Microsoft readies Forecaster 7.0
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will ship the next version of Forecaster, its midmarket budgeting and planning application, in early April, the first major release of the software since 2003. The software giant intends to release Forecaster 7.0 to manufacturing on March 28, according to Gregg Gracheck, senior product manager for Microsoft Forecaster. The product will be generally available early next month. Microsoft also plans to talk up the forthcoming release at its Convergence 2007 business applications conference taking place next week in San Diego, he said. Microsoft acquired Forecaster when it purchased applications vendor Great Plains Software in April 2001. Great Plains had bought FRx Software in March 2000. Forecaster and the FRx financial reporting software are housed in a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary FRx Software, which has its base in Denver. Forecaster is aimed at financial professionals like CEOs and budgeting managers at companies employing between 25 and 2,500 staff, which are looking to move beyond budgeting using Excel or Lotus spreadsheets or general ledger systems. "The sweet spot for us is companies with 250 to 500 employees," said Andy Kamlet, director of marketing and sales at FRx Software. Forecaster can help automate many of the manual tasks involved in trying to budget using spreadsheets, he added. Kamlet sees Prophix Software's Prophix and Centage's Budget Maestro as Forecaster's prime competitors. Companies can use Forecaster to access the general ledgers of any vendor's ERP (enterprise resource planning) software such as SAP and Oracle. If they're already using Microsoft's FRx, users can leverage the reporting software's integration with Microsoft's Dynamics ERP applications to integrate general ledger and budget data from Forecaster into reports generated by FRx. With Forecaster 7.0, Microsoft has worked to improve usability and to speed up deployment of the tool. The software has more of the look-and-feel of Microsoft's Office suite of desktop applications in terms of its navigation capabilities, but it's Office 2003, not the latest version Office 2007, which shipped earlier this year. The last major release of Forecaster, version 6.7, appeared in October 2003. "It's not our intention to keep this amount of time between releases," said Gracheck. Like previous releases, although it supports multiple currencies, Forecaster 7.0 is only available in English. Microsoft has yet to see much demand for language localization, Kamlet said. The software costs from $8,500.
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Updated OS, new consumer products expected to be introduced next month.
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Software giant readies slew of new products for the holidays and revisits options for major Windows revision, News.com has learned.
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Microsoft has announced initial pricing and product information for its upcoming Dynamics Live CRM service.
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Microsoft said on Friday it will ship the next version of Windows in 2006, but scaled back plans to include a new system for finding and storing information in its flagship operating system.
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Never shy about arriving late, Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - news - research) is expected to launch a new version of its search service Thursday as the software titan seeks a stronger spot in that lucrative corner of Internet advertising.
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Forget another five-year wait for the next version of Windows. Microsoft has shared a few details of its next-generation operating system, tentatively named "Windows 7," due in 2010.
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Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said on Friday  it will ship the next version of Windows in 2006, but  scaled  back plans to include a new system for finding and storing  information in its flagship operating system.
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The new version of Windows is about to make its debut for businesses. Here's what you can expect.
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A select group of testers next week will get an early look at MSN Messenger 7.0, the next version of Microsoft&#39;s popular instant messaging client.
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Microsoft Corp. plans a Dec. 1 release for the latest version of its server software that aims to give companies more secure instant messaging and other corporate communications tools.
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Also: Microsoft plans new BizTalk release for this year. [News.com Extra]
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REDMOND, Wash. Oct 26, 2004 - Microsoft Corp. plans a Dec. 1 release for the latest version of its server software that aims to give companies more secure instant messaging and other corporate communications tools.
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At Microsoft's annual conference for business partners, company executives said new versions of Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual Studio will be launched simultaneously next February.
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Microsoft plans to release in December new software designed to secure instant messaging and other communications within big companies.
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Setting the stage for what it hopes will be a &quot;breakout year&quot; for its server operating systems, Microsoft this week announced it will ship the first Release Candidate of its Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2003 by year&#39;s end as well as a SDK
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A day after Microsoft announced it would give customers early warning of impending patches, the Redmond, Wash.-based developer fleshed out its heads-up with a notice that next Tuesday&#39;s patches