The Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) unit announced the release of two important upgrades in Dec. 2005:

Great Plains 9.0 offers an improved user interface, expands Web services support for integration with other applications, and adds new features to the product's Web portal. Great Plains, one of four enterprise resource planning applications from MBS, is the first MBS product to feature a role-based user interface. Specifically, the new release ships 21 separate interfaces, each of which provides access to functions and reports tailored to a specific job function, such as a human resources specialist. Tailoring the user interface to job functions could lower one hurdle to Great Plains adoption: the time required to learn the product and become productive. Great Plains 9.0 is available in Africa, the Americas, Australia, the Middle East, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The Great Plains home page is www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions/GreatPlains/Default.mspx.

MSCRM 3.0, the latest release of Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (MSCRM) for small and midsize businesses, adds new marketing and service management features. MSCRM 3.0 also streamlines product setup, adds a new edition designed to run on Windows Small Business Server, and will offer (in the first quarter of 2006) a new subscription licensing model for companies offering hosted CRM services. A more complete CRM feature set, combined with simpler and faster setup, could broaden appeal of the product, which has seen modest uptake to date. MSCRM 3.0 is available worldwide in English and will ship additional language editions in 2006. The MSCRM 3.0 home page is www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/default.mspx.