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Office Standard names Susan Looby Vice
President of Sales [view]
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Microsoft CRM
.NET & Web Services
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Quick links on this page.
Overview
FAQs
Business Perspective
IT Perspective
Videos & Whitepapers
Overview.
Microsoft Business Solutions has chosen to develop its next generation of applications on the Microsoft .NET architecture, bringing substantial advantages to its existing and future customers.
- The .NET architecture allows Microsoft Business Solutions to build new applications that deeply integrate with existing business applications from Microsoft Corp. As a result, Microsoft Business Solutions will be able to offer new functionality to users of existing products, offering an evolutionary path to the future.
- .NET allows Microsoft Business Solutions to set a new bar for business application interconnections, making it possible for existing and future Microsoft applications to connect with one another, and with suppliers, customers and employees.
- .NET will pave the way for future platforms, offering dramatic improvements for customers wanting to customize their solutions.
Below is Microsoft Business Solutions’ development strategy and how it relates to the .NET-connected revolution that’s under way.
This investment strategy is threefold:
- Expand and enhance today’s solutions
- Surround solutions with new product offerings
- Deliver a single global solution built on the Microsoft Business Framework
This investment strategy is backed by significant industry research and development (R&D) resources, both in people and financial investments. As one of the top five R&D teams in the industry, Microsoft Business Solutions can execute on this strategy.
Expand and Enhance Today’s Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions recognizes and values the investment its customers make when selecting a business solution. It also realizes that its customers will embrace the .NET-connected concept at their own pace, and Microsoft Business Solutions will provide the solutions they want and need on their timeline. Microsoft Business Solutions witnessed this during the transition from MS-DOS® to Windows®. It continued to add value to its MS-DOS-based applications for many years after the Windows-based solutions were available. In short, Microsoft Business Solutions’ heritage of customer service and customer commitment is long and true and remains at the heart of its mission: “To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
Microsoft Business Solutions also realizes that customers’ timelines for adapting and incorporating the benefits of .NET into specific business processes vary. For that reason, Microsoft Business Solutions is committed to continuing to invest in and enhance all editions of the Microsoft Business Solutions product family including Solomon®, Attain®, Great Plains® and Axapta®.
Surround Solutions With New Product Offerings
Microsoft Business Solutions’ second investment is to surround its current applications with solutions that provide new capabilities, as well as solutions that offer .NET connectivity. These applications will address cross-industry needs — such as Microsoft Customer Relationship Management — as well as industry-focused needs such as Microsoft Retail Management System and Microsoft Business Solutions Professional Services Automation. Microsoft Business Solutions will provide key sets of business functionality that will “surround” its traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions and enable its customers to begin realizing the benefits of .NET-connected applications immediately. This strategy enables Microsoft Business Solutions’ customers to extend and enhance their existing applications with surrounding industry-specific and .NET-connected solutions, allowing them to embrace .NET at their own pace. This model of value-based adoption has been used with previous successful technology shifts.
Deliver a Single Global Solution Built on the Microsoft Business Framework
Concurrent with Microsoft Business Solutions’ efforts in extending and enhancing its current solutions and surrounding them with complementary offerings, it will build its next generation of solutions from the ground up on the Microsoft Business Framework. The Microsoft Business Framework is the enabling platform designed specifically for the next generation of interconnected global business solutions. Microsoft Business Solutions’ customers will be able to move to this single solution when it makes sense for them to do so. This means that their investments made today and yesterday are even more valuable, because they enable the customers to manage their businesses now, while helping them prepare for the expanded benefits delivered over the coming months and years driven by .NET deliverables.
Microsoft Business Solutions has made the following statement of commitment to its customers:
If you currently license Great Plains, Solomon, Attain or Axapta and if you stay current on the Microsoft Business Solutions Enhancement Program/Upgrade Program, you will be able to move to the Microsoft Business Solutions .NET solution without having to repurchase the functionality you already license. Any functionality equivalents between current solutions and the .NET solution are included as part of the Enhancement Program/Upgrade Program. Hardware upgrades or modifications and/or consulting and tools fees needed or desired to take advantage of the .NET solution are not included as part of the Enhancement Program/Upgrade Program. To take advantage of this option, you will have to be licensed for a Great Plains, Solomon, Attain and/or Axapta solution on Microsoft SQL Server™ at the date of moving to Microsoft Business Solutions .NET solution.
