Video: Microsoft vs. SAP and Oracle’s mid-market offerings

How can Microsoft ERP compete with SAP and Oracle’s mid-market offerings?

Don Fornes, CEO of our partner Software Advice, interviewed the Microsoft Director of Marketing for ERP, Guy Weismantel, about the latest updates to the Microsoft ERP product line. In this video he talks about where and how Microsoft competes in the Enterprise with SAP and Oracle.

Often a corporate headquarters runs SAP or Oracle for the financials and the various plants, divisions and subsidiaries are running differing software, including Microsoft. Guy discusses the competitive advantages that Microsoft brings the these corporations at the divisional or plant level. There are some distinct advantages for these smaller segments of a large business to running Microsoft Dynamics. Find out more in this interesting video.

This is the fifth in a series of 7 videos that we will be posting.

Microsoft vs. SAP and Oracle’s mid-market offerings

Microsoft ERP

Getting More Microsoft ERP Information

If you are interested in exploring Microsoft ERP for your company, please select one of the two links below:

ERP Channel Partners

ERP Channel Partners

For information on other ERP software products, please see our ERP Software Directory for many more vendors.

Microsoft ERP Channel Partners

For information on the Microsoft ERP Channel Partner Program, please see http://partner.microsoft.com
Insight into the Microsoft ERP Mix

Video: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – An Inside Look

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – An Inside Look

Don Fornes, CEO of our partner Software Advice, interviewed Microsoft’s Director of ERP Marketing, Guy Weismantel, about the latest updates to the Microsoft Dynamics ERP product line. Over the next two weeks, we are publishing 7 videos, each centered on one question about the Microsoft Dynamics ERP offerings.


They discuss amongst other things, the more than 1200 new features that are being incorporated into the new product. He makes an interesting point about the fact that many companies are around the tenth or eleventh year of use on their current ERP systems and so they are targeting these clients looking to get off of their legacy (Y2k) systems.

Additionally, they are looking into the Business Intelligence area with the new release. They are also enhancing the solution with several acquisition products. It should be a very exciting product when it is released at their user conference Convergence, later this year.

This is the first of a series of 7 videos that we will be posting.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Video 1

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Getting More Microsoft Dynamics Information

If you are interested in exploring Microsoft AX 2012 for your company, please select one of the two links below:

Microsoft Dynamics AX Featured Product:

Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0


For information on other ERP software products, please see our ERP Software Directory for many more vendors.

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics for Manufacturing – Understanding the Difference Between GP, NAV, SL and AX

In establishing its foothold in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market, Microsoft has acquired no less than thirteen companies. Now Microsoft – and their prospects – face the challenge of sorting through the various applications in the Microsoft Dynamics family.

With the recent launch of our ERP software service, we decided to shed some light on the Dynamics product family. For starters, here is a chart that shows the target market for each product. Industries are down the side, business sizes are across the top, products lie in the middle. Click on the image for an expanded view.

Read entire post at: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/understanding-the-difference-between-gp-nav-sl-ax-1111709/

ERP Outlook by Microsoft

In reading this article on MS and ERP, the question came up “Is Microsoft really going after the smaller companies with their Dynamics ERP offerings?” So far all of the indications are that they are targeting SAP and Oracle as their competition. Is this a little arrogant of Microsoft, trying to compete against the established Tier 1 vendors in ERP? Oh… Yeah… they’re Microsoft. The same company that went after Lotus 123, Netscape, Word Perfect, and others. Find a niche that uses software, exploit it with the fact that MS software runs well on MS Windows, it has a familiar look and feel to it, and give it away for free or market the hell out of it.

So far that is not what has happened with Dynamics, but it is still early. What has happened so far is that they have completed wave 1 of their project Green integration. They have built a common user interface for all the Dynamics products (AX-Axapta, NV-Navision, GP-Great Plains, SL-Solomon). They have also built common database tools. Now Mr. Gates is outlining a future with CRM and Dynamics that integrates to the “Live” tools on the web, including MS CRM integration to the Live website for targeted advertising. Add to that that 2007 Office is going to have intimate linkages into and from Dynamics. The user interface is MS Outlook. Based on MS CRM, which essentially now plugs into Outlook, Dynamics will soon do the same. So you will have a single, familiar Desktop tool for managing Email, Customer Relationships, and Enterprise Data. All with the familiar Microsoft look and feel plus links into Microsoft Live.

Sounds irresistable for a midsized company who wants simplicity and flexibility. However, now your entire enterprise is dependent upon a single vendor for the Back Office (servers and database), Front Office tools (MS Office), and your enterprise data.

Further, as it stands right now, Microsoft is taking a familiar approach of providing a development platform for partners to extend. In Dynamics, the code is flexible with many MS partners building niche add-ins to the products. As we understand it, the core product of Dynamics works fine, but doesn’t drill to deep into any industry. The Microsoft Industry Builder addresses that by having MS VARS (Value Added Resellers) become specialists into certain industries and then developing the vertical software necessary on top of the Dynamics product. Yes, it is integrated and native, being built with the Dynamics tool set. Yes, it is supported. If anything happens to the VAR, then as long as it is a Microsoft certified Industry Builder solution, you get the Microsoft support for that vertical extension.

So is SAP and Oracle out of reach? Based on history, no they are not. And based on history, they should be preparing for a real fight.

ERP Definition

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Has Arrived!!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Has Arrived!!
Microsoft has sped to market their latest CRM offering!

A flash presentation of the CRM tool can be found here.