Microsoft Releases Dynamics AX 2009, With Heavy Focus on Multisite Organizations

Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, continuing to position AX as the primary mid-to-large enterprise offering among the Dynamics ERP products. The early June release is well within its "late fourth quarter" delivery estimate.

Meeting the needs of larger, multisite organizations is one of the themes emphasized in Microsoft's press release announcing of the AX 2009. "Businesses need to be more agile in their operations," Kees Hertogh, Dynamics AX Product Manager told MSDynamicsWorld.com in a recent interview on the AX 2009 release. "They need to have more flexibility ... [and there is] increased pressure on the mid-market with increasing expansion across the globe" to lower operation cost, achieve compliance, and increase user productivity.

Hertogh demonstrated key improvements such as the role-tailored user interface, pre-built regulatory features, pre-built business intelligence capabilities using SQL Server data cubes, embedded workflows using Workflow Foundation, embedded Unified Communications, and updated UI design elements taken from Microsoft Office tools.

Microsoft is stressing the improved features for running AX in multiple legal entities on a central installation and providing a single, integrated view of financial and supply chain information from facilities around the world. While this is not a new focus overall, it indicates a renewed push to position AX as the Dynamics software of choice for the larger enterprise. "We want to reinforce it now and push [this feature area] with improved usability," said Hertogh.

One of the central multisite features of AX is the compliance center that brings together data into a view for a compliance officer. This view contains information such as user access policies, KPIs, and audit reporting on system activities.

Microsoft's Unified Communications (UC) technology is now integrated into the AX ...