September 21, 2005
SQL Server Price Change
Note to self. As of September 1, the price of SQL Server 2000 Runtime has changed. Previously it was $450 for the server and then $100 per user license. Now it is a straight $190 per user.
That little piece of news just cost me about $1,000. I am not pleased.
UPDATE: It turns out they are extending the old pricing to November 30. They are cutting me a credit memo. Yippe!
Posted by Ted at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
Big Brother (Microsoft) is Watching
Microsoft starts its Windows Genuine Advantage program today. The net effect is, except for security updates, you must be running a genuine copy of Windows to get updates. If you’re running a pirated copy of Windows you will not be able to download updates.
This is all part of their effort to make software piracy less of a problem. A link here explains . . .
A study by the Business Software Alliance and market researcher IDC released this spring estimates that 35% of PCs worldwide ran pirated software last year. At a meeting with Wall Street analysts a year ago, Microsoft executives estimated that 22% of PCs in the United States--about 12 million machines--ran pirated software. In China, 13 million PCs did, Microsoft estimated.
Software piracy, which includes installing multiple copies on a network without buying them, severely decreases profits. But piracy also reduces how much money is available to improve the product. Businesspeople are just like the rest of us. Profits for our vendors are nasty, but our profits are wonderful.
Great Plains has always required registration to run their software, but Windows has, in the past, been easy to pirate. It’ll be interesting to see if this helps or hinders Microsoft’s business.
Posted by Ted at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
The 2005 Bottom Line at Microsoft
You may have heard that Microsoft, whose fiscal year ends June 30, finished on a high note. Sales were just a smidgeon under $40 billion with profits of $12.5 billion. That ain’t bad. Any business with profits over $30% of sales is a great business. I know people that would kill for a net of half that amount.
Alas, the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division did not fare as well. They finished the year with sales of $803 million and a loss of $76 million. From what I read they don’t expect the MBS division to be profitable any time soon.
My suspicion is that Project Green is sucking up a lot of cash. That’s the project that plans to meld Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, and Navision into one code base. Programmers are not cheap to start with. With the economy improving they are likely getting more expensive all the time. On top of that, the task is a formidable one.
I was wondering if this strategy is a good one. Proctor and Gamble probably sells 10 different brands of soap. Having multiple products has a strategic advantage in the each can server different segments of the market.
But software is not soap. Software requires enormous work to maintain it and improve it. If all four product lines could be consolidated into one, product support costs would drop dramatically. It would also make integration with the Office series that much easier.
It’s a good thing Bill has very deep pockets.
Posted by Ted at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2005
New Version of Windows Coming
Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows in 2006. It's being called Windows Vista. They will release a beta version of Vista August 3, 2005.
It's been a long time coming.
Posted by Ted at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
Office Small Business Accounting 2006
It seems the new Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting is getting closer to shipping. If you'd like to get a demo, of sorts, click here. It's due out the Fall of 2005 and does a seemless link to ADP for payroll services.
It does a seemless link to Outlook, Word, and Excel 2003. I can't tell if it can be networked or not.
Microsoft is trying to position this new product as one it's Great Plains dealers should take on. I am dubious. I can't see someone paying me $150 an hour to help them with a product that only costs $200.
Posted by Ted at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
New Windows Version just for POS Terminals
Microsoft has released a new version of Windows XP that is specifically for retail point-of-sale termials. Some of the new features are . . .
The new Windows variant includes retail-specific features such as remote boot, multiuser logon and dual-display support. Microsoft also wrote a plug-and-play software layer that works with a retail software standard for linking terminals to peripherals such as bar code and magnetic stripe readers and two-line displays.[. . .]
More than 40 companies announced they are developing terminals, peripherals or software that work with the new OS. At least three large POS terminal makers including IBM Corp. said they are working on systems that will use the software.
As I have said before, I don't do retail, but sometimes wonder if I should.
Posted by Ted at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
Microsoft POS System
I see that Microsoft has a new Point of Sale system. This is for retail establishments. I’m a bit surprised as Microsoft Business Solutions already had a POS application. I’m not sure how this is different if at all.
I don’t get involved in POS systems – perhaps I should.
Posted by Ted at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
Business Intelligence (BI)
Many companies are using Business Intelligence (BI) to better manage their companies. Information Week as this post on what some companies are doing. Here’s an example:
Dorsey was surprised to see that while his general-ledger system had been able to tell him shrink was occurring, Showcase Analyzer showed in which of the 15 stores it was a problem and which items were disappearing. He had suspected the popular power-tools department was a source. Showcase Analyzer identified the 16 items among the thousands of power tools that were contributing nearly half of the chain's losses. They were the easy-to-conceal but expensive items such as power-saw blades and drill bits."When we discovered this, we put policies and procedures in place" to halt the losses, Dorsey says. These procedures included moving the most vulnerable items to areas in the stores where the staff could keep an eye on them. These steps generated $200,000 in savings the first year. Power tools, which used to experience 3.5% shrink across the chain, now have shrink levels of 2% and dropping.
[. . .]
Business intelligence identifies the source of problems and "takes accounting phantoms" out of the process, Dorsey says.
Microsoft appears to be moving aggressively in that area. That appears to be one of the things that Maestro is all about.
Posted by Ted at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Is Great Plains ready for the Maestro?
Information Week has a post about Microsoft’s new Business Intelligence (BI) application they’re calling Maestro. It appears that Maestro will provide real-time monitoring of various business parameters. This would seem to be a ready-made application to pair with Great Plains.
Posted by Ted at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
Microsoft Live Meeting
I attended a Microsoft Live Meeting last Tuesday. It was a webinar with Chet Holmes as the speaker about marketing. I found it thought provoking.
This post however is not to just tell you about the webinar, it’s to tell you that Microsoft archives its live meetings. Click here to view all the live meetings they have archived.
Although some are sort of self-improvement type. Many are business related. As far as I can tell they are free to view at your leisure. I see the one I attended is already archived.
Take a look and see what you think.
Posted by Ted at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)