Dynamics AX Mobile Sales, a client application for Microsoft's Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning (ERP) product, could help sales personnel look up customer information and place orders using a Windows Mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Accompanying the release is an SDK called the Dynamics Mobile Development Tools, which will help partners create similar mobile applications for AX, giving those partners an opportunity to generate additional business from their existing customers. However, partners will need to move cautiously to avoid colliding with Microsoft, which will build additional mobile applications for AX and its other business management applications.

What Is Mobile Sales?

Mobile Sales is a Windows Mobile client application that allows workers to access and update data in Dynamics AX from a Windows Mobile Platform—based handheld device, such as a Pocket PC. (Mobile Sales was tested on Motorola's MC35 and MC70 mobile devices.) Acquired in Microsoft's July 2002 purchase of Danish software company Navision, Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) is Microsoft's high-end ERP product aimed at multinational companies (or divisions of those companies) with 100 to 5,000 employees and complex manufacturing or distribution needs. AX has broad multilanguage support, shipping in 40 languages and more than 30 country-specific versions.

As the name implies, the Mobile Sales application is intended to help sales personnel complete common tasks using their mobile devices while on the road. For example, the application provides the following:

• A wizard that guides sales personnel through the process of taking, reviewing, and submitting customer orders
• Integration with Pocket Outlook, Microsoft's mail client for Windows Mobile devices, which allows sales personnel to create, update, and delete calendar items and tasks from within the Mobile Sales application
• Searching and filtering on information about customers, such as addresses, contact names, and order histories
• Viewing and filtering information about campaigns, such as product promotions.

Mobile Sales maintains a local database containing information on customers, products, campaigns, and orders, which allows sales personnel to use the application even without a network connection. When connected to a network, Mobile Sales communicates with the backend AX application via a midtier Web application called Mobile Server, which requires Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. Mobile Server synchronizes data and brokers the exchange of documents (such as sales orders) between the mobile client and the backend AX application. Mobile Server also supplies tools that help administrators deploy and update the mobile application and monitor mobile device activity (via a Microsoft Management Console snap-in).

Opportunity for Partners

Mobile Sales was built with the Dynamics Mobile Development Tools, a Visual Studio-based SDK that Microsoft has made available to its partners. The Mobile Development Tools include utilities that help developers create the UI elements, data flows, and business logic that correspond to a business process, such as a salesperson creating and submitting a purchase order. The company hopes that by introducing the mobile sales application and related SDK, it will trigger partners to create additional mobile applications for AX.

However, partners should move cautiously to avoid bumping into Microsoft. Even though its first mobile application for AX is limited in scope, the company has said it will build additional mobile applications for AX and its other ERP applications, starting with Dynamics NAV. (Microsoft also offers a separate, free mobile client application for its customer relationship management product—Dynamics CRM—that allows workers to access and update CRM data from HTML 4.0-compatible mobile Web browsers.) For example, Microsoft is planning AX and NAV mobile business-reporting applications intended to help executives monitor and track important business metrics. Those applications will probably ship in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Availability, Pricing, and Resources

Both the Mobile Sales application and the related SDK are currently available to Dynamics AX partners as downloads on Microsoft's PartnerSource Web site, which is available only to Microsoft Business Solutions partners. Mobile Sales and other applications built with the SDK can run on Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.0 devices with QVGA displays and require the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP1 and SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition. The Mobile Server component requires Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition.

Mobile Sales requires that customers have licensed the Advanced Management edition of AX, which costs about US$4,600 per user. Customers of the Mobile Sales application will incur an additional license cost of US$495 per device, which also covers any additional mobile applications for Dynamics AX that partners or Microsoft build using the Mobile Development Tools. The SDK is free but requires Visual Studio 2005.

The Dynamics AX homepage is www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx.

For more information about AX Mobile Sales and Dynamics Mobile Development Tools, go to www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/product/mobilesolutions.mspx.

The PartnerSource Web site is www.microsoft.com/dynamics/partnersource.mspx.