Industry News

Essai - U.S. Semiconductor Business Gains Rapid Growth Using Business Management Solution (Monday, September 25, 2006) Essai is a leading manufacturer of semiconductor test products based in the United States. In 2003, when the company launched, it looked for a highly efficient and scalable business management system to meet the demands of the fast-moving semiconductor industry. Working with Microsoft® Certified Partner Oztera, Essai chose Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV, which it saw as the most flexible solution on the market. more...

Essai Case Study Briefing (Monday, July 10, 2006) Essai Maximizes Business Management Solution for Next-Generation Manufacturing more...

3 Reasons to Finance the Business Solution You Need Today (Wednesday, October 12, 2005) more...

Complying with Sarbanes-Oxley: How Microsoft Navision Can Help (Wednesday, October 12, 2005) As the deadline for compliance with the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 quickly approaches, companies are now scrambling to ensure they are doing everything possible to meet the new requirements. Industry expert J. Carlton Collins, CPA, explains how you can use Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision to help abide by these tough government regulations. more...

Getting the Most out of your ERP Software (Wednesday, October 12, 2005) 3 Questions To Help You Decide When and How Customization is Right for You more...

The ABCs of ERP: An Executive Primer (Wednesday, October 12, 2005) Perhaps your company is evaluating the need for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or considering investing in a new solution. Either way, understanding "ERP" and what it offers in today's business world is critical to your software and vendor selection. more...

Introducing Microsoft Dynamics (Wednesday, October 12, 2005) more...

Microsoft to Reshuffle Its ERP Deck? (Friday, January 28, 2005) Microsoft Corp.'s ERP strategy is morphing. Axapta, one of Microsoft's four enterprise resource planning products, has fallen victim to Microsoft's slip-date curse. Meanwhile, it sounds as if Microsoft has started to take measures to streamline its stable of four different ERP lines. Last summer, Microsoft Business Solutions officials said Axapta 4.0 would ship some time in 2005. But a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft quietly decided to redraw the Axapta roadmap. Now the 4.0 release is due to go to beta testers in October 2005. The final release will hit some time in the first half of 2006. On Thursday, Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors said during the company's quarterly earnings call that Microsoft has decided to move some of its MBS wares into maintenance mode. He did not offer specifics as to which, if any, of the ERP products would be sidelined. Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff said if Microsoft were to move any of its ERP products into maintenance, he'd expect Solomon to be the first. more...

Oracle, Be Careful What You Wish For (Friday, January 28, 2005) It was just Larry being Larry, really. Wednesday's declaration of "war" on SAP by Oracle's chief executive was nothing out of the ordinary for the larger-than-life Larry Ellison. But Oracle should be careful what it wishes for. Oracle must be feeling puffed up after it finally prevailed in its 18-month-long, $10 billion quest to acquire PeopleSoft. The deal undoubtedly strengthens Oracle's hand--it has doubled its applications market share--and gives it a bigger club to fight IBM and Microsoft in corporate infrastructure. "It's not smart to deliberately provoke the No. 1 vendor in the space," says AMR analyst Bruce Richardson. "SAP is going to hire 3,000 people and do it at the expense of margins." Ellison said Oracle "would love to get into a technology war with SAP." Well, it has one. The good news is that for the first time in more than a decade, SAP has some real competition. The bad news is that the competition could prove SAP's domination. more...

Expectations raised for Oracle's next year (Thursday, January 27, 2005) Oracle is targeting pro-forma earnings per share of between $0.76 and $0.80 for fiscal 2006, following growth of between 22% and 28%, the company said. That exceeds Wall Street analysts' expectations of EPS of $0.70.For fiscal 2005, which expires in the middle of June, Oracle expects pro-forma earnings of $0.62, growing 24% - in line with analysts' expectations. Oracle announced the change in projected earnings ahead of its analyst day yesterday, where executives lead by chief executive Larry Ellison outlined plans for the New Year following last year's successful $10.3bn purchase of enterprise applications rival, PeopleSoft. more...

