Reimagining Business Applications with Microsoft Dynamics AX
Today is an exciting day for us at Microsoft as we formally announce Microsoft Dynamics AX, the latest release of our flagship ERP solution that has been completely architected for the cloud.
This is a significant release because we believe it is going to transform the way people and businesses interact with and what they expect from their business solutions. Mike Ehrenberg in his blog today nicely lays out the new technical aspects of this new release.
We have been previewing the new Dynamics AX with hundreds of partners and customers and overwhelmingly the feedback has been that this is the most significant release in the history of Dynamics AX and people can’t wait to get this into production within their companies.
Based on my discussions with customers about their business needs and feedback on the new release, I wanted call out some key things that stand out for me in the new Dynamics AX.
First off, Dynamics AX delivers a beautiful UI that is modern, touch-enabled and looks and feels like no other ERP system in the market. This in itself is revolutionary. It enables people to use and interact with the system easier than ever before democratizing data and information for business people today. And as millennials enter the workplace, it appeals to them because it looks and works like the applications that they are used to, leading to quicker adoption and actual usage.
Dynamics AX is intelligent. When we say intelligent, it is more than just visualizing reports (although, Dynamics AX with Power BI does that beautifully). It’s about how the data in the ERP systems is combined in real-time with data from outside the company to help people make more informed decisions. It’s about the ability of the solution to proactively predict issues or provide guidance to help keep you out of trouble. For example, think of how Cortana on your Windows phone gives you notifications when you need to leave for an appointment to make it on time based on all the traffic/ weather data that it is capturing in the background. Now apply that intelligence to your business, where Cortana has the ability to tell you about a problem in your supply chain, or alert you about the need to increase your inventory of cold drinks because of an upcoming heatwave to ensure that you have the right amount of stock on hand. This predictive nature and intelligence of business applications is the future that we are delivering today with Dynamics AX. This new solution removes limitations and opens up the ability for businesses to think about the “art of the possible” – and that is very exciting.
The power of the cloud. Cloud has been a buzz word in the software industry for the last few years, but when people talk about the cloud, it is usually limited to infrastructure – the ability to host and deliver software as a service. We are expanding what cloud means for businesses. The cloud powers the intelligence, but in addition to this the cloud enables growth and the ability for people to do business anytime, anywhere, at a global scale.
The cloud enables the agility that was never possible before. Mike in his post talks about Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services – this is a game changer in the business software industry, the ability to discover, develop, test and deploy a complete business solution in the cloud is a compelling proposition for customers, but we go beyond that – we view LCS a service that gives continuous life to a business system, enabling it to change, adapt and grow with the organization. This is also reflected in the new product name, just simply, Microsoft Dynamics AX, without any version or year associated with it because what you will have will always be the latest.
Speed – implementing a system quickly, the ability to get people up and running faster, changing business processes without business disruption, getting real-time insights into business to accelerate productivity and ultimately getting the fastest time to value are top of mind for every customer.
I’m both honored and excited to deliver Dynamics AX to market, a world-class business application that will make all of the above real for our customers. Similar to Windows 10, we see Dynamics AX as an application that businesses will want and love.
The new Microsoft Dynamics AX is expected to be available in public preview for all of our customers and partners in 140 countries by early December.
Learn more about the new release here and let us know what you think of the new Dynamics AX.
Here is a quick video with some early feedback from our partners.
Cheers,
Christian
