Microsoft Business Solutions Applications Ranked High in Independent Survey

In an independent survey on business management applications published in the December 2004 edition of The Accounting Library, both Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® and Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision® earned recognition as top-ranked business management systems. This was determined by combining their scores in the three Accounting Library survey categories: All Features, Basic Functionality and Out-of-the-Box Functionality. The survey is conducted annually by Solutions, Inc.

SAP’s BusinessOne was rated considerably below Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Navision.

The Accounting Library is a software selection database containing detailed information concerning most of the leading accounting products on the market today.

The All Features category ranked Microsoft Navision first with a score of 2,840/79%. Microsoft Great Plains ranked second with 2,829/79%. ACCPAC Advantage Series Enterprise ranked third (2,741/77%).

In the Basic Functionality category, Microsoft Great Plains ranked second with a score of 2,176/80%, and Microsoft Navision ranked third with a score of 2,164/80%. Epicor ranked first (2,177/80%) by an incredibly small margin.

Microsoft Great Plains ranked second in the Out-of-the-Box Functionality category (2,448/68%), and Microsoft Navision ranked fourth with a score of 2,378/66%. Syspro ranked first (2,465/69%), and Epicor ranked third (2,435/68%).

The Accounting Library uses a system of weighted responses for every feature listed in the program. If a feature is contained in the core product, the score for that feature is “1,” and it is added to the product’s cumulative raw score. Since users can discount responses if the feature is not in the core product (for example, Third Party, Report Writer, Added Fields, Future Release, Customization or Modification), the score for any one question can be discounted by whatever value the user defines for a specific response. Products are ranked based on their total raw score for all features selected. In addition, a Percentage of Needs Met is calculated based on the product’s total raw score as a percentage of the maximum score that can be achieved.

This analysis covered three different views. Basic Functionality is those features contained in the core accounting applications (GL, AP, PO, AR, SO, IC, HR, and PR). Out-of-the-Box Functionality analyzed the same functions, but only counted responses where the need was met by the core product (not Third Party, Report Writer, and so on). All Features included all applications contained in The Accounting Library (Out-of-the-Box plus Budgeting, Manufacturing, Multi-Currency, and General Questions that do not fall within a specific application).