Coverage of
The 2002 Microsoft Stampede Conference
By J. Carlton Collins, CPA 

Question & Answer Session

Presented below are my notes from regarding the comments, questions, answers and quotes that arose from the question and answer session featuring Doug Burgum. As always, this was an entertaining and informative session - well worth the price of admission. Occasionally, I have interjected my own little diatribes to this text. I hope this summary is useful to you:

n "Have fun, learn lots, make friends" - A suggested goal for all conference attendees.

n "Latté & Laptops"  - Term used to describe many present-day consulting meetings.

n "Well I don't know, maybe" - Burgum generated some laughs when he suggested that this phrase constitutes a legally binding contract in Fargo.

n "Functionality always comes down in [entry-level] products" - Burgum on the common occurrence that entry-level packages typically gain additional features each year, which allows them to compete with the stronger products just ahead of them.

n Jay Malik of Serenic Software indicated a "certain level of frustration trying to talk to the right people at Microsoft". To which Burgum responded "I can't imagine a company that gets more partner input into the decision making process than what I have seen in the past 3 months". As a conclusion, Doug suggested that Malik work with their Microsoft Account Manager. 

I concur with Malik - it seemed that this problem was a common problem reported to me by many long time Great Plains people and press personnel. Hey - what did you expect would happen? Great Plains is now bigger than ever, and Great Plains management must spend a good portion of their time meeting and reporting to Microsoft executives. It stands to reason that Great Plains partners would have less access. However, it is more than that. Microsoft has made a concerted effort to assign contact personnel to lower ranking account representatives. Many Partners have experienced this and they feel that their access to the higher ranking executives have been cut off. Take me for instance. This May I was scheduled to meet with a Microsoft representative at the AICPA Microsoft Conference where I would be presenting a lecture on entry-level accounting software - including SBM. I had questions about SBM. Instead of answering a few simple questions, the Microsoft representative I met with advised me to pay $500 and join the SBM's consulting program, and then I could get my questions answered. If others have experienced the same thing I have, I can see why they feel that their access to key Microsoft employees has been cut off, or at least reduced. - J. Carlton Collins

n JoAnn F. of West Port, Ct asked: "I've heard that Axapta is better at manufacturing than eEnterprise. What would it take for us to become resellers of the Axapta product line? Burgum explained that Microsoft had actually been looking to purchase another manufacturing product, but after they saw what Axapta had to offer, they discontinued their plans to purchase this other [unnamed] manufacturing product and instead position Axapta as Microsoft's high end manufacturing solution. As shown in the slide below, both Great Plains and Axapta are positioned to scale very high, but Great Plains will be focused more on financial solutions while Axapta will be focused on manufacturing solutions.

n Burgum was quoted as saying "We will support all of the product lines for the far, far, far foreseeable future". He further explained that Microsoft did not write a check for $1.3 billion merely to kill the product lines - they have to get their money back.

n Burgum indicated that support for Great Plains DOS would be discontinued in 2002.

n Burgum reported that "Yukon" and "Longhorn" were code names for future Microsoft products. I did not catch which products these would be because Burgum mentioned both a future version of Windows as well as a futuristic accounting system that was in the works. However he downplayed they idea that because Microsoft has a new accounting system in the works as being a signal that Great Plains, Solomon, Navision or Axapta might be discontinued. Instead he pointed out the continued development of new operating systems at Microsoft such as "Chicago" and "XP" as a natural progression for a company that continually adopts newer and better technologies. I think Doug said that "Longhorn was two Windows releases away", which I understand to mean that Longhorn will be the next Windows version after the version that follows Windows XP.

n Burgum indicated that Microsoft would be looking for new Axapta partners around the world.

n Burgum explained that Microsoft has reorganized themselves into seven different units, with Doug heading up the Microsoft Business Solutions Unit which includes the accounting software business applications. These seven business units are as follows:

	Picture of the slide I took at the Conference that Describes the Seven New Divisions at Microsoft
Windows Office (iWorkers) Business Solutions Servers & Developer Tools CE Mobility Games & Xbox MSN Services

n It was explained that from this point on, instead of operating as a single company, Microsoft will operate these seven functional areas as separate operational divisions, with Doug Burgum leading the Microsoft Business Solutions Division.

n Burgum mentioned that Oracle's revenues are down 23% from a year ago.

n Burgum mentioned that Microsoft loses money on every Xbox sold [but makes up the difference on sales of Xbox games]. Burgum's reference addresses a concept that I've heard Taylor Macdonald of Best Software talk about - that the accounting software market has become more of an customer base play than a new sales play. This explains why so many mergers and acquisitions have occurred in recent years, consolidating the accounting software industry significantly.

