Microsoft Dynamics Reinforces the Dynamic Business Vision at Convergence Europe

Microsoft kicked off its Convergence 2010 Europe roadshow in London this week, where Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions, opened the event with a keynote address that reinforced how the company is delivering on its Dynamic Business vision for customers.

Announcements made during the keynote include:

• A new global launch promotion for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at a price of $34 (€31) per user, per month for the first 12 months of service


• 22 new markets where Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail will be available as of Feb. 1, 2011


• General availability of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP two-tier connector that accelerates deployments between Microsoft Dynamics AX across subsidiaries, divisions or branch entities, and SAP Business Suite at the corporate headquarters


• The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX has been certified by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), verifying that the reporting of GRI content within the dashboard is compliant with the GRI standards. This recognition makes the Dashboard one of only four software applications and the only midmarket ERP solution with the GRI certification in the software applications category to date.

The roadshow will continue in London tomorrow (Oct 15) and then move to Prague (Oct 18 – 19) and end in The Hague (Oct 20 – 21). For more information regarding these announcements and to join the conversation, please review the full press release below or visit any of the following throughout the event:

• Convergence 2010 Europe Newsroom


• Official Microsoft Blog


• The Edge (the official blog of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP team)


• The CRM Team Blog


• Microsoft Dynamics Community on Facebook


• Twitter: @MSDYNCONV, #CONV10

This is all really great news, and other places have covered some of these topics deeper like the Microsoft Community Site, as well as MSDynamicsWorld.com.

This information is exciting not just for European based companies focusing on Dynamics, but the entire Dynamics Ecosystem world wide. I would like to thank Microsoft for their continued efforts in help growth and foster the Dynamics Ecosystem through events like these.

There are two more great events coming up, as mentioned in my last post AXUG Summit is next week, and also MSDynamicsWorld.com, Fall Decisions 2010 - Dynamics AX day in on Nov. 1st! So a lot is going on, and plenty of places for customers, partners and Microsoft to connect, learn, share and grow!

That's all for now. Hope everyone has a blessed weekend. I will be covering the AXUG summit next week, Tues-Wed, while I am there, so look for that as well. Hope to see some of you there!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Someone Agrees about the Dynamics AX Connector for SAP

Yesterday, I wrote about my take on the SAP moves for the bid on Sybase, and also the other moves going on, that basically points to SAP giving in on the mid market to the Leader: Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Link: Looking into SAP's bid for Sybase, and what this means for Dynamics AX

I also go on to point out that the Two Tier move by Microsoft with the Dynamics AX connector for SAP is a move into the SAP client base, with a focus on the Divisons and moving into the Larger Enterprise.

Lee Pender, of RCPMag.com, a couple of hours after posting what I did about all of this, he posted on his blog similar thought lines, in the following post.: Microsoft Seeks To Infiltrate SAP as Sapphire Begins

From the post.:
"[F]irms can implement the cheaper, simpler AX at satellite locations and let workers get used to it. And when it comes time for an SAP customer to reevaluate ERP, maybe Dynamics makes its way into the picture based on the performance and simplicity of AX in the sticks."

Now one section Lee says AX is not designed for Larger Enterprise, however Lee does not implement AX, and I believe his sources are incorrect in giving him this statement. Dynamics AX can be any companies full scale ERP package.

With that aside, it seems that Mr. Pender agrees with what I was saying, or at least is thinking along the same lines.

So here we go, Dynamics AX pushing deeper and deeper into the bread & butter of SAP's larger enterprise, where for some reason the norm for a long time was "If it's complicated and takes a legion of consultants to implement, then it must be right for larger enterprise."

And, as I stated yesterday, I believe Sybase move - while gaining some form a of mobile and cloud platform - actually is about trying to 'buy-a-stack', in order to focus in on shoring up against Microsoft threating the SAP core.

And now, lets look at the cloud offerings that come with Sybase. It's not a platform, in which Windows Azure, or even Google's AppEngine is. It's built on Amazon's EC2, which is really IaaS. Pure cloud services can't be built with this. Not the way pure cloud services can be developed on Azure and Google's AppEngine.

Therefore, though it is a move into the cloud, it's targeted more at the Infrastructe level, which turns into hosted versions of the following.:

• Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) mission-critical data management system


• SQL Anywhere embedded and mobile database


• Sybase IQ column-based analytics server


• Replication Server for data movement and synchronization

Interesting yes, but a true cloud offering? A cloud platform? No!

This is going to be something to watch for sure, and again I could be wrong in what all this means. Just reading the tea leaves, and connecting the dots, this post and the one from yesterday sum up about what I think this all really boils down too.

I will ask as Lee Pender did on his blog, what's your thoughts? Do you agree? Do you disagree? All comments are welcomed!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"