Hitachi Consulting Talks Two-Tier ERP and Its Expanded Microsoft Dynamics AX Integration Strategy

Microsoft's plans for continuing to move up-market with Microsoft Dynamics AX rests in large part on the ability of global system integration partners to win business with enterprise customers and deliver on the value proposition of properly integrated systems and ERP workloads.  While Dynamics AX is not the administrative ERP backbone at the largest enterprises, both Microsoft and its Dynamics AX partners say that the two-tier ERP opportunities for Dynamics AX in the "spokes" continue to grow.

Two-tier ERP is not a competency for every Microsoft Dynamics AX partner.  As Kees Hertogh, director of product management for Dynamics AX told us at Convergence 2011, there is plenty of opportunity for deploying Dynamics AX into the spokes of enterprises, but Microsoft needs more firms who can deliver.   

"[Companies] like Hitachi Consulting are already using [the two-tier connector for SAP] and building on top of it.  Of course there a specific type of partners that can take that work. Partners with an international footprint and their ability to handle more complex operations can support that," Hertogh said at the time.

Hitachi Consulting has, in fact, continued to develop its Dynamics AX practice with continued attention on the two-tier ERP opportunity.  They recently announced an expanded relationship with Scribe Software to utilize Scribe's middleware platform and to build a consulting team for deploying ERP solutions based on Dynamics AX more quickly and efficiently.

For more insight into Hitachi Consulting's plans around two-tier ERP with Dynamics AX "spoke" systems and their work with the Scribe solution, we spoke with Simon Chan, director of business development at ...