Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations Roadmap: Next release due July 2017

The Spring 2017 release of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations is expected to launch in July 2017, a bit past the real season but in time to deliver on highly anticipated new deployment options, upgrade tools, and updates to the mobile and analytics experience.

The spring release will build on positive momentum. Microsoft reported this week that  they have over 100 live customers on D365 for Operations, with 400 more projects actively working toward production status.

Enabling upgrades from AX 2009 & 2012

Building on the previous update, which added 18 geographic locales, a new Dynamics 365 shell, mobility updates, and a preview of the AX 2009 upgrade and migration tool set, Microsoft plans to offer an assisted upgrade implementation method for AX 2009 customers moving to Dynamics 365 for Operations, according to Dynamics 365 general manager Sri Srinivasan.

It will provide data conversion tools for entities like customers, vendors, products, and financial dimension mapping. While Microsoft does not recommend customers try to migrate all historical data, the tools will support the migration of payables, open transactions, and more .

Microsoft is advising that the AX 2012 upgrade tools will be available July 1 and will support either an in-place or a cloud conversion upgrade. The upgrade will take a three stage approach: analyze, execute, and validate.

"We want to reduce hours in upgrade drastically," Srinivasan told the Summit EMEA audience. "We will be investing a lot in upgrades over next 12 to 18 months to reduce cost of an upgrade to a customer by orders of magnitude."

The analysis stage of the upgrade will explore AX 2012 metadata and will explain the steps needed to proceed, including possible pitfalls. The validation tools will perform checks like comparing row counts, balances, open transaction counts, and more. It is an area that Microsoft has spent ...