Users—and prospective users—of Microsoft Dynamics enterprise systems faced a roadblock when it comes to vertical-industry functionality extensions.

Microsoft relies on its independent software vendor (ISV) partners to deliver customizations and extensions to its core ERP products—yet Microsoft Business Solutions , which offers the Dynamics product line, couldn't—or wouldn't—make available a list of existing customizations and extensions.

The result was that although solutions that a manufacturer might be looking for already existed, there was no way for the prospective user to know it unless pointed in the right direction by a Microsoft manager who did.

But at its recent Convergence conference in Dallas, Microsoft executives let slip that a list did exist. Better still, customers could access it themselves via the Web.

That said, it's not a complete list, acknowledges Glenn Bray, senior director of industry strategy and solutions, Microsoft Dynamics. Although "SolutionFinder" ( http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/solutionfinder.mspx ) embraces several thousand Dynamics solutions, it covers only 17 countries so far, and breaks down manufacturing industries into only nine vertical sectors—ranging from aerospace & defense to consumer packaged goods.

The countries in question—including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain—"are those countries where we have been most successful in developing the product through qualified vertical partners and industry-specific customers," he says.

Thus, for the first time, American manufacturers can themselves identify potentially useful applications not only from across the U.S., but also internationally.

One of Microsoft's South African ISVs, for example, recently sold aircraft-specific functionality into the U.S., with the reference coming from a preliminary version of the online SolutionFinder list.

As it is still under development, SolutionFinder "isn't being promoted as such," says Bray, although several of Microsoft's existing Web sites and marketing campaigns do contain links to it. "It's essentially a tool for bridging across geographies, and enabling partner-to-partner communication," he says.

Slightly less low key is the hoopla surrounding another initiative under way at Microsoft Business Solutions: that is, the Industry Builder program, whereby applications and extensions aimed at the needs of specific industries are codeveloped with core partners.

Manhattan Associates , for example, has authored a Supply Chain Execution for Microsoft Axapta solution, while Fullscope has developed a Process Industry solution, again for Axapta. The applications—backed by Microsoft support packages, and subject to high-level code review—"are designed for customers at the higher end of the spectrum who want deeper support, deeper testing, and deeper functionality," says Bray.

To the six such solutions currently in place, a further six to nine will be added over the next year and a half, Bray adds. A deal has recently been inked with Blue Fox Enterprise , for example, to launch a textile and apparel design & manufacturing solution.

Where SolutionFinder will potentially include extensions and customizations from hundreds or thousands of Microsoft's ISVs, Industry Builder will be far more select. "It's for the tens of partners, not the thousands of partners," sums up Bray.