Microsoft buys FieldOne

Microsoft's Dynamics CRM Corporate Vice President Bob Stutz announced yesterday in a blog post the acquisition of FieldOne Systems, a company he describes as "a world-class provider of field service management solutions that allow organizations to better manage and deliver service to their customers in the field." 

FieldOne currently supplies field service apps to clients like Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems and United Technologies. According to Fortune, Microsoft already forged a strategic alliance with FieldOne four months ago, with the goal to integrate Microsoft Dynamics with FieldOne's flagship app suite that includes inventory, routing, and scheduling. Bob Stutz also wrote that "Field service management is a specific but critically important area of customer service, providing companies with the ability to deliver end-to-end field service."

According to various estimates, this market is worth around $18 billion, but the competition Microsoft has to face is tough. This last acquisition by the Redmond giant places it face to face with ServiceMax, allied of Salesforce, as well as Oracle, who purchased last year TOA Technologies to increase its control in the field service management market.

As it usually happens with such deals, no financial terms of the transaction have been disclosed.