Oracle's Ellison Taunts SAP, Cozies Up To IBM (Thursday, January 27, 2005) Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is girding for a showdown with business applications software leader SAP AG and becoming more friendly with frequent rival IBM as his software company seeks higher profits from its recently completed takeover of PeopleSoft. Speaking to industry analysts Wednesday, Ellison repeatedly taunted Germany-based SAP, whose dominance of the business applications software market spurred Oracle's $10.3 billion (euro7.92 billion) acquisition of PeopleSoft. "We would love to get into a technology war with SAP," Ellison said at one point during a 75-minute presentation in New York. more...

Microsoft reports profit surge (Thursday, January 27, 2005) Citing strength in both the business and consumer markets, Microsoft on Thursday reported better-than-expected quarterly sales--and profits that doubled those of a year ago. . The Information Worker unit, which includes Office, was the only unit whose sales dropped, while revenue in the Microsoft Business Solutions unit was roughly flat. As for the individual business units… the Microsoft Business Solutions unit had sales of $211 million, up from $210 million. Losses were narrowed to $29 million from $139 million a year ago. more...

Oracle ups 2006 forecast, citing PeopleSoft deal (Wednesday, January 26, 2005) Shortly before a planned meeting with financial analysts Wednesday morning, Oracle announced that it will meet analysts' earnings expectations for its current fiscal year and exceed them in 2006, thanks in part to its recent acquisition of PeopleSoft. Wednesday's meeting will be Oracle's (Profile, Products, Articles) first opportunity since closing the $10.3 billion deal to discuss with analysts in detail the acquisition's effect on Oracle's finances. Oracle said Wednesday morning that it is targeting per-share earnings growth of 22 percent to 28 percent in 2006, on an adjusted basis excluding charges associated with the acquisition. more...

ERP Vendors Target PeopleSoft, JDE Bases (Monday, January 24, 2005) It never takes long for the competitive replacement deals to come out when one application software vendor acquires another. Last week, Lawson Software and SAP geared up to take a run at the PeopleSoft installed bases, each with a slightly different focus. Microsoft launched a competitive replacement program a week earlier. And it won't be long before dozens of ERP software makers, particularly those with iSeries experience, will begin attacking the PeopleSoft and J.D Edwards installed bases more...

Oracle's Customer Crusade (Monday, January 24, 2005) The struggle for the hearts, minds, and business of PeopleSoft's vast installed base of customers is on. Oracle, which acquired PeopleSoft earlier this month after a bitter 18-month takeover fight, last week outlined its Project Fusion to develop a suite of merged Oracle, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards software while continuing to develop and support those applications separately. When Oracle CEO Larry Ellison debuted the blueprint for merging Oracle and PeopleSoft last week, he set as his top priority a target of retaining as much as 95% of PeopleSoft's customer base. That means getting to work right away on the software needed to keep them. "My biggest focus will be on Project Fusion [and] getting the teams together to build the next generation of enterprise apps in a way that's never been done before," Ellison said. more...

New Navision head eyes expansion (Tuesday, January 18, 2005) Microsoft this week has appointed Mogens Elsberg as the new head of its Navision enterprise applications business, in charge of leading product strategy and managing partner relationships. He replaces former Navision general manager Rene Stockner, who left the company in November to work for a Danish startup. Elsberg hails from Aston Business Solutions, where he served as chief executive officer before the company was bought by Tectura Corp. last August. Aston was a leading Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) partner, offering Microsoft-based business applications to midsize companies. more...

Microsoft Navision Gets New Leader (Tuesday, January 18, 2005) Microsoft hired a former IT consultant and IBM executive to run the Navision segment of Microsoft Business Solutions. Mogens Elsberg was named general manager for Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision on Monday. Elsberg replaces Rene Stockner as head of the Navision product management and marketing team, which is based near Copenhagen, Denmark. Elsberg's previous jobs include chief executive officer of Aston Business Solutions and director of global services for the IBM Nordic region. more...

WinOE To Make Beta Play (Friday, January 14, 2005) Microsoft this summer plans to begin beta-testing its workflow software and framework for the next-generation Windows client and server franchises. According to sources, the workflow code, currently dubbed WinOE (Windows orchestration engine), is a set of XML schemas, APIs and workflow components for Visual Studio 2005 that will enable more business-process automation on the Microsoft platform. more...

