Viewpoint November 30, 2009, 10:06PM EST

Microsoft Dropped Office Accounting: Why the Surprise?

Sure, Microsoft's decision to discontinue its Office Accounting software leaves small businesses in the lurch. Our bad: We should have seen it coming

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Sometimes seemingly smart people just have bad ideas. Like Germany opening up that second front against the Soviet Union in World War II. Making that Speed Racer movie. Trading away Cliff Lee. And definitely putting The Jay Leno Show on prime time every weeknight.

My friend Brian, who runs an employee-benefits firm, is certainly smart. He too, had a bad idea. He's so annoyed about it that he didn't want me to disclose his last name or that of his company in this column. I can't blame him. For more than two years, Brian used Microsoft's Office Accounting software in his business. Just last month, Microsoft (MSFT) announced the discontinuation of the application. Now Brian is stuck.

It didn't seem like such a bad idea when Brian bought the program. Introduced in 2006, Office Accounting was Microsoft's challenge to Sage Software's Peachtree and Intuit's (INTU) QuickBooks, then the market leaders in small business accounting software. My firm sells Microsoft and Intuit software, and I have to admit that even we were encouraged by the announcement. Office Accounting, included as part of the Small Business Edition of Office, would integrate with Word, Excel, and Outlook. It was inexpensive. It would be supported by a growing network of "small business specialists," such as my firm. And most exciting of all, it was made by Microsoft. Sounded like a good idea, right?

Wrong.

Microsoft succeeds slowly—or runs

This fall we've got new talk shows from Wanda Sykes, Jimmy Fallon, George Lopez, and many others, including Jay. Many lack experience with the format and, judging by some of the commercials I've seen, extremely unfunny. In Leno's case, there's also competition from scripted dramas on other channels. The software industry is no different. The market is awash in new technologies from untested companies. Wasting time watching Leno isn't such a big deal. But choosing the wrong software for your business is. So how do business owners know that a technology—or the company that makes it—will still be around five years from now before they invest precious time and money in it? Just don't do what Brian did.

Brian thought he was investing in a product. But he should've realized that he was investing in a company—one with a track record of discontinuing products that don't sell and allocating fewer resources to support less-profitable products. Microsoft also seems unable to get a product working well until at least its third iteration. Look at Windows, SQL Server, and Office. Rarely should a small business owner become an early adopter of any technology from any company—especially Microsoft—when it comes to something so critical as accounting. Brian should've waited for a few version releases before making the leap.

Like Leno and his producers, Brian should have taken a harder look at the competitive landscape. There were already a bunch of strong accounting software products for small businesses when Microsoft released Office Accounting. What features would make this product stand out? Integration with Outlook, Word, and Excel? Lower price? Easier to use? Already done. Office Accounting had nothing new to offer. A business owner could pick up a copy of QuickBooks or Peachtree with much the same features and priced about the same. And these products had been around much longer.