Klaus noted that “The Tier 2 solution” offers the same feature functionality of Tier 1 products, but at a third or quarter of the price. Epicor puts some numbers behind the potential with a survey that received 1,600 responses from a variety of companies worldwide. One third of those said they were considering a two-tier implementation. An interview conducted by Software Advice with Guy Weismantel, Microsoft’s director of ERP marketing, addressed the place Microsoft Dynamics fits in two-tier deployments. In the interview, posted on YouTube, Weismantel said SAP and Oracle had “focused” the opportunity for Microsoft. The increasing autonomy of divisions and subsidiaries “has opened the floodgates” of interest in the mid-market products, he said. And similarly, he cited the increasingly functionality of products from this segment of the software business at a much lower price. That’s probably one reason for SAP’s push with midmarket products, such as Business One and Business By Design. It wants to do the same thing and keep such organizations in its camp.