What of Project Green?

Announced in 2003, Project Green was envisioned as a ground-up, .NET-based rewrite of the business management features in the four Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) ERP lines, and it was supposed to consolidate these products on a single code base. Among other objectives, the effort was intended help control the division’s operating costs, which remain high as it continues to develop and support separate but overlapping ERP product lines. Reducing this overhead is a key challenge for MBS, which has yet to reach profitability, despite the promise of the market. (At Microsoft’s July 2004 Financial Analysts Meeting, then-Chief Financial Officer John Connors suggested FY’06 or later as a reasonable timeframe for MBS profitability.)

However, the prospect of a sweeping technology overhaul, coupled with a lack of assurance from Microsoft that this future code base would be compatible with existing products, spooked MBS customers and partners concerned about how (or if) their existing investments would be supported in a post-Project-Green world. This concern seems to have inspired Microsoft to both rethink the project and shy away from public comment on it in 2004.