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Business software news: Microsoft introduces Dynamics AX 09

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11th Jun 2008
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Microsoft this month announced the availability in 40 countries of Dynamics AX 09, an upgrade to the youngest member of its enterprise software software family. John Stokdyk talked to Microsoft's UK product managers about the new release.

Microsoft Dynamics UK product marketing director Gary Turner said that Dynamics AX 2009 was the company's first release since it had abandoned its Project Green masterplan to merge the Great Plains (GP), Navision (NAV) and Axapta (AX) product families. It's an important release, he explained, because it shows how the products will be converging around common, role-based user interfaces and technologies such as unified communications.

"The role centres mean that if you're the managing director or packing controller, you'll get a very specific interface depending on your role," Turner said.

There have also been "significant improvements under the bonnet" in the application's ability to support high user numbers and transaction volumes, so that the new version will scale beyond 2,000 users.

Dynamics AX product manager Fiona Nolan went into more detail about some of the detailed enhancements, some of which are based on web services that can feed into and draw on AX 2009 data through an XML mapping engine. Credit card processing, embedded courier tracking services from the likes of DHL, UPS and FedEx, plus processes for raising and processing quotations can pass through the AX web services switching yard, she said.

"We've made significant architectural changes to include schemas from different application-to-application and business to business scenarios," said Nolan. "Equally, there's nothing to stop people from including their own web services."

The Financials part of the suite boasts new allocations and consolidation processes and an expenses management module. New vertical industry solutions have been introduced for manufacturing and distribution companies and the HR functions have been set up so that Dynamics AX 09 can support a shared services approach across different countries. For management reporting, work has gone into the application to integrate it more directly with Microsoft PerformancePoint Server.

The suite also has a Compliance Center to help senior managers keep on top of budgetary and internal controls. Much of this relates to a repository of documents that are stored within Microsoft's SharePoint portal system. Maintaining a process library with instructions and screen grabs detailing financial processes can help with both compliance and user training. The Compliance Centre "won't prevent non-compliant behaviour, but can better educate users about processes", she said.

For Turner, governance, risk and compliance (GRC) has had a big impact on the ERP market in recent years. "But the bigger picture we're seeing is that in large scale enterprises the biggest challenge is complexity. CEOs, CFOs and CIOs have compliance on their shopping lists, but it also has benefits for managing complexity. Stronger links to Windows Workflow means people can nail things to the floor better and reduce multiple processes," he said.

According to Turner, Dynamics AX is probably the fastest growing part of the Microsoft applications portfolio in the UK. While it is starting from a smaller base than Dynamics GP or NAV, AX is seeing signicant year-on-year increases in customer numbers due to its flexibility. "Most companies don't do a rip out and replace, but see AX as a surrounding technology. They may run Oracle or SAP as their financial engine, but perhaps the costs are too high for all other functions, so AX can fit in around it for distribution, service and manufacturing processes," he said.

Elements of the new Dynamics AX 2009 release have been drawn from other parts of the portfolio, such as the expenses workflow that is based on code from the GP range. Having arrived in AX, it will appear in the next release of NAV, Turner explained. "What we're doing is building common components that can be shared around the core applications," said Turner. "The boundaries are blurring."

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