Microsoft has no hosted ERP plans, exec says

Hosted enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is not in Microsoft’s future, according to one exec.

Microsoft offers hosted customer relationship management (CRM) software through its Dynamics CRM Live service, but corporate vice president Michael Park just told me that Microsoft has no plans to do the same with ERP.

“The architecture we’re making the bet on is CRM,” he said. “With ERP, we’ve got a good number of partners who are hosting it for us.”

Microsoft partners told us that the company has been floating the idea of hosted ERP, but it looks like that’s dead — at least for the time being. Park did leave some wiggle room, saying Microsoft will “adjust course” if the ERP market changes.

Some Microsoft partners have been worried that Dynamics CRM Live will compete with their own CRM offerings, so at least they won’t face a similar threat with ERP any time soon.