If you are in the growing mode and reach the point when you need to move away from old accounting application and incorporate something, which could be considered as industry standard ERP, you should know general direction and where to look for additional information.  Microsoft Business Solutions gives you several ERP packages to choose from: Microsoft Great Plains Standard/Professional/Small Business Financials, Microsoft Navision, Microsoft Axapta, Microsoft CRM.  In this small article we will concentrate on Microsoft Great Plains selection options.

• Pricing.  Microsoft Great Plains Professional price is about two times higher than Microsoft Great Plains Standard.  You should probably know the history.  Current Great Plains Standard was formerly available on Pervasive SQL and ctree and the product line name was Great Plains Dynamics.  This product was targeted to midsize and small businesses (with growing potential, for tiny business you should consider MYOB, Peachtree, Quickbooks, etc.)
• Database.  Currently both products (since version 7.5) are available on MS SQL Server.  Standard is also available on MSDE and MS SQL Select 2005.  Here we are talking about midsize business and MS SQL Server 2000/2005
• Additional Modules.  Obviously both products have standard set of modules: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, SOP, POP, Inventory Control, Payroll, HR