Summit EMEA News & Notes, Part 1: Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

Last week's Summit EMEA event in Dublin still catered to two distinct audiences in Dynamics AX and CRM-focused users (including those already on the Dynamics 365 solutions), but content and product updates now trend toward some shared themes: service (for customers, employees, suppliers), data and analytics, integrated processes, and custom apps that integrate with or embed into core processes from D365 products.

Microsoft representatives referred to D365 on a few occasions as the last solution customers would ever need, perhaps a test of a new tagline, but more likely a nod to the work going into creating a new update/upgrade approach and mentality. While the claim may not land with the marketing team, it is a reasonable reflection of what Microsoft seems to be doing across its D365 products as SaaS offerings - separating apps - both out of the box and custom - from platforms, aspiring to support information flow between systems more easily, and adding more reporting for consumption via standard BI tools.

This year's Summit EMEA demonstrated that Dynamics customers remain at all possible points in their solution maturity. Some in attendance were some of the earliest adopters of D365FO, while others remain on-premises with a mix of versions of CRM and AX, some that are way out of support. What follows is a selection of notable findings from Dublin, with a focus on Dynamic 365 for Finance and Operations. In a separate part two, we'll explore D365 Customer Experience and "Power Suite" topics.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations still has naming challenges, but it's outpacing Microsoft's expectations

Call it D365FO, call it "Fin & Ops", or go with something even harder to say. But ...