Dynamics Development Roadmap

As already mentioned Microsoft has been investing huge resources into Research & Development within the Business Solutions Division in order to be able to deliver on their ambitious vision.

Dynamics GP – Value Built on Innovation

The current release of Microsoft Dynamics GP Version 10.0 was shipped in Q2 2007.

Dynamics GP 10.0 brings together business process automation and personal productivity through deep integration with the Microsoft Office system, Microsoft SQL Server, and technologies such as .NET, that enable efficient customisation and solution extensibility. Dynamics GP 10.0 is compatible with the Windows Vista operating system – the most significant Windows release since Windows 95 – and is also optimised to take advantage of Office 2007 – the most pioneering upgrade to Office since Office 95.

This latest release helps businesses increase the penetration of business data throughout the organisation and empowers them to incorporate industry-specific, role-tailored business processes into their business management systems. Equally important, Dynamics GP 10.0 enables advanced collaboration, search, and business analysis capabilities for all the people involved in running a business – regardless of where they function in the organisation.

This version has a more natural user experience with context sensitive “Ribbon” menu, plus workflow capability based on the Windows Workflow Engine in SharePoint 2007, thus enabling much greater productivity and effectiveness.

The huge R&D sunk into Dynamics has already yielded substantial benefits. Research, such as observing how hundreds of different companies actually perform business processes, and developments, such as creating much deeper integrations with SQL Server 2005/2008, Office and SharePoint, have already yielded some breakthroughs for the Dynamics Product. Version 10.0 includes roles-based user experience, SQL Reporting Services, SharePoint 2007 Business Portal, pervasive Web Services, Visual Studio .NET toolkit.

Dynamics GP – First in Line

Fortunately for M4 Systems (since we have always specialised in Great Plains, now Dynamics GP) Dynamics GP has always been first in the queue amongst all its ERP products (including Navision, Axapta and Solomon) - by an average of 2 years - in benefiting from all of this innovation. For example, it was first with Office Interface, first with SharePoint Business Portal, first with Microsoft CRM integration, first to be re-branded Dynamics, first with role-based user experience, first with pre-defined SQL Reporting Services cubes. It was also the first with extensible Web Services and Visual Studio .Net Development Toolkit plug-in. This continues with Version GP 10.0 being the first with Windows Workflow Engine and Office 2007 Interface.

Dynamics GP - Moving Forward

Customers, if on a current Enhancement Plan, are entitled to software updates free of charge (albeit there are usually partner services costs associated with installing and configuring updates). Each latest version is guaranteed to be supported for at least 10 years, so that businesses can plan for the future with the confidence of minimal disruption and be secure in their investment - read Security of Investment for more background.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0 is due for release in 2010. Additional features and capabilities with Version 11.0 will include:

• enhancements for public sector organisations
• industry-specific capabilities for manufacturing, distribution, and retail organisations;
• and new business intelligence capabilities that consolidate, personalise, and expand the reach of analysis and reporting across organisations
• deeper integration with the Microsoft Office system with more personalisation options, particularly with regard to business intelligence and reporting, creation of workflow processes
• rich set of complementary online business services, including payroll services; marketplace abstraction services, such as eBay and OL Commerce; online payment services, such as PayPal, VeriSign, CPS, Vital and FDC; online credit monitoring services, such as Equifax; and eMarketing services.

Other developments revolve around the “Software plus Services” initiative (enabling partners to offer integrated Dynamics GP & Dynamics CRM solutions on a hosted basis) and the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform (expanding Web Services and other SOA technologies to help companies integrate legacy and new applications with Microsoft Dynamics GP, build functionality that supports common business-to-business and application-to-application scenarios, and enable information to flow freely across systems and platforms).

Beyond Dynamics GP 11.0, future releases will emphasise the creation of people-ready applications by expanding Web Services support for Microsoft Dynamics GP and the broader Microsoft stack, including Microsoft’s investments in Microsoft Office system applications, BizTalk Server, Office SharePoint Server 2007, mobile applications, and other solutions

Microsoft CRM Roadmap

Microsoft CRM was written from the ground up as a .Net product and is Microsoft's flagship .Net 2.0 Application

The latest version 4.0 was released end January 2008 and features hundreds of enhancements on its predecessor (version 3.0), including multi-currency functionality, multi-tenancy architecture enabling greater deployment options (i.e. movement between hosted and on-premise environments) and easy to use workflow and report configuration tools. See What’s New in Dynamics CRM 4.0 section of this web site for more information.

The huge R&D that has been invested in CRM will continue, fuelled by its run-away success in the market. There have been further innovations and introduction of extended capabilities following on from version 4.0 launch. These include:

• Mobility (to deliver full-featured mobile access to both Windows Mobile phones and BlackBerry mobile phones for Dynamics CRM)
• Accelerators
• BizTalk Integration
• SharePoint Web Parts.

One of the most exciting additions has been the introduction of the Accelerators. This is a range of free “add-ons” allowing partners and customers to extend CRM functionality. Each Accelerator will showcase how the Dynamics CRM 4.0 platform can be configured and extended to broaden marketing, sales and service capabilities. These are available for Analytics Foundation, e-Service, Event Management, Enterprise Search, Business Productivity, Extended Sales Forecasting, CRM Notifications and Sales Methodology Support.