Microsoft Convergence 2014 event in Atlanta, has highlighted key Dynamics releases expected this year.
Kirill Tatarinov, executive vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, in the event’s opening keynote said Microsoft’s aim with its products is to help people perform “high-value activities,” /em which seems to be the new catch-phrase for company executives when discussing Microsoft’s direction.
Tatarinov also said the business world is entering the “era of the customer,” and that customers now expect to be able to interact with businesses quickly and through a variety of channels. They also expect to have the ability to access information whenever they want.
“It is amazing to me that in this era of the customer there’s still so little knowledge around the world about the customers that organizations serve. And really, the role that yet again Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics will play in the future, and [are] starting to play today, is to help you transform and enter that era of the customers by understanding who they are, where they are, where they want to be tomorrow very deeply, and in a very powerful way.”
Dynamics AX 2012 R3
Microsoft’s Dynamics AX 2012 R3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) product will become generally available on May 1, Microsoft announced.
and will bring “a new end-to-end apps and services framework, allowing businesses to develop and distribute modern apps for specific scenarios and mobile devices that can easily and securely connect with Microsoft Dynamics AX.”
The framework uses the cloud (Windows Azure) for communication between the mobile devices and Dynamics AX, with identity provider Microsoft ADFS. The organization does not need to set up separate middleware. The Application Integration framework in Microsoft Dynamics AX publishes that “listen” for incoming messages through the Windows Azure Service Bus.
Microsoft also announced the beta of Project Siena, which will enable business users to create mobile, touch-optimized apps with no coding. Users need “little more than PowerPoint- and Excel-level skills” to create apps through Project Siena, .
In addition to being available as an on-premises product, Dynamics AX 2012 R3 will be capable of being deployed as a Windows Azure-hosted service by partners.
Dynamics CRM
Microsoft reiterated on Tuesday that its customer relationship management (CRM) product will be updated in Q2. Microsoft described this update in February, indicating that it will be focused on delivering social networking– and marketing-oriented improvements based on technology acquired from MarketingPilot, Netbreeze and Parature, each of which Microsoft purchased over the last two years.
For the core Dynamics CRM Online product, the update (code-named “Leo”) will introduce a new Unified Service Desk feature that lets users choose the medium and device through which they interact with customers.
Additionally, the update will also launch two new Dynamics CRM features, which were demonstrated in the keynote:
– a marketing-automation tool called Dynamics Marketing
– an online data-tracking tool called Social Listening.
According to this Microsoft Dynamics CRM blog, for organizations using on-premises Dynamics CRM, the feature will cost $20 per user per month. Microsoft has not yet revealed the pricing for Dynamics Marketing, or said whether it will be available as a standalone service for on-premises users.
