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Microsoft Corp. today made available an integrated solution for small-business retailers in the U.S., combining Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Point of Sale or Microsoft Retail Management System. This free software add-in allows retailers to transfer point-of-sale data, such as transactions and purchase orders, directly into their financial management software. In addition to dramatic time savings and the reduction of manual data entry, the key benefit to small-business retailers is the ability to manage cash flow more effectively, thus helping improve profitability.
A good idea and yet another tie-in between Office and Microsoft Business Solutions. See the web pages for SBA, Microsoft Point of Sale, and Microsoft Retail Management System for more.
That Microsoft Office has a “good enough” problem got another illustration in Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols’ review – Why OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Your Best Choice:
There are many fancy reasons that OpenOffice.org is a great choice for your office work. For example, it’s open source and it supports an open format document standard, OpenDocument.
But let’s put “openness” to the side. Let me get down to the nitty-gritty: It’s free (as in free beer) and it works. What’s not to like?
OpenOffice.org is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats and the latest version, 2.0, “boasts an interface that’s much more like the Microsoft Office interface.”
…but let’s get back to brass tacks again. OpenOffice.org’s price tag: 0. Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003′s list price: $499 new, $329 as an upgrade.
Day in and day out office usability? For all practical purposes, they’re about the same.
So, which would you rather ‘buy?’
So what can Microsoft do to protect their lucrative Office market? Adding more minor features isn’t likely to do it. The user interface is changing in Office 12, but that can also be viewed as a minus for the retraining involved. As a result, Microsoft seems to have settled on a new theme of linkage of Office with business software products farther up the food chain such as the small business offerings or enterprise offerings via workflow and collaboration via SharePoint Services (WSS) and SharePoint Portal Server.
Building on that theme, Microsoft yesterday announced more upstream linkage – Microsoft Builds Business Intelligence Into Office Software:
Building on the robust business intelligence (BI) platform capabilities provided by Microsoft® SQL Server™, Microsoft Corp. today will announce it has significantly increased and broadened its investment in BI, with Microsoft Office products playing a major role. The goal is to provide a better experience when users access and work with business information from within the suite of applications they already use to work, collaborate and manage their business — Microsoft Office.
Decision-makers at all levels within an organization can use these new capabilities to help drive improved business performance. In support of this strategy, Microsoft will announce that a new business performance management server application, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, will be available in November. The company also will showcase technologies that will be included in the next release of Microsoft Office products, code-named Microsoft Office “12,” that are designed to help information workers easily find, analyze and more securely share business information within the Microsoft Office System, leading to faster and more informed decisions.
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Available Nov. 1, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 is a new, server-based business scorecarding application. It takes advantage of the power of the Microsoft Office System and extends the SQL Server platform to help organizations broadly deploy personalized scorecards to employees so they can track key performance indicators (KPIs) against goals — all within an intuitive and collaborative environment.
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Microsoft Office “12” will simplify the process of accessing and working with business information. Today the company unveiled the following BI capabilities that will be delivered by Office “12” Excel and Office “12” SharePoint Products and Technologies, both of which integrate with SQL Server 2005…These improvements deliver increased value to Office users, and they also mark a shift in the delivery and use of BI solutions. Where BI has previously been an individual activity, its integration into Office introduces new collaboration scenarios.
And more reason to pay for Microsoft Office instead of a free alternative. More details by following the link and at the Business Scorecard Manager home page.
Update: Related articles -
Will New UI Secure Office Users?
Microsoft Office Isn’t the Only Office Game in Town
Official press release:
Microsoft Corp. today announced general availability and promotional pricing for Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 and Microsoft Office Small Business Management Edition 2006, two new Microsoft Office offerings designed to enable small businesses to manage all their sales, marketing and financial processes within the familiar, easy-to-use Office environment. With strong support from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), retailers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and service providers, these new solutions are evidence of the continuation of Microsoft’s commitment to delivering integrated solutions specifically developed to help small businesses start, grow and thrive.
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Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 is a full-featured financial management software solution that is available as a stand-alone offering or as part of Office Small Business Management Edition 2006, which also includes Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 with Business Contact Manager Update, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel® 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 and Microsoft Office Access 2003.
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Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 is available in the U.S. for an after-rebate price of $149 ($179 estimated retail price less $30 mail in rebate*). ADP Payroll for Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting is available for $169 per year. Microsoft Small Business Management Edition 2006 is available in the U.S for an after-rebate price of $569 and to existing Microsoft Office customers for an upgrade price of $399 (product estimated retail prices are $669 and $499, respectively, less $100 mail-in rebates*). Customers can go to http://www.office.microsoft.com/sba to learn more.
Service Pack 1 for Small Business Accounting is already available which isn’t particularly surprising since the final version of SBA has been available to MSDN subscribers since June.
As far as the big shootout with Intuit’s Quick Books, Joe Wilcox notes the salient point:
Microsoft’s SBA-QuickBooks comparison tells it all. Most of the differences between the products have to do more with Office integration than features.
And what better entry point could there be?
Microsoft MBS corporate Vice President Satya Nadella gives us a look at what is coming at today’s Microsoft Business Summit:
We have two major announcements. Small Business product – Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (SBA) – goes to customers. And today is an important marker for us in terms of delivering “Green” Wave 1 innovations – role specific user experience, Portal technology built on WSS, integrated Business Intelligence, and Web Services across all our ERP and CRM product lines. Coincident with Business Summit, we are unveiling the name of “Green” – Microsoft Dynamics. We will be shipping versions of Microsoft Dynamics starting this Fall.
More on Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) and Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) by following the link. Windows Workflow Foundation and RSS support in general and in Microsoft CRM are also mentioned.
Update: Mary Jo Foley has more including a letter from Steve Ballmer on the midmarket and a description of the new Midmarket Server (codename Centro):
Microsoft Corp. is recognizing the specific needs of the midmarket with a new infrastructure software solution under development known as Centro, which will be released in 2007 as part of the “Longhorn” wave of products.
Centro is specifically tailored to address the needs of the midmarket segment, which Microsoft defines as those customers with between 25 and 500 PCs connected to the Internet.
Seems like Small Business Server with more seats and 2 years out.
Update: Microsoft Corporate VP Tami Reller elaborates on the new Dynamics brand:
• Microsoft CRM becomes Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains becomes Microsoft Dynamics GP.
• Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta® becomes Microsoft Dynamics AX.
• Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision becomes Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
• Microsoft Business Solutions-Solomon becomes Microsoft Dynamics SL
This first wave of major releases under Microsoft Dynamics will share common client technology that focuses on a role-based user experience with deep integration to Microsoft Office. Future waves of Microsoft Dynamics releases will focus on common server technology, including a common process model that combines the best business processes from each of the releases.
