The Changing Role of the ISV in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Tenerife Era

A lot has changed for ISVs recently.

In March, I visited Microsoft's headquarters. This is something I could only dream of as an ISV as recently as six years ago. It was always the ERP resellers that ruled supreme. Over the past two years, this has changed dramatically.

So why the shift?

A new vision for ERPs

We all know that a lot has changed in Microsoft's portfolio over the past two or three years. The launch of Microsoft Dynamics 365, and all the subsequent roadmap changes have been discussed in depth elsewhere, so there's no need to go over that again.

What I want to focus on is the upcoming Tenerife release. This product is significant, and not only because of the move toward on-premises and cloud-based version of a single product. I believe that it's the Common Data Service (CDS) that holds the answer to the question above. 

With the introduction of the CDS, Dynamics isn't so much a traditional ERP system as a suite of specialized products, all powered by the Azure platform delivering hosting and additional services. Sales, service, operations, finance: each has a specialized application that users can turn on or off depending on their business needs.

Supporting transformational change

There is a key theme that I feel underpins both the CDS and the other defining characteristic of Tenerife, the cloud/on premises/hybrid flexibility that grants users an unprecedented level of freedom.

Previously, changing your Dynamics setup could be a big decision, with a rough transition period. If your company outgrew NAV, upgrading to AX made sense, but it also made for a large and potentially expensive project. The same is true for ...