Microsoft, which has said it was not targeting big payroll and accounting software clients, is changing strategy and selling to larger customers, a move that puts the company in direct competition with Oracle. "This will be a head-on collision with Oracle, you bet," said Orlando Ayala, a Microsoft senior vice president who runs sales to small and mid-sized companies, in an interview. "They are moving down to smaller customers, and we are moving up."
In the past year, Microsoft has started selling those types of business applications to companies with 10,000 workers and targeting subsidiaries of big companies such as Ford Motor and General Motors, Ayala said. The Redmond, Washington-based company previously sold to smaller customers with 1,000 employees or less and said it was not after larger clients.
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