Hosted CRM, ERP: Another Microsoft and Oracle battleground in the making

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is famous for blurting out potential product ideas even when they are nothing but a glimmer in his eye. But maybe in the case of offering hosted financials, CRM, HRM and other similar services, there's a chance such Oracle-hosted entities could come to market sooner rather than later.

If Ellison & Co. do make good on their hosted services threat, they'll be competing with Microsoft, which already offers hosted Dynamics CRM -- and has made noise about possibly delivering Microsoft-hosted ERP in some way down the line.

At least in this economy, selling CRM/ERP (in the form of software, services and/or both) has proven a tough task for the Softies. Just this week, Microsoft rolled out three new "incentive offerings" aimed at the CRM/ERP space.

The three:

• Business Ready Flexible Pay, aimed at new ERP and CRM customer in the U.S. Provides "the option to purchase the solutions today but pay for them in equal payments over three years."
• New discounts targeted at getting users to dump competitors' products. A new U.S.-only partner-targeted program, which kicks off this month, will allow partners to "extend their customers an offer to move to a Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution with a 50 percent discount on licensing, and receive a rebate equal to 25 percent of the suggested retail price of the Microsoft Dynamics solution (up to a maximum of $25,000) to help offset the costs of switching from Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200, or Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne."
• Business Ready Licensing changes allowing Dynamics CRM to be purchased as a standalone product (even though it also continues to be available through Microsoft's volume-licensing programs, as well).

Any of these new programs sound appealing? What other kinds of incentives does Microsoft need to offer to get (or keep) you in its CRM/ERP fold?