Four Products Advance on Dynamics ERP Roadmap

Four enterprise resource planning (ERP) product lines will continue to be developed despite tough economic times, according to plans released at Microsoft’s 2009 Convergence conference. The four Dynamics lines—AX, NAV, GP, and SL—offer small and midsize organizations financial management functions integrated with operations such as production planning, human resources, and customer relationship management (CRM). The products help Microsoft and its partners sell strategic platforms such as SQL Server and SharePoint, which in turn helps slow platform competitors in the midmarket. However, some of the products could see cutbacks as the economic downturn continues.

Parallel Development, Shared Technologies

Microsoft’s ERP business consists of two product lines sold globally (Dynamics AX and NAV) and two sold primarily in the Americas (Dynamics GP and SL). (See the chart “Dynamics ERP Products at a Glance“). The company also offers three other products in specific local markets, although it is encouraging customers of these products to migrate to AX and NAV. (For more information about these products, see the sidebar “Local ERP Products“.) All of the Dynamics products are limited to organizations with up to 7,500 employees. In particular, none is designed to serve as the hub ERP product for a large global company such as Microsoft (which runs SAP ERP). However, Microsoft promotes Dynamics AX as a subsidiary or divisional solution for organizations where the ERP function is decentralized, and Microsoft uses Dynamics AX itself in some divisions.