(FORTUNE Small Business) – IBM and Microsoft want you. Again. Over the past decade, these two tech titans have made more promises about how they're going to serve the small business market than a cheating husband begging not to have his suitcases tossed onto the front lawn.

Yet this time things may be different. First off, their attention just happens to coincide with a mature IT spending market in large enterprises. Internal IBM research reveals that IT spending opportunities in small and midsized businesses could grow as much as 20% faster than within the Fortune 500 crowd.

Then there's the realization that small business represents an untapped honey pot worth anywhere from $30 billion to $300 billion. Microsoft, which defines a small business as having less than $50 million in revenue, adheres to the lower end of this market estimate. IBM, which thinks small is less than $1 billion in sales, likes the bigger number. As Marc Lautenbach, general manager for IBM's global small and medium business group told InfoWorld magazine, "We have not found too many other $300 billion opportunities besides this one." (IBM executives failed to respond to requests for interviews because of a long-standing feud with Fortune.)

That's what's in it for them. What's in it for you? IBM and Microsoft aren't just looking to sell a few more PCs or copies of Office XP (although that would be nice). No, these guys literally want to run your business, offering technology solutions for everything from improving your customer service to helping you collaborate better internally and with partners. Microsoft, for example, acquired Great Plains in late 2000 and Navision this past May because those companies serve the small and medium business market with accounting, supply chain, customer service, and human resources applications. For its part, IBM has repackaged its technologies under the banner StartNow, a marketing campaign aimed at educating small companies about what it can do.

So which is better for your business? IBM or Microsoft? It really depends on who you are. Microsoft can service companies of all sizes, yet it tends to be better at offering affordable products for very small businesses, say 100 employees or fewer. IBM's strength lies more in the midsized market--companies large enough not to flip out at $25,000 or more for a tech project. No matter which technology you choose, be aware that both titans rely heavily on literally hundreds of thousands of independent business partners (known as value-added resellers) to deliver their products. That means you won't always get the service you should expect from a blue chip like IBM or Microsoft. So let's check out those promises and see what has changed and what's all too familiar.

HOOK 'EM WHEN THEY'RE YOUNG

Both IBM and Microsoft say they offer a cradle-to-grave solution for businesses. "Microsoft embraces a 'customer for life' approach in its business applications," says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in an e-mail interview. The strategy makes sense. If your company has, say, a Microsoft database running on a Windows server, you'll be more likely to choose a Microsoft product when it's time to add an application like customer-service software. "It's a lot of money to start over again," says Frank Heins, VP of sales at Weidenhammer Systems, an IT services firm in Reading, Pa., affiliated with both IBM and Microsoft. "Would it be responsible for us to recommend that? Or can I take advantage of investments already made?" That's what IBM and Microsoft are banking on as they try to get their hooks into you early. Although both companies could be there when a business is just a guy in his bathrobe at his kitchen table, Microsoft clearly has an advantage. If you're a very small business, chances are you're running Windows and Office, but with so many other hardware makers out there, like Dell, Gateway, and HP, it's not a given that you'll be running your system on IBM equipment. Microsoft also offers much more to smaller businesses than IBM, such as low-cost appointment scheduling for people who sell their time (see box).

Each company also believes it can win your business by offering what's called integration. The idea is that you'll get more out of your technology investment if you tie everything together so it plays nicely. That, effectively, is IBM's plan. Its business partners in the field (more on them in a moment) exist almost solely to do things like make your accounting application talk with your supply-chain system so that you can make sure invoices are sent as products are shipped. Its StartNow solutions, with names like Start Now Collaboration and StartNow E-commerce, aren't packaged software but rather suggested bundles of software and services. "They help customers understand how they can apply technology to business problems in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost," says Peter Matthews, president of Adience, an IBM reseller in Hamilton Square, N.J.

Microsoft has also made a career out of tying software together, much to the chagrin of competitors and state attorneys general everywhere. "Microsoft has found a formula with integrated suites," says Laurie McCabe, a small and midsized businesses analyst at Summit Strategies. "It worked on the desktop with Office. They'll follow a similar formula with applications like accounting, payroll, and customer relationship management." For example, Microsoft's sales force and customer service application, expected to be available in the fourth quarter, can be run from within the popular Office application Outlook.

