Two years and more than $2 billion after Microsoft bought its way into the business-applications market, the company's Business Solutions division is a money loser. Yet Microsoft officials remain doggedly upbeat about the direction of a unit that increasingly will compete with Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP in a software sector that's been dragging. Why? The answer involves a little-known initiative called Project Green.
As Microsoft looks for avenues of growth beyond its maturing Windows and Office lines, business applications may represent one of its best opportunities. Senior VP Orlando Ayala was recently quoted in The New York Times as saying that run-your-company applications could become a $10 billion business for Microsoft. Business Solutions, the Microsoft unit that sells business applications, generated $567 million in revenue in fiscal 2003, an 84% increase over the previous year. The jump reflects last year's acquisition of European software company Navision.
|