Conclusion
As one of the top five R&D resources in the industry, Microsoft Business Solutions wants to continue to add value to its existing solutions and its ability to deliver. Microsoft Business Solutions’ threefold strategy ensures that it is maximizing and protecting its customers’ return on investments today and tomorrow. The solutions Microsoft Business Solutions provides today enable its customers to manage their businesses now, and by delivering surround applications, Microsoft Business Solutions is delivering the expanded benefits of .NET-connected solutions.
FAQs.
Q. What is .NET?
A. Microsoft® .NET is a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting your world of information, people, systems, and devices. It enables an unprecedented level of software integration through the use of XML Web services: small, discrete, building-block applications that connect to each other—as well as to other, larger applications—via the Internet. .NET-connected software delivers what developers need to create XML Web services and stitch them together. The benefit to individuals is seamless, compelling experiences with information sharing.
Let’s take a look at an example of what .NET can mean to business applications.
Customer Contact Information Scenario - Today: All customer contact information is maintained in Accounts Receivables, a CRM application and a call center spreadsheet. If a customer relocates, merges with another company, or changes names, the business has no method for knowing this change in contact information, unless the customer contacts the vendor. The data must then be re-keyed, and updated where appropriate within AR and any other systems where this data is maintained (CRM, Customer Service system, etc.). See illustration below.
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Now, let’s examine what this business process looks like with .NET.
.NET Solution: Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will enable your Accounts Receivable, CRM and any other systems that track customer information to actively “communicate” with a web service provided by the U.S. Postal Service. Therefore, when the customer information changes, the systems automatically work together to receive the appropriate updates without any human intervention. See the following illustration for more information.
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Q. What enables customers to move from their current solution (Dynamics, Solomon or eEnterprise) to the .NET solutions?
A. As long as a customer is enrolled in the Enhancement Program and is using Microsoft SQL Server, our unparalleled offering enables them to move to the .NET solutions when they are ready, without having to repurchase the modules they already own (for example, Dynamics General Ledger to the 100% .NET General Ledger). Customers will have the ability to choose when they want to move to the .NET solutions, just as they have the opportunity today to choose when to upgrade to the latest release. This means customer investments today and yesterday are even more valuable, because they enable them to manage business now, while helping them prepare for the future and the benefits delivered as a result of .NET.
Q. What happens if their Enhancement Program expires?
A. We have standard reenrollment fees in effect today for those customers that request enrollment in our Enhancement Program when their plan has expired. These late fees and conditions are applied to the Enhancement Program pricing. Service plan pricing is reviewed on a regular basis as a part of our standard business processes.
Q. How long will current products be maintained?
A. We will continue to invest in and enhance Dynamics, eEnterprise and Solomon far into the future. We’ve demonstrated commitment and innovation to our products in the past – far beyond the release of new platform solutions. For example, Great Plains Accounting, one of our DOS-based business solutions, was enhanced and supported for 17 years, far beyond the initial release of our Dynamics and eEnterprise solutions. We will continue our commitment to our current and new customers as we also begin to introduce the benefits and value that .NET can bring to their businesses.
Q. Can customers add .NET applications to their existing Dynamics/ Solomon/eEnterprise solution?
A. We will provide key sets of business functionality, such as the BusinessDesk, Microsoft Customer Relationship Management and the Microsoft Business Network, built on .NET technology. These applications will enable organizations to begin using .NET technology without moving all their business applications to .NET at once. This strategy enables them to embrace .NET at a pace that they control, while extending and enhancing their existing applications through surrounding .NET solutions. At some point in the future, they will be able to move their entire system to a 100% .NET business solution when they are ready to.
Q. How much will implementation cost (migrating data, re-training, new hardware/system software needed, etc.)?
A. For each organization the costs will be different. As has been our history, we will continue to deliver migration capabilities for our applications. There will likely be occasions during the migration process where additional data entry will be needed to take advantage of new or different functionality within the application. In regards to retraining the employee base – as with any new application, there will be training involved. The .NET platform enables us to deliver intuitive applications and integrated service elements that will provide just in time training and wizards to guide users through their processes. Hardware and system requirements are still being established.