Microsoft Seeks To Lure PeopleSoft Users (Thursday, December 16, 2004) On the heels of the announcement of the Oracle-PeopleSoft merger, Microsoft attempted to swoop in. On December 15, the head of Microsoft's sales and marketing for North America, corporate vice president Bill Veghte, sent an open e-mail letter to PeopleSoft customers, inviting them to consider Microsoft's ERP products as alternatives. more...

Justice Dept. Won't Appeal Oracle Ruling (Friday, October 01, 2004) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department said Friday it will stop trying to block Oracle Corp.'s hostile $7.7 billion takeover bid for rival business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. more...

Microsoft Business Solutions Expands Efforts to Deliver RFID Solutions For Small and Midmarket Segment Businesses (Tuesday, September 28, 2004) BALTIMORE, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at the EPCglobal US Conference 2004, Microsoft Business Solutions announced that it is expanding the scope of its Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) initiative to help small and midmarket segment businesses meet RFID technology compliance mandates from large trading partners and drive efficiencies in internal operations. more...

Microsoft Targets Second RFID Pilot at SMBs (Tuesday, September 28, 2004) At the EPCglobal show on Tuesday, Microsoft announced an RFID customer pilot with snack-food maker Jack Link's Beef Jerky, a product supplier to Wal-Mart, Target and the U.S. Department of Defense. The company says the pilot is part of its plan to target its RFID offerings at SMBs (small to midsized businesses). more...

Oracle wins antitrust suit in bid for rival (Friday, September 10, 2004) A federal judge handed Oracle Corp. a major victory Thursday when he ruled that the software giant's $7.7 billion hostile bid to gobble up rival PeopleSoft Inc. would not hurt competition in the business software market. more...

WiseFish Provides Brim Seafood with the Tools for Total Traceability (Wednesday, August 25, 2004) Brim Seafood, founded in 1945, is one of the largest seafood companies in Iceland, and specialises in fishing and processing ground fish. The company uses both land-based and trawler-based processing plants. With over 400 employees, Brim's continual business growth required the expansion of its sourcing and processing operations. With this expansion and the increasing importance of automation in the fishing industry, Brim recognised the need for a solution that was capable of tracking business processes and allowing easier access to key business information. Any new system also had to provide total traceability of products. Brim chose to implement WiseFish across its facilities. WiseFish, based on Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision software, is the only solution purposely built for the seafood industry, specifically designed to cover and track all processes within the value chain, from boat to plate. more...

Ballmer pushes business software (Tuesday, April 20, 2004) BUSINESS software had a rebound year in 2003 and even more customers are expected to reach for the purchase orders this year. Vying for a bigger slice of the chunkier pie is Microsoft, whose CEO Steve Ballmer believes selling software to mid-market companies can prod its growth. more...

Ready, Fire, Aim: A Failure of ERP Readiness Starts at the Top (Monday, April 19, 2004) Despite the growing maturity of ERP consulting services, clients that adopt ERP or extend an existing ERP footprint continue to make the same mistakes that were made 10 years ago. Thus, they fail to gain intended business benefits while spending more than planned. At the heart of the matter is a chronic lack of knowledge and commitment on the part of senior management and business managers as a whole. more...

Cookie-cutter Solutions Won't Cut It with the Mid-Market (Monday, April 19, 2004) The fact that the lower-end of the enterprise applications market (also referred to as SMB--small-to-medium businesses or SME--small-to-medium enterprises) is the next frontier and a promised land for all enterprise vendors--small (tier n), medium (tier 2), and large (tier 1) alike--has long not been news. During economic slowdowns, the larger corporations will likely curb their IT spending to a degree, whereas their smaller counterparts will all but completely recoil from any spending during rainy days. more...

EC suspends Oracle-PeopleSoft review (Thursday, April 15, 2004) The European Commission has temporarily stopped its antitrust investigation into Oracle's bid to buy rival Peoplesoft because it is seeking more information from Oracle. more...

Performance: The Other 'P' in BPM (Thursday, April 15, 2004) To be considered a truly comprehensive BPM application, says Meta Group analyst John Van Decker, software must have a way to gather metrics or key performance indicators, planning functionality and reporting tools. more...

