Life after Navision: MBS looks to the future

Johannesburg, 29 Jan 2003

It has been six months since Microsoft purchased Navision and combined it with Microsoft Great Plains to form Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS). In that time, says Chris Harris, regional manager for the Middle East and Africa, the company has gone from strength to strength, despite having to bed down the acquisition.

"It has been a tremendous last six months for us," says Harris. "It is never easy bringing together two companies that have been strong rivals, particularly in such a short space of time."

[VIDEO]He says there were some "extremely trying times" during the bedding down process. There are always distractions, structural issues, problems associated with combining of teams and an ever-changing workplace environment. "But we set some very courageous goals and managed to exceed them, which is a testament to the ability of our staff.

"It was very tough on all of us, but everyone put their shoulder to the wheel and made things happen. For my own part, I think I spent something like 30 days in the air, flying between offices making sure that the process went as smoothly as possible."

He says MBS also received plenty of support from its channel partners and customers during the past six months and that this shows in the company`s numbers.

[VIDEO]In terms of the organisation`s focus, he says MBS will continue to aim at the small to medium business market, but that the launch of the Axapta product has also provided leverage in the higher end of the mid-market and medium enterprise space.

"As far as our competitors go, we have some strong and respected opposition in this field. As we find ourselves moving to the upper end of our target market, we are finding some of the high-end players moving down too, so we are starting to find companies like Oracle, JD Edwards and SAP playing in this space too."

Harris believes the organisation`s Microsoft background will offer numerous advantages for MBS`s customers, including the fact that business solutions will be designed to take full advantage of the various tools, such as operating systems and desktops, that customers use every day.

[VIDEO]"Added to that is the longevity of the relationship - clients know full well that Microsoft is going to be around for many years and that builds confidence."

MBS will launch two new products in SA this year. Both should be released within six to nine months and Harris expects them to be well received.

"The first is a CRM [customer relationship management] solution for the mid-range business and the second one will be a retail management solution. I think they will both prove to be winners."

Asked about the difficulties of being based in the US but being head of operations for the Middle East and Africa, he says this is more of an advantage than a problem. "Thanks to the time differences between SA and the US, we effectively have a 16-hour working day instead of the traditional eight-hour day.

"We work on a virtual management basis. As far as I`m concerned, we have all these wonderful modern tools like SMS, e-mail and instant messaging, so it seems silly to stick to the classic management style.

"The new technology is here, I feel it is just a matter of getting management styles to catch up with it. I believe virtual management is the way to go."