Answer to Question 1
After Infor was purchased by private-equity investors, it bought many ERP companies. It now sells many ERP products for many different industries. These products vary in purpose, scope, and quality. They span the midrange, serving higher-end small companies and lower-end large companies.
Recently, Infor began to offer the Infor Business Cloud, an ERP solution that can be used as a software service, can be installed on the customer's servers and managed by Infor personnel, or can be installed in a bare-bones ways and offered as IaaS.
Answer to Question 2
Microsoft offers five ERP products, all obtained via acquisition: AX, Nav, GP, Solomon, and Dynamics CRM. AX and Nav have the most capabilities; GP is more limited but is easier to use. The future of Solomon is uncertain. Dynamics CRM is primarily a CRM product, but it is extensible in ways that enable customers to use it for ERP as well as CRM.
Microsoft is in the process of consolidating its offerings. Most likely AX will continue going forward as a true ERP product for larger organizations. Dynamics CRM will serve as a CRM product as well as a platform for custom ERP solutions. GP, which is the easiest of the products to install, will continue as a general-ledger program that can also be used as a platform for simpler ERP solutions.
Microsoft relies heavily on its network of independent software vendors to create customer solutions using the Dynamics platform. These vendors take off-the-shelf Dynamics products and adapt and customize them for particular situations. Microsoft offers its CRM product online as SaaS, but it has no full ERP implementation in the cloud.
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