Business Solutions ERP Roadmap 2005

A series of incremental releases planned through 2007 will drive consistency across Microsoft’s four enterprise resource planning (ERP) product lines via role-based user interfaces modeled on Outlook, integration with SQL Server, and the use of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) for core portal technology. Longer term, the company has hinted that consolidation of its ERP lines remains a goal, although timeframes are vague and Microsoft has not explained how customers and partners will move existing ERP data and custom solutions to a consolidated code base. Consequently, Microsoft’s ERP products will remain distinct, and functional overlaps among them will persist for several years.

Overlaps Persist

The core four products in the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) portfolio—Axapta, Great Plains, Navision, and Solomon—offer small and mid-size businesses support for financial accounting, tracking of intercompany transactions (such as orders and payments), inventory management, and managing other company resources, such as personnel. Within each product, distinct applications—called “modules”—provide these capabilities and are organized according to business functions, such as manufacturing or accounting. Each product also includes developer tools for building custom modules, creating custom solutions, or integrating other business applications. Microsoft uses the term “ERP” to refer to these four products and distinguish them from other MBS products such as Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (MSCRM).