Microsoft;s Software+Services (S+S) technique arrives in many guises. At its Convergence 2008 conference in Orlando this week for its business-applications consumers and partners,
Windows 7 Code, Microsoft highlighted yet one more one of its S+S types: Third-party company extensions to its on-premise software program.Microsoft;s enterprise programs consist of 4 diverse ERP suites,
Microsoft Office 2010 Product Key, plus its Dynamics CRM providing. Microsoft has made noises about delivering versions of its Axapta,
Office Standard 2010, Superb Plains, Solomon and Navision ERP items which will be multi-tenant and Microsoft-hosted (without any firm due dates so far). And Dynamics CRM four.0, the most recent version of Microsoft;s CRM item,
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard, could be deployed by buyers in on-premise,
microsoft Office 2010 Activation, partner-hosted and/or Microsoft-hosted configurations.(Microsoft reconfirmed this week that its Dynamics CRM Live four.0 release will probably be “broadly accessible” in the spring of 2008. Not sure if that is Microspeak for moving from beta to final, or just talking about a broader beta….)At the Convergence conference on March 12, Microsoft announced that it also would make available paid support extensions to its on-premise Microsoft ERP and CRM goods. (I haven;t seen prices for these published anywhere but. I have a question in to Microsoft about pricing.) The services unveiled today: Payment company: Fraud prevention technology from PayPal and Chase Paymentech Solutions, for those using credit cards.Marketplace support: Integration with eBay allows clients to sell their goods on eBay as well as through their own Web stores and offline channels.Keyword marketing support: Campaign tracking and management for search engine marketing (via Microsoft;s adCenter, I am assuming). This isn;t the first time Microsoft has unveiled company extensions to its software program. Last year, the organization rolled out various third-party solutions (including credit-card processing, marketplace solutions and payroll services) to its Office Accounting Express 2007 product.And earlier this year, Microsoft announced it would follow a similar strategy for its Office Live Tiny Small business service. (So, in this case, we;re talking companies extensions to a support, rather than software.)Paid extensions to Microsoft;s recently consolidated SKU of Office Live Smaller Small business incorporate Store Manager, a hosted e-commerce providing from Microsoft for $39.95 per month, that may help customers sell goods on their own site, as well as on eBay; custom domain name and e-mail support, which will provide buyers with private domain-name registration, plus 100 company-branded e-mail addresses, each with 5 GB of storage. Microsoft is providing that company for free for the first year and $14.95 per year after that.Are any of these kinds of Microsoft and third-party services extensions of interest to you users of Microsoft enterprise programs?