Business Portal Moves to WSS

A new release of the Microsoft Business Portal (MBP), which provides browser-based access to Great Plains and Solomon data, adopts Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) as its technology platform. The technology shift aligns MBP with Microsoft’s corporate portal strategy, which is based on WSS, and could help drive MBP adoption. Great Plains and Solomon customers who were concerned about future migration headaches and reluctant to adopt MBP because the first two releases used older technology may want to reconsider the product.

Aside from the change to its underlying platform, MBP 2.0 is little changed from earlier versions. Nonetheless, MBP’s self-service features received several useful updates: Great Plains human resource management capabilities have been improved, and Solomon customers can have employees enter time and attendance information via the portal.

Aligning Portal Strategies

Introduced in Apr. 2003, MBP provides low-cost Web browser access to Great Plains and Solomon data and applications. In the past, access to Great Plains and Solomon was provided by a client application or with Windows Terminal Services and was limited to back-office workers. MBP uses modular components called Web Parts to format and display information tailored to particular employees and roles, allowing a manager to use a browser to view only the sales reports relevant to his region, for example. (For an illustration of this new customization capability, see “Business Solutions Data in Portal“.)