Microsoft Keeps on Rounding up Its Business Solutions
Part Two: Challenges and User Recommendations
P.J. Jakovljevic - December 2, 2003

Challenges

At the beginning of October, during the annual conference of the American Production and Inventory Control Society, APICS 2003, in addition to Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) initiative to avail a majority of its Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division's enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings with long needed pieces of product lifecycle management (PLM) functionality through extension of the existing relationship with Autodesk, Inc. (see Autodesk To Bring Microsoft Business Solutions Closer To PLM), Microsoft also made other announcements pertinent to enhancing and supporting its current line of ERP business solutions and service offerings. Namely, to help its small, mid-market segment and even certain large corporate customers improve the effectiveness of current ERP solutions, MBS announced the general availability of Microsoft Business Network (MBN), and the upcoming delivery of two demand planning modules...