Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Has a Release Date: December 19

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 will hit general availability on December 19, Microsoft revealed today.

The release will bring to market a product that Microsoft believes will offer three primary competitive features in the SMB ERP and accounting market: the web client and improved hostability by partners; faster and lower risk deployments; and range of productivity enhancements.

"We're incredibly excited to meet our time frame on this announcement," said Errol Schoenfish, Microsoft Dynamics director of product management. "To say we've been busy over the last few months would be an understatement." Though Microsoft had forecasted a December release date for some time, the announcement ends an unusually active flurry of speculation in recent months as to the exact date Microsoft would choose.

"We're bringing ISVs along for the ride with GP 2013," Schoenfish explained, by streamlining the upgrade process down to the point where some solutions simply need to be recompiled.  In other cases, the amount of developer work is just "limited" in order to make products perform on the new platform, not taking into account, of course, the 125 new and improved features that will be forcing many ISVs to raise their game to continue adding value to the base solution.

The web client that Microsoft releases in December is really the first of multiple phases that will be rolled out over many months, Schoenfish explained earlier this year.  "We are estimating 3 to 6 months [between phases], but we'll know the timing of the phases more after we get past the first one," he said at the time.

Dynamics GP 2013 ...