With AppSource and Dynamics 365, Microsoft Reveals The Rest of Its Future Vision for Cloud Business Apps

Microsoft has announced that it will be launching a cloud service for business apps called Dynamics 365. It will feature capabilities of Dynamics CRM, AX, and Project Madeira, will integrate with and take pricing and packaging cues from Office 365, and will provide business users with smaller units of business capaiblities based no process and role requirements.

Though the introduction of a new Dynamics cloud offering - and the new Microsoft AppSource app store to support it - will get people talking in the AX, GP, NAV, and CRM ecosystem, the move does not appear to be the kind of bombshell that the more conspiratorial people in the community may have enivisioned for the future of Microsoft's business apps.

While there are still many details to be revealed about Dynamics 365, much about the approach will make sense to any Dynamics VARs or ISVs that have been paying attention to recent developments. The introduction of Project Madeira separate from NAV or GP was one sign that Microsoft is no longer content with its ERP offerings. And across the product suite, the Dynamics team has made progress with integrating Office 365, Power BI, Azure machine learning, IoT, PowerApps, and even GigJam.

Microsoft officials have clarified that Dynamics 365 does not signal the end of the rest of the CRM/ERP suite. But we now understand more about how the company is planning the future of this line of business.

"I think Dynamics 365 makes sense to the extent that Office 365 has been extremely successful just based on the Office suite," says Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Application Consulting. "Bringing them together helps Microsoft distinguish itself with companies that can benefit from Office ...