Microsoft Dynamics ERP Online - and other conv11 news

Well we are into full swing with day two at conv11the key note had some great details in it, and as expected, Dynamics Cloud ERP, as well as AX 2012 where the majority of the focus. Along with BI, specifically showing off Microsoft Project Crescent, which is the next version, or next generation of report builder.

As part of the keynote, and as the title suggests, Microsoft today announced Microsoft Dynamics ERP Online.. This has been a building up for years, and if you have been reading my blog for any extended amount of time, you will have seen I have been talking about the cloud and it's impact on Dynamics, specifically Dynamics AX for a while. Over four years now!

Well with conv11 Microsoft now has an official stance on cloud computing, for Dynamics ERP. In looking at this, and as I covered in my session on cloud computing for AX, as part of AXUG dayone session, IaaS clouding offering, with AX installed on it is what the cloud story for Dynamics AX is today.

This is done either via Partner Hosting, and a new type of license that is based on per user, per month, or through a typical purchase of an AX license, with the customer making the choice to deploy AX to an IaaS cloud offering from the likes of an Amazon or even with Microsoft Azure VM role.

This cloud story continues to unfold however, as it was stated today, the next release of AX, version 7, will be developed to run on Azure First!

From early readings of the tea leaves, it would seem as though this would be around the 2014 calendar year time frame. That would fit into the product lifecycle we have seen so far with the AX product line.

There are so many great sessions now that the day into full swing, and I will be taking time put sit down today and talk with Kees H. and Lachlan C., both from Microsoft, and both I have interviewed on this blog before. So look for those interviews coming soon, as well as a slew of AX 2012, detailed articles and post, as today is Puboic Beta of AX 2012!



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Dynamics AX in the Cloud. When & why?

Recently over at MSDynamicsWorld.com an article was posted by one of my peers, Jeff Onesto. The article is: What Is the Future of Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud? Being Upfront About the Obstacles

He brings up good points, of how this is looked at from an OpEx point of view, for controllers and also risk that are involved with this, that are not being addressed, including security.

I think the following two sentences sum up the article well, though I recommend a full read of it.:

"Unfortunately, when it comes to mission critical business applications such as ERP, the model appears to be bit immature for many customers, and with too many questions left unanswered regarding security, control, regulation and speed."


And...

"Until many of the other issues I have discussed are resolved, though, I don't forecast the demand for enterprise business applications in the cloud will change and without demand I don't anticipate Microsoft offering Dynamics AX on-demand."


And to Jeff's points in the article I agree that total AX in the cloud is not something that will be in demand, and actually just does not make sense really at this point. May in the very distant future, or to some level like ERPLive.com will possibly offer to smaller instances.

I have wrote a good bit actually about the Cloud, and Microsoft's platform, Azure. The following are some of those post.:

• The Hybrid Cloud - Enterprise 2.1? (2007 Post)


• Microsoft's Cloud Computing Platform (2008 Post)


• Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Platform (2008 Post)


• Arch. Journal: Mapping Applications to the Cloud (2009 Post)


• ZDNet: Microsoft to integrate Twitter into its Dynamics CRM (2009 Post)

There are more post, but these post actually show and talk about what Jeff points out. We see already AX consuming services and can consume cloud based services. We also CRM / XRM already in action with the same thing, and offering up as being hosted in the cloud if desired.

What must be stressed, just with anything else, is common sense. The post I did in 2007, the very first post was my vision for what I thought the cloud would mean for AX and the enterprise. It would be a Hybrid approach, to where some services and possible LOB applications will / would exist in the cloud while others remain on-premise.

What functionality makes sense to live in the cloud? This is determined by a lot of factors at times, and technology is actually most of the time least, unless the technology is limiting.

Functional ends should drive the means for what exist in the cloud. So it makes sense to have restful data stores in the cloud, that is common shared data among partners and customers. Like Jeff points out EDI for example, and credit card applications / consumptions and processing.

Look at MRP though for example... Master Scheduling. That does not make sense to live in the cloud. When would it make sense? Maybe never. Could be that feeds come into MRP that are cloud based services, but the actual execution, and processing of the outputs from MRP would live on-premise.