Q. Will the .NET solution have all of the functionality of the current solutions?
A. We will deliver entirely new functionality that greatly eases connections between the customer’s business and its suppliers, partners, customers and employees. For products that exist today (such as General Ledger, Payables Management, Inventory, etc.) feature equivalency and greater is our goal. As our .NET development is focused on taking our customers’ businesses into the future, there will likely be some functionality that has changed or will operate differently in the .NET solutions. We also expect that there will be some features in the .NET solutions that may not be available in current solutions.
Q. Will BusinessDesk be available as part of the Enhancement Program?
A. More information on how BusinessDesk will be a made available will be communicated as we get closer to its release. We are committed to recognizing your customers’ current investment in any BusinessDesk-related applications.
Business Perspective.
An inevitable technology transformation is occurring to “everything connected” – driven by customer needs and enabled by a new technology innovation called XML Web services. Microsoft is the leader in driving this transformation - the Microsoft .NET platform is the best way to build, deploy, manage, and use XML Web services – software, services, and solutions that give your company the agility to realize the full potential of this exciting new world of everything connected.
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET connect business systems, the Internet and devices across industry standards, enabling information to be exchanged and available for users in an automated, more useful manner than ever before. More useful, timely and personalized information enables knowledge workers to respond to market changes more quickly and effectively.
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will make companies remarkably agile by fully connecting their business, so they can better utilize human resources and respond to threats and opportunities faster and in new ways.
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Return on Business Process
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Return on People
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Return on Customer Centricity
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- Time/Cost to Benefit
- Integration
- Process Efficiency
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- Productivity & Efficiency
- Communication/ Collaboration
- Employee Satisfaction
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- Connecting with Your Customer
- New Opportunities
- Rapid Response to Customer Needs
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Inherently Integrated “Connected Everything”
Integrate the elements and people of your business—both internal and external—into one functioning system of information exchange. This enables you to dramatically improve business processes so you can implement faster, more efficiently, adapt and evolve.
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Put your people where you need them
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will help you retain & motivate your best & brightest employees – enhance the quality of work and amplify employee productivity by enabling action anytime, anywhere, and from any connected device.
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Make your customers the center of your business
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will help you drive more revenue, find new customers, and align your business with the lives of all of your customers – providing them responsive access to your business in the times and ways they expect.
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Eliminate manual processes
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will leverage XML and XML Web Services to automate the exchange of information based on user needs. No longer will users need to manually move and manipulate data from the Internet or external systems into functioning systems to “mean something”. .NET capabilities will enable the automatic exchange of data based on the user’s needs via “call-outs” that allow systems and Internet services to talk to the user’s system.
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Low Training Investment
Your employees already know Microsoft software. .NET will be built into Microsoft Business Solutions, so re-training will not be necessary. .NET will be the enabler that integrates Business Solutions with Microsoft Office And XML Web Services (Passport for example), helping you increase the efficiencies of your IT staff and end users with technologies and applications they prefer, rather than forcing them to use something unfamiliar.
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Serve Customers Faster
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET automates and pulls together every process associated with servicing a customer. This enables employees to respond to customer requests, new orders, etc. more quickly. As well, customers can even “serve themselves”, as .NET securely “opens” system barriers, making it convenient for your customers to help themselves on their own timeline.
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Remove technology barriers
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will enable your applications to communicate with various other systems, regardless of the underlying technology. This supports better flow of information between vendors, suppliers, customers, employees, and within the organization itself. Based on industry standards, a .NET technology foundation provides a wider breadth of solutions that securely connect, than typical XML, EDI or ODBC connection standards.
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Productivity
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET enables you to unlock information and processes, enabling your employees to access and act on business information via the Internet, a networked device, PDA, Tablet PC, etc. By utilizing the “call-out benefits” of .NET, employees will be able to make better and faster decisions, improve communications and collaboration, and ultimately deliver better quality work in less amounts of time. Greater employee efficiency lies at the heart of automation; .NET eliminates manual processes that typically consume large amounts of time.
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Anticipate What Customers Want:
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET enables you to “know” your customers better than your competition. By integrating customer data, supplier capabilities, and market trends, you will be able to make smarter decisions faster than the competition. The “new level of integration” that .NET supports, enables you to build one “ecosystem” that revolves around the customer, which enables quicker response to customer’s needs.
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Leverage a vast library of business solutions at a faster rate
With Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET you can quickly transform existing systems by adding new capabilities and services – extending the value of existing investments instead of the “rip and replace” approach. The .NET standard means that you have a wider selection of solutions to select from, that meet your specific industry needs.
