Supplemental MBS Products

Not as well known as Microsoft’s main ERP products, several supplemental business applications round out the MBS portfolio and help position it as a one-stop shop for business management software for small and mid-size companies. However, Microsoft will have shipped an update for only one of these products in 2006, which could signal that the company is rethinking the strategy for its supplemental products. (For more details on this possible strategy shift, see the sidebar “Supplemental Product Strategy in Flux“. For a graphical overview of the MBS supplemental product releases planned through 2007, see the illustration “Supplemental MBS Product Overview“.)

MBS’s additional products fall into three general product categories:

ERP Reporting, Forecasting, and Portal. Several products provide supplemental financial analytics for the Dynamics ERP products. FRx offers financial reporting and analysis capabilities, while Forecaster supports budgeting and forecasting. Although it is no longer billed as a separate product, the Microsoft Business Portal (MBP) adds intranet-based access for GP and SL.