June 11, 2004

Microsoft wants SMB's

Microsoft badly wants to reach more and more small businesses - a HOT market. It's operating systems are not longer "hot". New operating systems don't garner the fan fare and excitement like Windows 95 did! So many still use Windows 95/98 and many businesses use the aged Windows NT.

What can Microsoft do?

Well it may consider buying other companies for their technology - so it has more products to sell to this market. Or buying companies to get their customers so it can sell them more Microsoft products.

One thing that would work for sure is if MS were to do more on the ground marketing. Non-sales events and evangelize technology to SMB owners as I do very successfully.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer writes News that Microsoft Corp. discussed a merger with business software giant SAP AG has focused new attention on Microsoft's limited success in a market it would love to conquer.

Microsoft is rejiggering plans to cater to the more specialized needs of small businesses, part of a wider effort to find new revenue streams to augment its traditional cash cows. The hope is to score with accounting and other software that Microsoft is not traditionally known for. The target customer: companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.

The most recent changes - including putting the Microsoft Business Solutions unit under the direct control of chief executive Steve Ballmer - come as the company concedes it has not been able to beat the competition as it hoped.

Microsoft made its first big push in the market several years ago, with the $1.1 billion acquisition of Great Plains Software Inc., a longtime player in a fragmented sector lacking a dominant leader. Microsoft believes the market includes as many as 40 million companies worldwide. (full story)

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