The re-branding of Microsoft`s business solutions is part of an overall strategy to attract small business custom.
The vendor is making business application software more accessible in terms of cost, usability and consistency with the company`s other productivity software.
Re-branded as the "Dynamics" range, Microsoft`s financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions are to be focused on small and midsize businesses, without excluding larger organisation or divisions of global enterprises, according to Derek Kudsee, business group manager of Microsoft`s business solutions (MBS) division.
Microsoft has drawn up a roadmap for transitioning all its business products to the Dynamics brand that will see the disappearance of the Axapta, Great Plains, Navision and Solomon product names within the next 18 months.
Small business represents a significant opportunity for all IT companies worldwide and through commoditisation Microsoft plans to give companies of all sizes access to innovation that has previously been prohibitively expensive, Kudsee told journalists at a briefing yesterday.
"Microsoft has always been about commodity software that delivers high functionality that is consistent across an organisation at low cost, and that`s the thinking behind the Dynamics range," said Microsoft SA MD Gordon Frazer.
"The thing that makes small business competitive, is the ability to 'act big` in their interaction with customers by knowing who their customers are, for example, and being able to reach out and touch them through a variety of communication channels," Frazer continued.
A key competitive advantage for Microsoft is the innovation in the user interface that has been shown in the iterations of the MBS products into the first phase of Dynamics and the further user and process-centric innovation planned for phase two, according to Kudsee.
"No matter how much intellectual property you build into software, that software will be useless if users are unable to access that functionality, so usability is a key strategy that Microsoft will continue to invest in," said Kudsee.
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