Yesterday's Dynamics GP 10 and SL 7 releases mark an important milestone in Microsoft's push into the midmarket: Tighter integration with Office and Windows. The long road coming is still far from final destination.
The midmarket is hugely important to Microsoft. The company's channel is strongest in this segment and customers are more likely to be mostly or all-Microsoft shops than smaller or larger businesses.
But the segment also has suffered a kind of middle child syndrome. Microsoft licensing programs have made software acquisition costs lower for smaller and larger businesses, and, before 2001, the company offered no real products geared specifically to the midmarket.