 7,000 customers and deployed at about 25,000 store locations, RMS is intended for small and mid-size retailers with one or more retail locations and more than US$1.5 million in revenue. RMS integrates with each of the MBS ERP products, allowing businesses to link retail store activity with other corporate financial information. (The product also works with non-Microsoft accounting packages QuickBooks and Peachtree.) For example, RMS can pass account activity data to Solomon or Great Plains general ledgers, giving retail businesses the ability to view and track store activity, such as sales and commissions, individually or in consolidated views (for example, regionally). Such integration gives Microsoft and resellers more ammunition against Intuit, which also sells point-of-sale systems and accounting software to small and mid-size retailers.

Microsoft shelved plans for a second incremental RMS update (RMS 1.3) in 2004, focusing instead on a new product for smaller retailers; the company announced the product in a May 2005 press release. The product, called Microsoft Point of Sale (POS), is intended for retailers with a single store and less than US$1.5 million in revenue.

RMS 1.2. RMS's most recent update, RMS 1.2, came in July 2003. Among other enhancements, the release included new payment processing capabilities.

RMS add-in for Great Plains. In the third quarter of 2005, Microsoft is scheduled to ship an add-in that improves integration between RMS 1.2 and Great Plains 8.0 (Standard and Professional Editions) and Small Business Financials, which is based on Great Plains and geared to companies with fewer than 50 employees. For example, the add-in could improve inventory tracking for companies that receive partial shipments by updating the purchase order associated with those shipments automatically in both Great Plains and RMS. Although Microsoft has not indicated that it will offer similar levels of integration with its other ERP lines, several partners have stepped up to fill the gaps. For example, partners Zeroedin and Elypsis provide more thorough integration between Navision and RMS; partners Columbus IT and POSitive Technology offer similar integration between Axapta and RMS.

RMS 1.2+. Planned for the fourth quarter of 2005, RMS will be updated to improve its ability to handle multistore operations. (As of May 2005, Microsoft had not decided on a version number for the release.) Specifically, this release will improve RMS's scalability and update the product's Headquarters module, which allows retailers with multiple stores to centralize certain business operations and reporting.

POS 1.0. Announced in May 2005, POS is intended for retailers with a single store and less than US$1.5 million in revenue. Microsoft has said that POS 1.0 will be available in June 2005.

Resources

The MBS product line is described at www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/default.mspx.

MBS ERP releases in 2004 and 2005 are described in "New UI and Analytics for Navision" on page 18 of the Jan. 2005 Update, "Axapta Releases Life Sciences Edition" on page 20 of the Jan. 2005 Update, "Solomon 6.0 Delivers Portal" on page 19 of the Nov. 2004 Update, "Navision Improves Modularity, User Interface" on page 24 of the Nov. 2003 Update, and "Axapta Gets FRx Reports" on page 22 of the Apr. 2004 Update.

Other MBS releases in 2004 and 2005 are covered in "Report Wizard in FRx Service Pack", "FRx 6.7 Adds a Report Manager" on page 18 of the May 2004 Update, and "MSCRM Goes International" on page 10 of the Feb. 2004 Update.

The MBS ERP roadmap for 2005 and beyond is outlined in "Business Solutions ERP Roadmap 2005" on page 17 of the May 2005 Update.

Information presented in this article builds on information previously published in "Business Solutions Roadmap 2004" on page 11 of the Mar. 2004 Update and "Business Solutions Roadmap 2004 Updated" on page 20 of the Sept. 2004 Update.