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Windows Vista ERP Integration



 

Dispatch from Dallas
Catching the Wave at Convergence 2006

April 24, 2006

by Lee Pender

Gates tells Burgum and audience to expect a two-year window for sweaters to swing back into fashion
Microsoft Business Solutions Chairman Doug Burgum (right) described how his late father, a grain silo operator in rural North Dakota, taught him to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Microsoft Business Solutions Group's annual Convergence conference, which focuses on the company's business applications, drew thousands of customers and partners to Dallas in late March. Here are a few highlights from the show:

People Power: Microsoft unveiled its "people-ready" marketing strategy for its Dynamics line of enterprise resource planning applications. The idea behind the tag line: Software should empower employees to solve their own problems, create efficiencies and move their businesses forward.

Waves of Change: The Dynamics application set will undergo two waves of change in the next few years. In the first wave, Microsoft is already integrating the four products in its suite (AX, GP, NAV and SL -- adapted from the products' original names, Axapta, Great Plains, Navision and Solomon) into Windows and Office and will continue to do so as it introduces Vista, Office 2007 and new versions of Dynamics applications over the next two to three years.

Microsoft says the integration gives users a unified view of all four ERP applications within a familiar interface. Betting that back-end capabilities will even themselves out across the competitive landscape as the company catches up to its rivals, Microsoft hopes to differentiate itself with better-looking, easier-to-use tools.

Wave 2 involves moving all four applications onto the same platform and offering customers a single, broad-based solution with "best-of-the-best" functionality from each application. The first Wave 2 releases are scheduled to hit in 2008 and 2009 with iterative releases for each product.

Microsoft is urging partners to start preparing now for that second wave of change. Partners focused on just one solution will need to develop expertise in the entire Dynamics suite and switch from a product-focused to a vertically focused strategy.

The immediate Dynamics roadmap calls for shipping AX 4.0 in June, with SL 7.0, NAV 5.0 and the next version of Dynamics CRM scheduled to ship in the first half of 2007. GP 10.0 is scheduled for a 2007 release.