AXUG’s Retail SIG Kicks Off with a Look at Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail

More and more consumers are demanding a premium, end-to-end shopping experience in return for their business.

For retailers, meeting and exceeding this demand is all about delivering customer-connected experiences that set them apart from their competitors and foster lasting relationships with their customers. And that means implementing the right kind of information technology to create these customer-centric connected experiences.

Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail is that technology, according to George Casey, CTO of Microsoft partner Junction Solutions, speaking at the first online meeting of the AX User Group's newly created Retail Special Interest Group.

For Microsoft, connected means the ability to capture customer information at the point of sale and have it populate in real time at headquarters and across the entire chain of stores to be acted upon immediately. And connected is the store associate who can provide real time visibility to a customer about product availability and location-helping build loyalty and differentiated service. Connected is also a user experience for each employee optimized to drive speed of service, reduce training times, and drive organizational efficiency.

"Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail is the latest Microsoft foray into retail space to enable integration with AX when it's appropriate but also has the ability to stand alone and exist outside a pure AX environment," he said. "This has been a challenge for some retailers when they look at ERP and the ability to do things in a disconnected format but still have commonality of data, commonality of promotion and pricing."

One benefit of Dynamics AX for Retail is its flexibility. There are a few options consistent with Microsoft's message of late where companies can have different ...