A couple things emerged from Dallas. (Insert your own grassy knoll joke here.)

First: The four-month-old Microsoft CRM (aka Dynamics CRM 3.0) is a bright spot, after some not-so-bright days.

For one thing, the product has finally delivered in terms of functions and features. And it's gotten rid of the "click abuse" that had users lost in maze of opened Windows. Several long-time MBS partners started out with the first release and then dropped it. Then when Microsoft put CRM through broad distribution, others left the herd.

Now some are coming back. Geez, maybe Microsoft was right when it said MBS partners would make up in volume what they lost in product-sales margin….

Second: Orlando Ayala was completely MIA. Accounting Technology's Bob Scott says his favorite board game these days is "Where's Orlando." In this case, Ayala was at home in Redmond, meeting with the top sales and marketing guys from around the world, according to MBS senior VP Doug Burgum.

Ayala, Burgum reminds, is charged not just with Microsoft Business Solutions but the whole small and mid-market sales and marketing group, affectionately known as SMS&P.

Third: Vista may have slipped, but its interface conventions are showing up in spades across the upcoming MBS business apps, at least on demo screens. Virtually every demo showed the "stacks" of on screen work that is supposed to give users visual cues to prioritize.

PC as nudge. Fabulous.