Microsoft pushes to expedite .Net Web services
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Microsoft is targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with its recent acquisitions of Navision, a European mid-market ERP vendor, and Sales Management Systems (SMS), a specialized developer of retail software. Microsoft intends to integrate SMS point-of-sale and retail management applications with the Great Plains e-business software suite.
While most other large software vendors are focusing primarily on selling to global enterprises, Microsoft is emphasizing the SME marketplace. Microsoft has built a large cash position, and is now investing some of it to buy smaller software vendors that target the mid-market.
Microsoft's strategy is to add a .Net Web services interface to the applications it acquires. Microsoft can then sell the software as a package through its worldwide retail channels, and also through the Internet as a Web service that users can access, for instance, through Microsoft Office. Microsoft is already as much a packager and marketer as a developer of software. Each of its purchases gives it more software to market to large numbers of SMEs.