Best of 2017: Microsoft Dynamics GP experts offer practical ideas and channel questions

Remember the surprise Microsoft Dynamics GP announcements that made waves in 2017?

No, you do not, as there were none. That's not to say that enterprise software is supposed to be about surprises. But as the Dynamics 365 roadmap and segmentation plans became more clear this year, the GP community also came to understand that their beloved product would remain supported and under active development, but future advances are almost certain to come at a slower pace.

So, on the surface, Dynamics GP seems like it is entering its twilight years. But SMB partners and their customers are undaunted. Partners, for example, continue to embrace the possibilities of Azure for both infrastructure hosting and for full deployments. And both Microsoft and the GP community seem eager to continue incorporating key cloud technologies like Power BI, Flow, and PowerApps into the product where they can.

And perhaps most significant, just last week Microsoft revealed some open empathy for (and realism about) its SMB customers, partners, and products. The company's CVP & CFO for Commercial and Enterprise Dave O'Hara told Credit Suisse Analyst Michael Nemeroff: 

We see legacy as a great asset because we have all these customers running these products. And our responsibility is to make sure that our cloud offerings work with those existing products, so that they don't have to go through some nasty transition...there is no other company on the planet that has the array of offerings that we have.

No, he advised, on-prem products (the bulk of Dynamics GP installs) will not just fade as the cloud grows; Microsoft will maintain those products and be ready for customers' hybrid and full-cloud transitions.

Several Microsoft ...