Microsoft Dynamics AX Traction, Train Stations and the View from the Dynamics Channel

Among leading Dynamics ERP partners, there is this ongoing debate about Microsoft investing disproportionate development and marketing money into Dynamics AX and what that means to partners that heavily rely on their base of Dynamics GP, NAV, and SL clients.  Is Dynamics AX leaving the station where the other Dynamics ERP products are staying?  My contrarian opinion is "no". The real danger for Dynamics resellers could lay in a temptation to hedge investments in their Dynamics businesses as Microsoft moves ahead with its retooled partner program and long term product plans.

While I've worked with Dynamics AX and have been  impressed by it, evidence from Microsoft product management points to continued investment - usually quite robust - in all the Dynamics ERP products.  And real world deals that my firm sees reflect a continued demand for all of the Dynamics ERP products.

In my view, the non-enterprise Dynamics ERP products - Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV and Dynamics SL - are not going away any time soon. I bought a GP practice in 2002 because I thought SL was "going away".  It ended up being a great acquisition but we still sell lots of new SL clients each year that need solid project accounting in the middle market on a reliable MS platform. We continue to support hundreds of both SL and GP clients. ERP is sticky. Even in a good economy no one is looking to upgrade or change out an ERP system that works well and is being constantly improved by one of the world's best run and largest companies.

AX is impressive, too, but the implementation costs are too high to make a switch for firms unless they have really outgrown GP or SL. In my experience, it takes a pretty big ...