Microsoft Dynamics AX MVPs foresee a fast-paced future for partners, customers

As Convergence 2014 was wrapping up last Friday (crews were already dragging away stacks of chairs and packing up audio-visual equipment) we were lucky enough to snag a few minutes with the four Microsoft Dynamics AX MVPs after they closed out the week with an MVP panel session organized by AXUG. We sat down (or maybe we stood, hard to recall) with Dr. Scott Hamilton of Columbus, Joris de Gruyter of Sikich, Murray Fife of I.B.I.S. Inc., and Brandon George of Sunrise Technologies to see how the week went and how they will be advising their clients (and readers) coming out of the event. A big thanks to all of them for taking the time to talk after a long and busy week of sessions, meetings, and parties.

MSDW: What do you think about how Dynamics AX 2012 R3 has been presented to attendees?

Scott: The good news is that the pace of innovation is amazing in terms of what they've done and how they've done it.  But most partners can barely keep up.  At Columbus, we have some sites involved in the TAP program and also a team learning AX 2012 R3. But software development is only one piece of the puzzle. Documentation and training also need to be available before the new release can be considered complete.

Joris: Analysts dropped Microsoft's ratings around partner readiness [last year, related to AX 2012], so there's a huge initiative to change that.

Murray: They've got the readiness presentations around R3 and ...