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Convergence: Microsoft Wants Companies To Quit QuickBooks

A surprisingly high -- we think, anyway -- 20 percent of GP customers have moved to the Dynamics ERP suite from Intuit's small-business accounting package, QuickBooks. Or, at least, that's what Microsoft found in doing GP customer research, said Jon Pratt, senior director at Microsoft and GP guru.

Redmond sees an opportunity in companies growing out of QuickBooks, Pratt said. "We looked very clearly at the size of when they did move. Many of them moved much later in the cycle than we thought they should have. Many of them said we didn't start thinking about it until get got to 20" million dollars in annual revenue, he said, adding that one customer was still on QuickBooks despite raking in $100 million in annual revenue. "We'd like to move that line back." Pratt's thinking that $5 million to $10 million sounds better.

So, Microsoft has three migration plans -- sold through partners of course -- that will run customers about $11,500, $20,000 or $35,000, depending on which plan the customer wants. The basic and cheapest plan includes two seats of GP, implementation, a year of support and an estimate of partner costs (that's where the "about" comes in.)

Added Pratt: "We think our job is to make people aware of what the base system functionality can do, make them aware that putting a base implementation is not as expensive as they perceived." Partners, take note -- there are still QuickBooks heathens to be converted. Go forth and spread the Dynamics gospel.

Posted by Lee Pender on March 13, 2008


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