Benefits For Microsoft Great Plains Customers

Increased Benefits For Microsoft Great Plains Customers With Release Of Office XP

Auckland, 1 June, 2001 - Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions today confirmed that customers who were already benefiting from the ability of Great Plains applications to integrate with the Microsoft Office suite, would see improved business processing with the release of Microsoft® Office XP.

The support for Microsoft Office applications already built in to Release 6.0 of Great Plains' leading business applications eEnterprise, Dynamics, Solomon, and Great Plains Siebel Front Office, will extend to the new versions of products in the Office XP suite.

"We believe Microsoft Great Plains customers will be able to take advantage of the latest features in Office XP that will improve productivity, collaboration and information-sharing across their organisations," said Richard Johnstone, Australasian Managing Director for Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions. "By ensuring that the innovation built into Release 6.0 of our eEnterprise products continues to function with this important Office upgrade, we are protecting our customers' investments and increasing the benefits they receive from the close integration of Great Plains applications with other Microsoft tools."

Phillip Jenkins, Business Development Manager for Microsoft Great Plains at Olympic Software, said that the level of integration with the Office suite had already made Release 6.0 an extremely competitive and appealing tool for New Zealand businesses.

"Release 6.0 lends itself very well for use by people who are comfortable with the Microsoft Office suite. The familiar look and feel of the user interface, combined with the ability to transfer critical data easily between applications, make it an ideal solution for medium-sized businesses in this market," he said.

"The fact that this integration will continue with the release of Office XP means that Great Plains customers can look forward to another level of improved experience once they upgrade to this impressive new version of Office."

Effortless Integration Across Applications Great Plains applications offer simple integration with Office XP products in a variety of forms. For example, the Dynamics and eEnterprise Explorer application provides automated export of any type of customer data to Office XP products. This interface, which users can also modify to incorporate macros, enables powerful functionality and allows automated charting, analysis, mail merge and other functions with a single click of the mouse.

General Ledger, part of Dynamics, eEnterprise and Solomon, incorporates Excel-based budgeting. Customers can manage budgets in Excel and integrate the information seamlessly into their financial management systems. In addition, the new Integration Assistant in Excel 2002 allows customers to compile transactional and other critical business information in Excel and easily transfer that data into their Great Plains applications. This versatility means customers leverage the collaboration and programming capabilities of Office XP while maintaining full information in their financial database.

Solomon Application Server integrates with Microsoft Outlook, making it easier for multi-site organisations and remote locations to request, contribute or collect business-critical information from anywhere in the company.

About Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions Microsoft Great Plains provides business applications that help small and midmarket companies become more agile in today's interconnected economy by extending specific information and procedures to employees, customers, vendors and partners. The business applications automate end-to-end business processes across financials, distribution, project accounting, electronic commerce, human resources and payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management, business analytics, sales and marketing management, and customer service and support. More information about the solutions offered by Microsoft Great Plains can be found at http://www.greatplains.com/or at http://microsoft.com/business/greatplains/. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.

© Scoop Media