Apps the Next Reorg Target?
Josh Greenbaum has been covering ERP and manufacturing for years and has a gift for writing and analyzing. Now Josh has an interesting ERP-centric view of the future of Microsoft: "The new tack will be Microsoft's own version of the stack wars, in which Azure, fueled by the Dynamics ERP products and partners' enterprise software and services, becomes the leading edge of an increasing focus on direct sales to the enterprise," he wrote recently.
Intriguing idea, and if we take a decades-long view, it may be right. Here is where I see the problems: Microsoft has essentially four lines of ERP-style products and spent years trying to turn them into one single offering. The software challenge was too much and Redmond gave up. Re-engineering ERP apps is very, very difficult.
The bigger issue is that Microsoft ERP is almost 100 percent aimed at small- and medium-size businesses. Last time I checked, Microsoft still uses SAP. Josh may be right... I hope we find out before either of us retires!
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/19/2011 at 1:18 PM