Microsoft emphasized Dynamics AX Lifecycle Services in roadmap to AX 2012 R3, Rainier releases

The Microsoft Dynamics AX roadmap calls for an AX 2012 R3 release in Q1 of calendar year 2014 and the next major release, codenamed "Rainier", due around the fourth quarter of 2014. And along with feature and function updates, Microsoft is pushing ahead its rollout of its AX Lifecycle Services offering for customers, which offers tools for supporting a customer from pre-sales through implementation and operational support of a live system.

The AX release roadmap

Speaking at AXUG Summit today, Dynamics AX R&D general manager Sri Srinivasan reviewed the product roadmap, which is mostly unchanged from earlier 2013 guidance that promised both the AX 2012 R3 release and Rainier releases.

AX 2012 R3 will add a mix of industry-specific and horizontal capabilities.  Industry enhancements will be found in warehouse and transportation management, demand planning and forecasting, and retail.  Retail improvements will focus on both clienteling improvements - better case management, e-commerce, and kitting - along with broader enhancements to omni-channel support (support for more channels), loyalty programs, and mobility.

More horizontal enhancements coming in R3 include eProcurement ("we've added a new letter to that module," joked Srinivasan), improved budget planning support for smaller organizations, and master data management (MDM). The vision, which may not be fully realized in R3, is to improve the sharing of data across multiple instances of AX or other enterprise systems, providing one view of key entities like customers, chart of accounts, vendors, and more. AX MDM capabilities will be "lighting up" SQL MDS by providing entity definitions, Srinivasan explained.

Details on Rainier remain limited this week.  With a target of Q4 of 2014, Microsoft is ...