Stop us if you've heard this one before: Microsoft to lure users with industry-specific solutions in the cloud

Microsoft has followed enterprise application vendors' lead and put together a bunched of pre-packaged software to be hosted in the cloud for specific vertical industries. Financial services, manufacturing, and nonprofits have all become targets of the SaaS-y bundle, designed to work as one "seamless solution" which would …

[DoctorNine]

"The suspenders are there so you naturally fall into the pants when dropped from the cloud..."

I'm very interested in learning more about this 'leveraging into the client' business. Is there a video demonstrating the appropriate procedure? And just to be safe, is this something I can watch at work, or should I wait until I get home behind locked doors?

[Falmari]

I see storm clouds ahead

"But they were not standalone clouds per se" ah so more of a weather front or bad weather front.

[a_yank_lurker]

Hmm

I have long been wary of a vendor who says their 'industry specific solution' is all that useful for a specific company in that industry. While there common situations in a sector each company, for competitive, reasons will do similar activities somewhat differently than their competitors. Unless the 'industry specific solution' is very customizable it forces a straight jacket on the customer. But making the 'solution' customizable goes against the idea of an 'industry specific solution'.

[sgp]

Re: Hmm

If it's built on the Dataverse as per the article then it should be fully customisable.

[ChrisElvidge]

Re: Hmm

Like SAP is fully customisable?

[Paul Hovnanian]

Re: Hmm

"it should be fully customisable"

Within the bounds of the application. And then the customizations must fit the product template. So what were your businesses core competencies, proprietary knowledge, trade secrets, etc. can now be discovered by examining these options. Your business is now a commodity and can now be acquired or replicated.

On the other hand, once the product suite has been selected, there will be a great amount of pressure to re-engineer the bits that don't quite fit any of the suite's capabilities. It's a bit like selecting a stylish pair of shoes in a size that is about right. And then chopping off toes until they fit.