Dell Inc.

* * * * * * * * * * DESCRIPTION * * * * * * * * * *
The name Dell may be synonymous with "direct," but the computer giant has a more diverse approach to the market these days. The world's #1 direct-sales computer vendor provides a broad range of computer products for the consumer and enterprise markets. In addition to a full line of desktop and notebook PCs, Dell offers network servers, workstations, storage systems, printers, projectors, and Ethernet switches. It also markets third-party software and peripherals. Dell's growing services unit provides systems integration, support, and training. The company began selling through retail stores in 2007.

Microsoft

* * * * * * * * * * DESCRIPTION * * * * * * * * * *

How does a company keep growing when its primary products are already ubiquitous? If the company is Microsoft, it takes on other markets. Microsoft Dynamics (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions) offers a wide range of enterprise software applications for small and midsized businesses. The Microsoft division offers software for a wide range of business functions such as accounting, customer relationship management, supply chain management, analytics and reporting, e-commerce, business portals and online business services, human resources, manufacturing and retail management, field services management, and project management.

In 2005 Microsoft launched a new brand for the products formerly known as Microsoft Business Solutions, renaming them Microsoft Dynamics.

The division was formed in 2001 when Microsoft combined the operations of accounting software maker Great Plains Software -- which Microsoft purchased that year for $1.1 billion in stock -- with its existing small business software operations, including the bCentral small business services unit. The division grew in 2002, when Microsoft bought Danish enterprise software maker Navision for about $1.5 billion.