Microsoft Business Framework Gets ISV Backing
|
Microsoft's campaign to encourage third-party software vendors to embed not only its .Net Framework, but also another layer of software designed to build on top of .Net, seems to be picking up steam. This week, Microsoft's small/mid-size business division, Microsoft Business Solutions, announced that 14 independent software vendors (ISVs) have agreed to act as early adopters of the Microsoft Business Framework. Microsoft made the announcement at channel-partner event in Rome. The Microsoft Business Framework (MBF) is a set of developer tools and software classes developed primarily by Great Plains Software, which Microsoft acquired in 2001. Microsoft is working to build a number of its products — including the Microsoft Business Portal, the next version of its Visual Studio .Net tool suite and its "Code Green" suite of business applications built on top of a single code base — all on top of the MBF layer. Read This For More on Microsoft's ISV Recruitment Campaign And "Redmond to Offer ISVs Real-Time Communications Components The 14 companies who signed up to join the MBF early adopter program are: Adonix (France), AP Automation & Productivity (Germany), Bedin Shop Systems (Italy), CEGID (France), CODA (UK), Distinction Systems (UK), Four Solutions (Italy), Mamut Software (Norway), Maritech (Iceland), MicroArea (Italy), Real Software (Belgium), Rebus HR (UK), Scala Business Solutions (The Netherlands) and STR (Italy). Since the start of this year, Microsoft has been lobbying ISVs to convince them to embed more Microsoft technologies into their own products. Microsoft has pitched ISVs on picking up its .Net Framework set of classes, libraries and tools, but also MBF, Microsoft CRM and components of its Microsoft Office Live Communications Server (its enterprise instant-messaging server). This past spring, Microsoft moved the 100-plus-member team that developed MBF into Microsoft's developer division.
|
