[Am-info] Gates' Small-Business Gamble

[Fred A. Miller]

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Gates' Small-Business Gamble

Microsoft execs have been racking up frequent-flier miles for the
past year, methodically acquiring and developing products aimed
at a large and still largely untapped market: business apps for
small and midsize companies. A year ago, Microsoft acquired Great
Plains Software for $1.1 billion, and two weeks ago, it snapped
up Navision for $1.3 billion. At the same time, the company is
working to develop CRM apps that are due later this year.

Microsoft wants to make it easier for smaller companies to buy
ready-to-assemble ERP, supply-chain, financial, and other such
apps. In an interview with InformationWeek, Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates says these businesses should snap up the new apps the
same way they did Microsoft's do-it-all desktop suite. "That
naturally should happen if you have a breakthrough product in
this space," he says. "But nobody has done it, so right or wrong,
we're going after that."

As Gates envisions things, desktop and business apps will be
woven together via Web services to let IT departments mix and
match applications across networks with less middleware, custom
integration, and consulting. - Aaron Ricadela and Jennifer
Maselli

Read the full Gates interview at:
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eHQb0Bce7K0V20Bc6d0An


- --
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org
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