Enterprise, Cloud Focus at Dynamics Event

The Dynamics’ Convergence 2011 conference shed light on the direction of Microsoft’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) product lines. The company started a public beta test of Dynamics AX 2012, which it hopes will become its primary ERP offering for large organizations, and announced that it will eventually host its ERP products on the Windows Azure cloud platform. Microsoft will continue to update all four of its major ERP products, with new Web user interfaces and continuing reporting and analysis improvements likely to play a prominent role.

Dynamics AX 2012 for Enterprise

A Dynamics AX 2012 public beta and details on features were released at the conference, with production release planned for Aug. 2011. Formerly code-named Dynamics AX 6 and sometimes called Dynamics AX 2011, Dynamics AX 2012 will be a major update that opens the product to new verticals (notably, the public sector) and improves features for discrete and process manufacturing, warehouse and distribution, retail, and service industries such as consulting. The version has many enhancements to business logic (particularly finance) and the product’s base technology, including its developer and customization platforms.