Microsoft's focus on smaller businesses and its history of offering low-cost software to the masses give it a leg up on the cradle-to-grave and the integration fronts. "We're not asking small businesses to take a leap of faith and spend a lot of money without proof," says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows, when comparing Microsoft and IBM. "You get to see what we can do at a cost-effective level." Microsoft Small Business Manager, its accounting product for businesses with fewer than 25 employees, starts at $1,500. IBM's pricing for its StartNow solutions varies from $15,000 to $60,000, and that's just for the software. "By the time you're done with the hardware and services, it's more than $100,000," says Brandon Buhai, who runs InfoPower Systems, an IBM business partner in Deerfield, Ill.

Before you figure this game is over and Microsoft has won, remember that its strategy is still coming together. The first product to come out of Microsoft's rejiggered Business Solutions division, which encompasses the programs and people it acquired from Great Plains, is Small Business Manager, which appears to be off to a slow start. I spoke with a handful of resellers who had high hopes for the product but haven't sold a single one in six months. (A Microsoft spokesperson denies weak sales and at the same time says that the product is currently being upgraded.) The sales and customer service product is still vapor, and Microsoft has a reputation for delivering a first release of a software title that's not any good. IBM, on the other hand, is already selling proven customer service solutions.

IT'S THE SERVICE, STUPID

Despite IBM and Microsoft's size, neither one is willing to devote the billions it would take to develop a direct sales force for small businesses. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, in his February 2002 keynote address to IBM's affiliated business partners, estimated that it would take another 100,000 full-time employees to double its share of the services business. Microsoft's Ballmer says, "Only through our network of 700,000 partners can we service the needs of the diverse small and midsized business market." It's those local firms that work directly with small businesses. "Executing," says Bob Clough, Microsoft's VP for small business sales and marketing, "is where it's hard."

Indeed. Horror stories abound about resellers. Just ask Jim Shankin, national sales manager for Adrienne's Gourmet Foods, a $3.5 million business in Santa Barbara, who selected a local partner, the accounting firm Bartlett Pringle & Wolf, to install Great Plains Dynamics accounting software (now owned by Microsoft). "They screwed it up. We had constant problems," says Shankin. A representative from Bartlett Pringle & Wolf offered no comment, not even "No comment."

Even if you hire a competent techie, that doesn't mean you have someone who puts your needs and budget first. Microsoft has more off-the-shelf solutions, so it's a little easier not to drown in a quagmire of custom development. IBM, with its services-driven culture, is more likely to sell you a lot more than you were planning on buying. Pat Callahan of ComputerAid, an IBM partner in Allentown, Pa., explains how resellers often handle sales: "Even though customers think they want something," he says, "we sit down and find out their problems, and then develop a solution." For instance, Central United Life Insurance in Houston went to Business Integrators, a local IBM solution provider, looking only for a printer to attach to the AS/400 server running its business. The insurance company ended up with two more AS/400s, two other IBM Web servers, and several new applications on top of them. Central United says it's happy, but so much for "The customer is always right."

What to do? Thoroughly check out your local resellers and find someone you can trust. "We knew the guys at Kalos," says Tom Kupfer, manager of Strike Zone, a baseball training academy in Omaha, of the company that built his Website. Kupfer had no idea what platform his site was running on, and Kalos happens to be certified by both IBM and Microsoft.

MAKING THE COMMITMENT

IBM and Microsoft can try to smooth out their execution, but it'll all mean nothing if they don't show a long-term commitment to winning small business. If history is a guide, the signs are not encouraging. IBM had a full-blown strategy for businesses with fewer than 100 employees as recently as early 2001. It revolved around getting them on the Internet with a Website quickly and cheaply (one of its products was called Home Page Creator), and IBM execs still talk about e-business as the wedge that lets them negate Microsoft's desktop dominance.

But when the Website-building programs were attracting customers by the thousands rather than the millions, they were quickly killed. "They want the business, but they don't want to do the work to get it," says Lee Warren, a former IBM executive who headed its Home Page Creator program. That left a lot of customers out in the cold. Charlie Kears, general manager of the 60-employee Fess Parker Winery in Los Olivos, Calif., was an original Home Page Creator customer and even traveled the country promoting the product for IBM. "We outgrew what Home Page Creator had to offer, and the company stopped developing the product," he says. "IBM didn't try to sell us on another solution." So Kears rebuilt his Website with Macromedia and Adobe tools, and IBM lost a customer. And thousands like him.

So which company has the edge? "Of the two, Microsoft has a bit more experience in this realm and is a bit more genetically inclined to do it," says Dwight Davis, a small and midsized business analyst at Summit Strategies. "They've always dealt with the mass market." But the battle has just begun. Both technomonsters have strong products and deep pocketbooks. The decision will go to the one more committed to giving small businesses exactly what they want: affordable solutions. And it won't be easy.