>I know what you mean. It is a little nerve racking to see MS entering this level in the business applications market. Previously, it has concentrating on being a tools and OS vendor.

That's exact my answer to my boss when he asked me if MS will possibly enter into end-user apps. They will just concentrate on developer tools but my big mistake....

>But as it stands now, Great Plains and Navision are both still platforms that partners customize to meet the needs of clients. For now, we won't have to compete with MS for the customization and implementation work, which is probably more than Oracle Financials developers can say. Who knows how long that will last. In any case, we won't die, we may just all end up working for MS. Of course, some may prefer death to that <g>.

The only advantage we have now mostly here in East Asia is the local setting. I knew a lot of U.S. made business apps for sale failed to totally control or dominate the market due to local setting. With MS entering into small and medium apps it's a different story I guess mainly because of their reputation.