Plus adding the cloud, adds actually extra layer of abstraction, and though in cases that makes great sense, sometimes the extra complexity does not.

In the end, Jeff did a great write up, and I think that it's a timely one. It helps bring together what we have been talking about here, over the past two years. The cloud is for sure here, and here to stay. However, like other utilities and toolsets, when and how it is used for ERP should always be driven by the functional ends desired.

Don't get me wrong, being a technically focused consultant I love working with the latest technology. That however does not mean that the latest technology or possibly offering of technology makes sense to address problems at hand.

Thanks Jeff for the great write up, and check back soon here. More Lean coming with two interviews, one from Andrew Rummey the Org. Architect of the Microsoft Lean AX module, from eBECS and also from Dr. Scott Hamilton about is new Lean and AX book.

See you soon!




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ERPLive.com - What's this?

Recently Hal Howard did an interview our at MSDynamicsWorld.com, Microsoft’s Hal Howard Assesses Varying Needs of Dynamics NAV and AX User Bases, Hal is quoted in saying this:

"Live Mesh is still out of scope for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. As a Microsoft veteran, Howard said that he is in the loop with the Live Mesh team but that the current focus of that project is consumer scenarios."

Stating that the current movement for the Live Mesh and Live offerings is not in scope currently for the Dynamics ERP platforms. Scope though in this interview was not clearly defined, and so one must assume current scope, being that of DAX 6.0.

I found something interesting though. Microsoft now owns the Domain: ERPLive.com. This is interesting because that means that future scope does have ERP functionality, one day plans to live as a Live offering.

Why would I say Microsoft owns the domain? Because it what ERPlive.com points too. However, looking at the WHOIS information for that Domain name:


Registrant:
CSC Corporate Domains Inc.
Domain Administrator
2711 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19808
US
admin@internationaladmin.com
+1.3026365401 Fax: +1.8778867698

Domain Name: ERPLIVE.COM
Registrar of Record: Corporate Domains, Inc.

Administrative Contact:
CSC Corporate Domains Inc.
Domain Administrator
2711 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19808
US
admin@internationaladmin.com
+1.3026365401 Fax: +1.8778867698
Technical Contact:
CSC Corporate Domains Inc.
Domain Administrator
2711 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19808
US
admin@internationaladmin.com
+1.3026365401 Fax: +1.8778867698

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.MSFT.NET
NS5.MSFT.NET
NS2.MSFT.NET
NS3.MSFT.NET
NS4.MSFT.NET

Created on..............: 24-Feb-07
Expires on..............: 01-Nov-08
Record last updated on..: 19-Jul-07


It would seem CSC Corporate Domains Inc. owns this domain. If you look though all the Domain servers listed are the Microsoft ones. NSx.MSFT.NET.

So either the domain name is just being parked for Microsoft, but still the point remains that something in future scope will have to do with 'ERPLive.com'.

Also of note on this same lines, CRMLive.com points to you guess it: Dynamics CRM site.

So if I were you I would still be keeping a close ear and eye on the Live offerings as that will become the platform for Microsoft's ERP in Clouds posibility. Check back soon!

Quick Note: CSC Corporatre Domains, Inc. is a firm that helps large companies with branding, marketing and domains. Seems that they are helping Microsoft with their Live.com domain names...




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Microsoft Dynamics Live Site

Alright well what was I just posting about? ERP & CRM Live? Well here is the Microsoft Dynamics Live site which is the front end for the Dynamics Live team. There mission statement is:

"The Dynamics Live team will build the next generation of web services for medium and small businesses. Our charter is to build a platform that enables medium and small businesses to conduct business on the web including e-Commerce sites, online payment processing, Online marketing, etc. The position will involve cross-team collaboration with Microsoft Business Solutions / Dynamics Axapta/Navision and Great Plains, Windows Live, MSN AdCenter, MSN Search and other teams."

This will be done with .Net technologies, and all of the others that I have mentioned before. The link to the site is here: Microsoft Dynamics Live Site

Check it out!






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ERP Live? "Software plus Services"?

As most everyone should have seen at Convergence this year, a big part of Microsoft's furutre plan is CRM and ERP Live. What this translate into is the Software plus Software, or S+S. This is the "named" version of SaaS or Software as a Service, in the Microsoft world. So the name is different, and what does this mean?