n Burgum mentioned that the automated error reporting in Windows XP (referred to internally as "phone-home" technology) is thought by many (Steve Kosolphzsky and others) to be one of the best advancements in technology in 20 years. To me, it seemed that Burgum was suggesting that soon, Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, and Axapta might send error reports back to the mother ship as well.

n Bill Wise of Jacksonville asked a good question but I was so fixated on try9ing to figure out why he attended the conference wearing a shirt that proudly displayed the Traverse and SysPro logos, that I didn't write down his question and have now completely forgotten his point - sorry.

n Burgum reported a critical strategic change in that they have eliminated product-specific account managers in favor of region-specific account managers. This change was made because the use of product specific account managers was causing problems (which I understood to mean too much in-house competition; too much fighting over leads, etc.) Now, it no longer matters which product is sold, the account managers are simply interested in sales of any kind - a key change in posture that reflects the fact that all products will survive for the foreseeable future.

n Burgum mentioned that with all of the advancements in accounting systems over the past twenty years, many customers still see accounting systems as something that produces a piece of paper that you put in an envelope and put a stamp on. (ie: a check or an invoice).

The reality is that accounting software systems have evolved from basic accounting systems into massive information systems. With a little vision, these information systems now have the opportunity to become the glue that links everything together every system from CRM and e-mail, to Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, to accounting systems, business intelligence, web stores, reporting, HR, workflow, supply chains, and more. - J. Carlton Collins
 

n Dana from Miami generated the loudest applause from the reseller audience when she asked "if Microsoft planned to provide resellers with financial incentives for rescuing disgruntled customers and turning them around into success stories for the customers". Dana is right. The top resellers are treated to fancy vacations at the world's top resorts, but the best support is hardly recognized at all. Burgum acknowledged that Dana had a good point and that perhaps they should consider adding an award category to recognize stellar support.

n Burgum indicated that Microsoft intends to stop using the word "international" in favor of the word "global". After all, the term international depends on your perspective - that is which country you are from. The way this term has been used in the past, Americans sort of applied the word international to mean "outside the US". Uh Ooh! How could we have all been so ignorant?

n According to Burgum, Louis Levitt at Microsoft has been working on Business Intelligence, and he is part of a three person think tank consisting of Jeff Raikes & Burgum.

Well I hope that Levitt calls me up and asks me for my two cents on this matter. I have long thought that accounting systems have been woefully short when it comes to business intelligence. For more than a decade I have envisioned a "CFO to Go" module which analyzes all types of reports and business data on a continual basis and reports its findings to management personnel. More than a digital dashboard that simply displays key figures, I think that businesses intelligence needs to go a step further and actually interpret this key data and make recommendations to management personnel - as if an actual, CPA were there reviewing all aspects of your books from top to bottom. Further, I think that this information should be reported verbally using Microsoft Agent technology which enables a talking head to provide suggestions verbally - reminiscent of Max Headroom. This type of module is well within our grasp. In 1991, Prentice Hall released a product called Prentice Hall Answers which sucked the financial statement data out of 25 different accounting systems and studied them for obvious and not-so-obvious problems. The data was compared to a repository of standards, including data from Moody's industrial guide for businesses of similar size and industry. Thereafter a report provided management with specific recommendations for overcoming these problems such as shopping insurance for lower rates, increasing deductibles, investigating HMO plans, refinancing long term debt, paying down long term debt, increasing emphasis on cash collections, extending early payment discounts, expanding marketing programs, etc. In 1987, IBM attempted a similar program called Business Analyzer. Neither product took off for several reasons - the absence of the internet for retrieving up to date benchmarks was one such reason. However, I do have copies of both of these old programs provided someone out their has a computer that still reads 5.25 inch diskettes. - J. Carlton Collins

n Burgum referred to the phrase "EMEA" - I later asked and learned that this phrase stands for the European - Middle East - African market area.

n Burgum acknowledged that mergers and acquisitions had made it very tough for resellers and customers alike as policies, strategies, pricing, support plans, etc have changed with each merger or acquisition. However Burgum quipped - " Look at the bright side, how likely is it that Microsoft will be acquired?" While comical - Burgum also makes a good point - once things settle down, Microsoft resellers will likely be able to count on stability for the foreseeable future.

n There you have it, these are the notes I took during Burgum's Q&A session, I hope you found this summary useful. If you have questions or comments for me, please contact me at carlton@accountingsoftwareadvisor.com. Here are a few more pictures from the Q&A session:

n Later that night Tim Palin (MAS 90 - Axapta Reseller), Kevin Fischer (Navision reseller), Geni Whitehouse (Accounting Software Advisor), and Brad McAfee (Porter Novelli) were seen out on the pub crawl scene (below).

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