Microsoft Sharpens Its Dynamics Marketing Focus on Mid-Market Companies, to Exclusion of Small Businesses

After several years of testing the concept that it should seek to attract early-stage businesses as Dynamics customers, and sell them upgrades and new applications as they grow, Microsoft has decided to forsake the entrepreneurial small business marketplace. Instead, it is focused "like a laser" on targeting mid-market businesses for expanding sales of Dynamics NAV and AX applications,  Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, said in a briefing at Convergence Copenhagen 2008.

He said that Microsoft Dynamics "experimented with" a small business version of Dynamics NAV, along with the Dynamics-developed Office Accounting and Small Business Server, "but frankly, this is not a market where a global vendor has an opportunity," he said. "It is driven by local vendors."

Microsoft defines the NAV market as companies with between 50 and 1,000 employees, and the AX market as between 50 and 7,500 employees.

In line with the shift in emphasis, Microsoft at the Convergence session announced the introduction of  Microsoft Dynamics Integration Components Add-In for Windows Essential Business Server 2008. According to the announcement, "This new administration console enables midsize businesses running Microsoft Dynamics solutions to simplify their management overhead and lower their total cost of ownership by administering their Microsoft Dynamics environment from within a single, familiar console where their other applications are administered."

The add-in is initially available only to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 customers. Tatarinov indicated it will become available to NAV customers before long. It will be available for "out-of-the-box integration to manage the entire IT business structure...and reduce the cost of (software) ownershp," Tatarinov stated.

Tatarinov said Microsoft is committed to providing ongoing support to users of Dynamics small business applications, and to helping the users migrate to the new mid-market offerings. "That migration can happen, and ...