Well if we look at the future, as laid out by the Microsoft Crystal Ball [aka: Road Maps] we will see how all of these convergence of technologies, etc. are being shaped towards the future of the information worker. Let's start with the future front end, for a given information worker. In the not to distant future, most information workers will complete their job on a SharePoint Portal Mashup page, made up of web parts and weblets. These web parts will draw from Dynamics AX, CRM, and other places, and make use of Word Documents, an Excel spreadsheets as web parts.
The Underlying technologies that will enable this can be seen in the newest release of Office 2007 with Form Services, SharePoint 3.0, DotNet [WinFX] 3.0, and so forth. This means that the "FAT" regular windows client will start to slowly enter into it's twilight years as the RIA, or Rich Interactive Application approach [Part of the Web / Enterprise 2.0 jargon] will allow Window application 'Like' interactions over a web front end delivery system. Some of the technologies for this include AJAX, Flash, and the Flash counter part SilverLight [formely WPF/e].

Now We have an understanding of what the front end will be like, SharePoint and Office. What does this means for the business Layer of our ERP / CRM Live? This means the same underlying technologies, that will provide role based user interfaces, will exists for role based, or better process based work flows of data and executed business logic. See with the S+S mashup, the entire cloud is not one single giant service, but rather services interconnecting multiple softwares, to offer up a single sign on, and single user interface, even though the parts of a given workflow could hit:
1.) ERP Live
2.) CRM Live
3.) A legacy system
etc. and so on.

So this means that the ERP Live Cloud [Which from this point forward also could containt CRM Live] is an organism of such, breathing and living in it own process domains, calling out and in from any different amount of integration points, and custom business logic, that flow that water to the end user, even though there could be many levy's, breaks, raise's, lower's,... still the in is one, and the out is one.

Ok let me step back away from the analogies, and talk real world. We live in Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM. There will be for some time, and even after the Live versions, customers / companies that host their own clouds that make up their solution, and that they control. Adoption of the cloud based system of S+S will take a long time, because it such a different way of thinking, and the ROI is not lowered cost of operation in the short term but gain flexibility in the long term which equates to a companies system adjustablility to it's marketplace and grow as the business grows. This in turn does means a greater ROI in the long term, but a higher investment to reach this critical mass point in the short term. [Long term = 8-12 years, short term = 2-3 years].

In our real world we have Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM, these are parts [major parts] or the Dynamics brand that are all coming together to eventually make ERP Live and CRM Live products. The flavors of the Live depend on if a companies cloud will be entirly hosted, partially hosted, and not hosted at all. [Most I see will be a hybrid of half / half.] That means that after Dynamics AX 6.0 or 7.0 [Same version for CRM] that will we start to really see the different flavors of Dynamics, ie: AX, GP, SL, etc., come together in this ERP / CRM Live vision and become one product, with different levels of implementation for operation, functionality, and size.

To Not go on to much about this, what I would like to wrap up here with is that ERP and CRM Live are the future of the products we Dynamics AX and CRM professionals support and focus on. This means that we must start to shape our current skill sets to the following:

- SharePoint
- AJAX, RIA, SiverLight [And still Flash]
- Office and it's full compliment of products
- Web services
- .Net 3.0, 4.0 and beyond

For most of us this will be just a continued path of something we are already doing. Like SharePoint, office, Web Serices and .Net 2.0 rigth now, that is needed for the current versions of Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM. We must start to think about how we will take advantage of these technologies for our current and future client base. ERP Live and CRM Live are coming, S+S will be the prefered implementation method and eventually the only way. Hosted or not, the ERP and CRM marketplace is changing with the changing world around us. We must understand that Software and Services are coming together, to changes Software and products from very much domain based, living indepedant of itself and others, to becoming a living and breathing suite of services and business logic that can adapt and grow as the customers that use it do.

To clost fully, I welcome all comments about this. I realize that this is the future, and sometime off, but if we align ourselves for change then we embrace the change. Check back soon as I dive deeper into the current version of Dynamics CRM and integrating it into Dynmaics AX, as well as all the new integration points that I have been working on, as well as much much more! Check back soon!


Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com