Under terms of the acquisition, originally announced on December 21, 2000, Great Plains will become a division operating within Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Services Group, led by Microsoft Group Vice President Jeff Raikes. Microsoft Great Plains will continue to be based in Fargo, N.D., led by Doug Burgum, senior vice president of Microsoft and president of the Great Plains Division, and his current leadership team.
Microsoft Great Plains will continue to develop, market, sell and support its business applications, Dynamics, eEnterprise and Solomon, under the Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions brand. As part of Microsoft, this division also plans to provide new capabilities that complement the Microsoft bCentral(TM) small-business service.
In addition, the integration of technologies from both companies will create a fully interconnected generation of business solutions built on the Microsoft .NET platform, accessed via a wide range of devices (such as PCs, terminals, handheld and wireless devices) and deployed either as Web-based services (hosted applications) or as on-premise, locally managed solutions according to the customer’s business need, support requirements and customization requirements.
This is a great combination that will benefit our customers, our partners in the industry and our company, said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. The combined assets of Microsoft’s global abilities, our depth of platform technology and Great Plains’ leading expertise in business applications will make deep business solutions truly accessible to small and midmarket companies.
