Four Major Trends That Will Define Microsoft Dynamics Strategy and ERP Technology

In what has become an annual presentation, two Microsoft executives seek to define high-level future performance priorities for Dynamics applications. At the just-concluded Convergence 2010, Hal Howard, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics ERP Research and Development, and Mike Ehrenberg, Technical Fellow, offered up four trends they see as key in shaping coming versions of Microsoft Dynamics:

1. Context-aware computing. Increasingly, Dynamics applications will become better at understanding the context of a user's needs-for example, understanding that an account manager's information needs change based on where the company is in its financial quarter. Thus, Microsoft developers are working on moving the role-tailored interface "to the next level," said Ehrenberg. This would also involve what Hal Howard called "unified communications...from analysis to communications. We're not an applications provider, but a platform provider."

2. The Cloud. While many users are already running cloud-based businesses, Ehrenberg noted its strategic significance relates to "the idea of the power of choice...the same applications delivered in different ways." For example, a company might put a request-for-proposal onto a public site, but instead of designating it for download, it could be used right from the cloud within Dynamics AX. The executives noted that the cloud requires that Microsoft confront security issues, as well as abiding by the varying laws and regulations covering privacy around the world.  

3. Sustainability. As consumers become increasingly sensitive to the carbon imprint of different products, "We going to have to start accounting for energy use and emissions," Ehrenberg said. Some large retailers Microsoft is working with want to begin providing customers with information "of the environmental impact of the product I'm buying," said Ehrenberg. Providing ...