FARGO, N.D. -- April 22, 2003 -- Microsoft Business Solutions today announced the availability of Microsoft® Business Solutions--Great Plains® 7.5. This integrated resource draws from the strengths of the former Microsoft Business Solutions--Dynamics (TM) and eEnterprise® applications. Businesses can use Great Plains 7.5 to support critical processes while taking a collaborative approach to information management. Great Plains 7.5 helps businesses improve efficiency and profitability and respond more rapidly to customer demand with tools that address real-world challenges in the areas of financials, supply-chain management, project management and analytics.

Great Plains 7.5 includes enhanced supply chain management and manufacturing features that help businesses deliver superior customer service with powerful inventory, distribution and order management enhancements designed to meet and exceed even the most demanding requirements.

The new Available to Promise features help businesses maximize net profits, take control of their inventory with complete stock views, exceed customer expectations and offer employees easy access to the critical information they need. The Advanced Distribution features help businesses optimize distribution, manage inventory more effectively, quickly respond to customers, maximize profits and easily configure the solution to meet business-specific needs. The Advanced Picking features help increase picking productivity, manage order-picking processes, minimize overhead, improve efficiency and customer service, meet site-specific needs with configurable picking routines, and integrate with other distribution functionality. Manufacturers can take advantage of not only the Advanced Distribution, Advanced Picking and Available to Promise compatibility, but also extended pricing compatibility and Preactor finite capacity scheduling with integration of the Manufacturing Series with Preactor FCS 200.

Great Plains 7.5 enables users to design compelling data views using Crystal Reports 9.0 Professional and publish recurring reports. Improved project accounting reporting capabilities simplify the process of staying informed about budget revisions and revenue projections for projects. The flexible expense management capabilities in Great Plains 7.5 allow employees to create offline expense reports from any location at any time. These expense management features also eliminate paper trails and shrink expense processing costs with electronic receipt imaging.

Great Plains 7.5 features enhanced integration with other Microsoft Business Solutions applications such as Microsoft Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management, Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System and Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal. Microsoft Business Portal, scheduled for release this month, will offer users throughout a company increased availability of business information and extended access to business applications, allowing them to complete common tasks more efficiently. Great Plains 7.5 also integrates with Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office SharePoint (TM) Services for Microsoft Windows Server (TM) 2003.

"Our mission -- to help businesses realize their full potential -- drives us," said Karen Engel, group product manager with Microsoft Business Solutions. "With the enhancements in Great Plains 7.5, we're confident we can help customers realize added business benefits."

Availability and Pricing

Great Plains 7.5 is available immediately in the United States and Canada through Microsoft Certified Business Solutions reselling partners. Great Plains 7.5 will be released in select countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America beginning in May 2003. It is backed by the award-winning support and training of Microsoft Business Solutions. A single-user financial solution starts at $7,000.*

Microsoft Business Solutions--Great Plains Standard, also immediately available, offers a lower price point and specific functionality to address the needs of lower midmarket companies. This version of Great Plains is designed to meet the less complex IT and functionality requirements of companies that have 25 to 99 employees, annual revenues of $25 million (U.S.) or less, and up to 10 licensed users. Single-user costs for a financial solution start at $4,500.*