Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) still wants to get green, but it wants to get green in an evolutionary way.

Next week, MBS executives are slated to recast their "Project Green" ERP plan as less an end-game and more a process of small, easy-to-navigate steps, industry sources said.

Project Green was Microsoft's grand plan to move the functionality of its disparate Great Plains, Solomon, Axapta and Navision product lines to a uniform code base.

The first phase was initially due last year. The effort then was aligned with Longhorn, the next-generation Windows. But that plan--along with Longhorn--slipped and partners beefed that Microsoft's message confused customers and stalled sales of its current lineup.

Microsoft plans to use next week's Convergence 2005 MBS event in San Diego to reset expectations and reassure the world that no current MBS users will be stranded, according to sources close to Microsoft. Many of Green's objectives will be delivered through a succession of updates to the current ERP line, sources said.

Microsoft would not comment for this story.

"The whole [Project] Green message was a big misstep. Microsoft started talking about that and about MBS becoming a $10 billion business, and people barbecued them," said one Midwest partner, who requested anonymity.