EC suspends Oracle-PeopleSoft review (Thursday, April 15, 2004) The European Commission has temporarily stopped its antitrust investigation into Oracle's bid to buy rival Peoplesoft because it is seeking more information from Oracle. A decision on the proposed buy was expected on 11 May but no new deadline has been set to replace it. more...

Q&A: Alistair Baker, Microsoft UK managing director (Wednesday, April 14, 2004) Microsoft has appointed a new managing director for its UK business. Alistair Baker takes over the job from Neil Holloway, who has moved to a role in the software giant's European organisation. more...

Is SAP's tap running dry? (Wednesday, April 14, 2004) SAP may not be a household name, but it's the third largest independent software company, and has a powerful franchise. Yet a confluence of economic trends, new competitors and technologies threaten SAP's enviable position. more...

Oracle, PeopleSoft can't make a date (Wednesday, April 14, 2004) PeopleSoft and Oracle clashed on Wednesday over a trial date for their Alameda County Superior Court case. PeopleSoft, which is suing Oracle for allegedly damaging its business by launching a hostile bid to acquire the company, is seeking a trial by Oct. 4. Oracle contends it needs more time to prepare for the complex case and wants the trial to begin in midsummer 2005. more...

Microsoft develops ERP network for Great Plains business partners (Tuesday, April 13, 2004) Microsoft is developing a network which will allow users of its Great Plains ERP package to conduct transactions electronically. The Microsoft Business Network is being developed initially for the US to help trading partners conduct transactions. Simon Edwards, UK general manager at Microsoft Business Solutions, said, "[A user] could raise an invoice within Great Plains and pass it to a partner through the business network." more...

Salesforce.com IPO delayed by accounting questions (Monday, April 12, 2004) Salesforce.com's IPO has been delayed as US regulators look at the way the company records expenses related to sales commissions Federal regulators in the US have taken issue with a change in accounting methods at software maker Salesforce.com, prolonging their scrutiny of the company's plans to offer its stock for public trading. more...

Microsoft bolsters RFID effort (Monday, April 12, 2004) The radio frequency identification (RFID) bandwagon continues to attract a crowd. Last week, Oracle announced a new product and services initiative around RFID and what it calls "sensor-based" technologies. This week, it is Microsoft's turn. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker disclosed the creation of an internal RFID group, called the Microsoft Radio Frequency Identification Council, whose purpose is to "bring together major partners delivering RFID solutions on the Microsoft platform." more...

Microsoft Augments SMB Storage Options (Monday, April 12, 2004) Microsoft Corp. is following the lead of others in the storage industry by enhancing its Windows Storage System software with capabilities designed to bring high-end management within reach of small and midsize businesses. more...

Microsoft To Pump Up Windows With NAS, SAN Support (Friday, April 09, 2004) Microsoft said last week it is looking to bring more NAS and SAN functionality to its Windows platform. The Redmond, Wash.-based company said it plans to release a Feature Pack in the next couple of months that allows database and log file data from Exchange Server to be stored on NAS appliances based on its Windows Storage Server 2003 NAS operating system, said Marcus Schmidt, Microsoft's senior product manager for the operating system. more...

MBS Previews Solution Enhancements That Increase Efficiency and Streamline Decision-Making (Friday, April 02, 2004) ORLANDO, Fla., March 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Underscoring its commitment to its existing technology and services offerings, Microsoft Business Solutions today kicked off its annual conference for North American customers, Convergence 2004: Microsoft Solutions Conference for Customers. more...

Microsoft Preps its Next-Gen Business Solutions Apps (Monday, March 22, 2004) ORLANDO — At its annual Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) customer conference here, Microsoft is showing off early versions of a number of its next-generation applications. During his Monday morning keynote, Doug Burgum, the Microsoft senior vice president in charge of the company's small/mid-size business division, showed off quick demonstrations of Great Plains 8.0 and Sales for PocketPC, a Microsoft CRM enhancement due to ship this summer. more...

Microsoft updates business offerings (Monday, March 22, 2004) Microsoft announced a herd of updates to its business applications and services Monday, marking the beginning of its Convergence 2004 conference for business customers. The updates include new functions for the Microsoft Business Network, a subscription-based software hosting service Microsoft released last year to help companies exchange shipping lists, inventory updates and other data. more...