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Elevate your employees
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET will help you elevate your employees to more empowering roles – taking them from data entry, to data analysis professionals. By automating various manual functions—a result today of typical connection standards—employees move into more strategic roles, increasing their value to your organization, while maximizing their satisfaction.
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Customer Knowledge
Microsoft Business Solutions on .NET enable your business to easily tie together all of your customer data into one central location so it can be accessed by any employee—making your entire organization more knowledgeable and responsive to customers.
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IT Perspective.
Microsoft .NET will enable Microsoft Business Solutions users to easily connect their business solutions with external systems and information sources called via the Internet. Built on the industry standard for leveraging XML Web Services, Microsoft.NET Business Framework and solutions will allow users to share and use important business information in the most secure and customizable format, any where, any time, on any device.
- Customers will be able to adapt .NET technology and solutions at their own pace, without having to move all applications to the .NET platform at once
- Customers will gain significant value from new Microsoft.NET solutions if they are current in their enhancement plans
- Microsoft will protect our customer’s investment by continuing to enhance and support applications built on existing technology with .NET capabilities
- Microsoft.NET applications will embrace the open standards of XML Web Services
- The learning curve for Microsoft.NET solutions will be self-paced and fully supported, depending on the rate at which customers want to adopt new .NET capabilities
- Microsoft.NET strategies include delivering .NET capabilities across existing and new solutions as outlined in short, mid and long-term plans
Microsoft.NET solutions are a safe choice for customers who want to leverage the Internet in new ways for greater efficiency. Microsoft is leading the charge to standardize on XML Web Services with .NET technology, therefore you are assured that your investment with Microsoft is secure and at the forefront of .NET technology solutions. You will be an early adopter with one of the most trusted technology leaders in the industry. Quality and stability of your .NET solution is guaranteed, as Microsoft offers both the technology and the solutions, providing you a single source for delivering value in the technology systems you select.
There are three guiding principals for the development of .NET:
Common Standards: Microsoft is committed to partnering with the rest of the technology industry to ensure that the integrity of XML Web service standards is maintained and remains open to all companies. This will ensure that all XML Web services are compatible – regardless of which company’s tools and technology they are built with, including those built with .NET
Everything Connected: .NET products and services transform the current world of “islands of information” into a world of “everything connected” – PCs, devices, systems, applications, etc. – so information can be shared in a common way, seamlessly, automatically, and securely
Security: .NET is built to the strictest standards of modern technology security, in accordance with Microsoft’s longstanding role in providing secure software, world class practices, and physical security. Additionally, .NET provides higher levels of security because it provides organizations and individuals with tools that give them complete control of their data – to determine what data is stored, how it is stored, how it’s used, who can access it, etc., with the flexibility to changes these preferences at any time.
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Share information across various systems no matter what the operating platform
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Exploit Internet-based resources you never thought possible
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Leverage a vast library of business solutions at a faster rate
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- Create new compelling ways in which to work with customers, business partners, suppliers and employees
- Easily integrate business solutions with various operating platforms, databases, XML Web Services and technologies
- XML enables the exchange; XML Web Services provide the information, .NET Business Solutions enable users to read and use business data in ways they are familiar
- Transform existing systems by adding new capabilities and services from the Internet
- Access business information and reports from any device, anywhere at any time
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- NET Business Solutions built on XML Web Services – the standard of the World Wide Web Consortium
- Assessable across any device, anywhere
- XML Web Services leveraged across many Internet browsers, search engines and sites
- Microsoft Great Plains .NET solutions “wrap” around XML Web Services, enabling you to integrate and securely connect business applications, systems and processes – internally, or with those of your customers and business partners – enabling incredible business operational efficiency.
- Tap new methods for connecting with customers that have traditionally been too expensive in the past.
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- .NET Business Framework leveraged across hundreds of ISVs
- Pre-designed business objects within .NET Business Framework enable faster solution development, and can be used time and again for new solutions
- .NET Business Framework provides higher quality standards
- Quickly transform existing systems by adding new capabilities and services—extending the value of existing investments instead of “rip and replace”.
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Videos & Whitepapers.
Video - 1° of Separation, Overview
Video - 1° of Separation, Wine Supplier
Whitepaper – Aberdeen, Microsoft .NET: A Foundation for Connected Business
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© 2003 OfficeStandard. All rights reserved.
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