During his tenure, Burgum oversaw the launch of Microsoft's CRM applications, as well as the creation of the next-generation Dynamics line of business software, which includes technology from Great Plains, Navision and other acquired portfolios.

Burgum's departure was widely expected, and Nadella will likely continue the momentum Burgum has generated, said Josh Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. He noted that Burgum's efforts to bring Great Plains into Microsoft started a major transition for the company. Before that, "Microsoft was ubiquitous but not strategic to its customers," said Greenbaum.

"The entrepreneurial spirit and genius of Doug have gotten us where we are," Nadella said during a news conference. He noted that his new duties include further defining and evolving the MBS online strategy. That includes things such as enabling customers to have integrated on-premise and hosted ERP installations.

He also plans to continue to the rollout of the next set of MBS applications, including Dynamics GP 10, Dynamics SL 7.0 and Nav 5.0 over the next year.