Microsoft Dynamics: From Troubled Child to Favorite Son
Dynamics, a brand name unveiled at a Microsoft conference last fall, is a suite consisting of the Microsoft CRM application (now known as Dynamics CRM) and the four acquired products, Dynamics GP (from Great Plains), Dynamics NA (from Navision), Dynamics SL (from Solomon) and Dynamics AX (from Axapta).
Cobbling Dynamics together since those acquisitions hasn't been easy. None of them, for instance, offered the familiar Microsoft appearance and functionality. However, Microsoft has significantly increased cross-integration of the products' features, particularly for the 2006 release cycle, says Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupitermedia Corp., a Darien, Conn.-based IT research firm.
Now the company is pumping money into an advertising blitz to promote Dynamics and spell out how the product will evolve over the next few years. Microsoft has also made it clear that Dynamics is a chief component of its massive push to target midsize companies, which it defines as businesses with between 50 and 1,000 employees.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, has emphasized that Dynamics will focus on ease of use and implementation, characteristics not usually associated with ERP. "A new generation of software has to step up and provide capabilities in a way that's incredibly reliable, easy to set up, and brings the information to the right people," Gates said at the first-ever Microsoft Business Summit for midsize companies last fall.
Read the full, very interesting article
Cobbling Dynamics together since those acquisitions hasn't been easy. None of them, for instance, offered the familiar Microsoft appearance and functionality. However, Microsoft has significantly increased cross-integration of the products' features, particularly for the 2006 release cycle, says Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupitermedia Corp., a Darien, Conn.-based IT research firm.
Now the company is pumping money into an advertising blitz to promote Dynamics and spell out how the product will evolve over the next few years. Microsoft has also made it clear that Dynamics is a chief component of its massive push to target midsize companies, which it defines as businesses with between 50 and 1,000 employees.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, has emphasized that Dynamics will focus on ease of use and implementation, characteristics not usually associated with ERP. "A new generation of software has to step up and provide capabilities in a way that's incredibly reliable, easy to set up, and brings the information to the right people," Gates said at the first-ever Microsoft Business Summit for midsize companies last fall.
Read the full, very interesting article
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