Microsoft Plain to adopt Rational’s tools

BANGALORE: Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions will adopt Rational
Software's RATL, Rational Suite Enterprise, Rational ClearCase and Rational
ClearCase Multisite as core components for its next-generation development
efforts.

Microsoft Great Plains has selected Rational's development tool technology to
support its philosophy of extensible, customized business solutions. Rational
Suite Enterprise will provide users with a complete software development
solution, including requirements management, visual modeling, defect and change
tracking, automated unit and system testing, and the Rational Unified Process(TM).

Rational Suite Enterprise integrates seamlessly with Rational ClearCase
Multisite, Rational's configuration management solution, which helps distributed
development teams work in parallel.

"Rational Software's tools have enabled us to accelerate our development
cycle and to deliver a common platform upon which our partners and customers
will be able to both extend and enhance our product offerings," said
Microsoft Great Plains’, executive vice president (products) Darren Laybourn.

"Working with Microsoft Great Plains will enable us to enhance its
unique development strategy of delivering customizable business management
solutions while enabling long-term support for software upgrades without
significant change or cost," said Rational Software senior vice president
(marketing) Eric Schurr.