Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 22 seconds

CONSOLIDATION OVER THE DECADE

The Microsoft Dynamics community website reminds us that it’s been 10 years since Microsoft purchased Great Plains, taking a place that was routinely on the 100 Best Places to Work list and turning it into something that can only see that list from afar. With Infor Global going after Lawson Software and Epicor and Activant getting nailed together to form one company, it’s a good time to think about what hasn’t happened in that 10 years. The mid-market business hasn’t turned out to be the $10 billion business Microsoft thought it was getting. And while we have fewer companies, there aren’t fewer product lines.

Microsoft still has the four packages it acquired, Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta, in its lineup. Sage has its multitudinous array of ERP products. Infor has blended some lines, but still has a wide array. And think about the fact that Passport Software still sells what is essentially RealWorld Classic and if you want, you can still get what is basically Armor Systems software under a different name. With the cloud products now on the market, it looks like there are more ERP packages than ever. Products with an installed base don’t die. Think about Sage’s DacEasy which defies what is slightly better than benign neglect. There was a report that its sales went up last year and marvel of marvels, MAS 90 started doing much better. There might be fewer companies owning these packages. But most of them are still out there. Well, look how look it took the auto industry, particularly General Motors, to get rid of brands it had been carrying since the early 1900s.

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