At BaanWorld Europe 98, yesterday Microsoft Corp and Baan Co NV announced a licensing deal that will see the full sweep of the Dutch ERP vendor’s software bundled with Microsoft NT, SQL Server, Exchange Server and Site Server Commerce Edition. The Baan software includes Baan’s FrontOffice systems, BaanERP, Baan Supply Chain and Baan DataNavigator. The partners were cagey about exactly how much money each would make from the new deal, but the bulk of the fees will apparently go to Baan. The company founder, Yan Baan, admitted to being a little bit afraid of the dominance of Redmond. However, he said that the deal would allow the Dutch firm to use the Microsoft infrastructure to push its own products in the marketplace, which in turn will allow Redmond to push its infrastructure as some kind of de-facto standard. The fact that the deal announced was only a licensing agreement will disappoint some in the industry who had mooted the possibility of Microsoft taking a stake in, or even acquiring Baan, the Baan Enterprise Software Agreement will start at $99 per desktop per month for three years for over 5,000 desktops. That basic price rises if the package is for less than 5,000 users and does not include support and services. Compaq Computer Corp will be the first service and support provider; it will offer fixed-price standardized service packs. The Baan Enterprise Software Agreement is available now.
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