Microsoft started its ambitious push into the midmarket with the acquisition of Great Plains. The big payoff hasnt materialized, as Microsoft struggles to integrate disparate channels from its acquisitions and to push up into the enterprise and down into
2Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – December 2000
Microsoft announces plans to acquire Great Plains, for just over $1 billion. For years after, the accounting softwares Fargo, N.D., offices would be headquarters for Microsoft Business Solutions. Microsoft finishes the acquisition in April 2001.
3Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – July 2002
Microsoft announces acquisition of Navision, for about $1.45, billion to compliment Great Plains.
4Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – January 2003
Microsoft enters CRM market with its own product. Later in the year, the release of Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager creates confusion about which product is for which market segment.
5Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – October 2003
Microsoft announces the controversial Project Green, a forthcoming, tightly integrated bundle of Business Solutions products. Project Green will eventually falter.
6Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – July 2004
Microsoft claims Business Solutions revenue opportunity is around $35 billion, or more than twice the Office groups revenue opportunity projections. The opportunity doesnt pan out for Microsoft or its midsize business channel partners.
Microsoft redou
7Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – February 2005
Microsoft buys ERP Complete from Entegrate software to complement Axapta.
Elixir strategy seeks to increase Outlook adoption. Microsofts broader goal is to make Office a Smart Client for accessing back-end applications; Elixir code e
8Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – September 2005
Business Solutions rebrands products as Dynamics: Microsoft CRM becomes Dynamics CRM; Great Plains, Dynamics GP; Axapta, Dynamics AX; Navision, Dynamics NAV; Solomon, Dynamics SL.
Microsoft announces forthcoming Centro for businesse
9Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – December 2005
Microsoft CRM 3.0 is generally available.
10Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – July 2006
Microsoft announces eventual release of its own hosted CRM product, competing with Saleforce.com. Later, the product is named CRM Live.
Business Solutions ekes out $24 million profit for fiscal 2006, ended June 30. The division had been a perennial
11Microsoft Travails Across the Great Plains – January-June 2007
Project Green goes onto life support, with its future uncertain.
Microsoft announces Dynamics Client for Office and SharePoint Server, one of several integration points between Dynamics and Office software.
Microsoft releases NAV 5.0.
Mi
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