Burgum: Microsoft Hones Business App Integration (Monday, March 22, 2004) ORLANDO, Fla.—For a typically cynical reporter, particularly at a Microsoft conference, Doug Burgum's keynote address this morning to kick off Microsoft's Convergence conference was, well, refreshing. In one sense, at least. more...

NEWS (Friday, March 19, 2004) Microsoft Business Solutions customers can expect to hear about near-term products, including Great Plains Version 8 and mobile support for Microsoft CRM, rather than distant offerings like Project Green., at Convergence 2004 this week in Orlando, Fla. more...

MBS to HostEighth Annual Microsoft Solution Conference for Customers (Monday, March 15, 2004) REDMOND, Wash., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Business Solutions will host its annual North American customer conference, Convergence 2004, a four-day business and learning event, March 21-24 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. more...

Business Solutions Roadmap 2004 (Saturday, February 14, 2004) Incremental releases across the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) product line in 2004 will improve features, further integrate the MBS portfolio with other Microsoft products, such as Office, and offer better integration among MBS products. Microsoft hopes these changes will retain existing customers of mature MBS products, spur uptake of recent product additions, offer new opportunities for partners, and drive sales or upgrades of products such as Office 2003 in some 260,000 MBS customer accounts. more...

To Figure Out Microsoft, Keep an Eye on its Partners (Thursday, November 20, 2003) It's been a busy fall for Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), the division in charge of Redmond's assault on the enterprise software market. New partnerships, a new technology strategy, new capabilities, and ambitious growth plans for the company's leading products -- Axapta, Great Plains and Navision -- are clear evidence that the giant is stirring. more...

MS targets discount business solutions market (Thursday, November 20, 2003) Microsoft aims to increase revenues from its new business division by ten times within the next five years. It is committed to taking earnings from Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) to $10 billion globally by 2008, says Ben Swartz, MD of Microsoft gold certified partner, Symetrix. more...

Awards 2003: Mid-range Software (Thursday, November 13, 2003) When Microsoft announced its intentions to buy both Great Plains and Navision to create what is now known as Microsoft Business Solutions, many in the industry saw disaster looming. The Microsoft brand is easy to knock because of its well-publicised problems over the years, but the two financial packages that the Redmond-based giant acquired proved to be tried, tested and much-liked software. more...

Microsoft Sets Its SMB Priorities (Wednesday, November 05, 2003) Microsoft has heaped a lot on its small/mid-size business (SMB) plate for the next few years. Here's the to-do list. The Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division has set itself an ambitious roadmap, running through calendar 2006. And company officials detailed a number of its upcoming milestones at its worldwide partner conference last month. more...

Microsoft global document router (Tuesday, November 04, 2003) AUSTRALIA will be among the first places where Microsoft will launch its Microsoft Business Network, a subscription site for routing XML business documents. Microsoft Business Solutions US industry solutions director Jeff Edwards said the MBN would be a hosted service that connected XML-based documents of small and medium-sized businesses with trading partners. more...

New Business Suite Software Aimed at Manufacturers (Monday, October 06, 2003) New software from Microsoft Corp. is extending some of the automation capabilities of high-end business software to midsize manufacturers. more...

Microsoft Business Solutions Releases Navision 3.70 (Monday, August 04, 2003) Microsoft Business Solutions today announced the release of Microsoft® Business Solutions--Navision® 3.70, an integrated business management solution designed for small and midmarket companies. more...

Microsoft sets its sights on the SME market (Wednesday, June 11, 2003) When Microsoft acquired US business software supplier Great Plains for $1.1bn (£650m) in December 2001, many experts raised an eyebrow at Redmond's unexpected conversion to a sector it had avoided for years. more...

Microsoft sets its sights on the SME market (Wednesday, June 11, 2003) When Microsoft acquired US business software supplier Great Plains for $1.1bn in December 2001, many experts raised an eyebrow at Redmond's unexpected conversion to a sector it had avoided for years.Five months later, another $1.3bn was spent buying Danish vendor Navision, and analysts were taking seriously Microsoft's plan to establish itself as a leading supplier of applications to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). more...