Project Green aims to bring enterprise applications, including Great Plains and Navision, into a single unified .Net architecture

Microsoft Corp. is working on its latest, best shot at the enterprise applications business with a new project to create a single, global code base for its product lines. "Project Green" is the Redmond, Wash., company's effort to deliver all its business applications, from its Great Plains Software Inc., Navision A/S, Axapta (which Navision bought earlier) and Solomon Software (which Great Plains had acquired) lines, on a single code base built on the Microsoft Business Framework and .Net Framework. Revamped "Green" applications are planned to debut in the 2006 "Longhorn" time frame. "Green was named by one of the general managers of Microsoft Business Solutions, who is an avid golfer and thought it represented our chance for a shot, a hole in one on a great solutions delivery," said Tami Reller, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Business Solutions, in an exclusive interview at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference here this month. The strategy is to enable developers to build a next-generation suite from the ground up with the latest Microsoft tools, including Visual Studio.