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By Mel Duvall
Microsoft, looking to strengthen its position in the midmarket enterprise resource planning (ERP) space, has purchased four software companies that give it industry expertise.
The acquisitions, announced Tuesday, will allow Microsoft to extend the core capabilities of its Dynamics AX ERP software. Terms of the deals were not disclosed, but Microsoft said it has bought a process manufacturing offering from Fullscope of Athens, Ala., a professional service solution from Computer Generated Solutions of New York, and retail offerings from LS Retail EHS and To-Increase, both of Denmark.
"With these acquisitions we are investing in building industry functionality directly into the Microsoft Dynamics AX application, while other ERP vendors are cutting corners or trying to reconcile multiple industry offerings as a result of acquiring several companies," Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, said in a statement. "We are a safe haven for customers and partners who depend on us to drive continuous innovation in our products and lower the total cost of ownership."
Read's comment about difficulties other vendors may be having integrating offerings from acquisitions is a bit ironic, given that Microsoft has built its ERP lineup almost entirely from such deals. The Dynamics AX suite is largely based on software the company gained from its 2001 purchased of Fargo, N.D.-based Great Plains Software and its 2002 deal for Danish software company Navision. Since that time it has worked with hundreds of software partners to flush out the capabilities of its ERP products.
The Fullscope acquisition will provide the company with technology to integrate business processes across discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing. The Computer Generated Solutions software will provide a single system to manage projects and resources, as well as match resources with client assignments and execute financial transactions and customer billing.
The LS Retail and To-Increase deals provide Microsoft with an end-to-end retail offering, including modules for point-of-sale, merchandising, inventory and store management. LS Retail says its software is used by more than 1,400 companies to operate some 26,000 stores. Customers include IKEA, SPAR and Adidas.
Microsoft said that by incorporating the industry functionality gained from the software acquisitions into its Dynamics applications, it will provide a core platform to meet most of the needs of an industry vertical, such as process manufacturing. Software partners can then focus on the last mile of innovation to fine-tune the offering to their specific needs, "which has been shown to have the greatest impact on a customer's business," the company said.
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