Microsoft Dynamics AX For Retail: Tracking Improvements in 2012

Since Microsoft first released Dynamics AX for Retail about two years ago, its message hasn’t change - to empower enterprise and midsize retailers to be dynamic by delivering a complete shopping experience with a seamless and solution for managing various channels, store operations, merchandising, and even financials.

But with the move to Dynamics AX 2012 the retail product has gone through tremendous growth with new features and capabilities that are making it ever more robust for the retail market, explained Steve Stallings, a solution architect with Microsoft partner Ignify, at a recent online meeting of the Dynamics AX User Group.

Customer-centric features

For one thing, with Dynamics AX 2012, Microsoft is providing a set of tools that allows retailers to manage the way people expect their retail experiences to revolve around them - that’s discounted sales, low prices or full services to provide justification for higher prices.

Dynamics AX 2012 offers big improvements over AX 2009 in the synchronization of real-time retail data, as well as more options for configuration. "[Those areas] have been greatly improved in AX 2012 behind the scenes, providing us the ability to have a customer-driven business process and a proactive retail environment," Stallings, said. "It also provides continuity between your online store and your brick-and-mortar store."

Tools for managing the value chain - demand and supply

AX for Retail has evolved to focus on challenges across a variety of dimensions, including front-end customer demands, store management, and retail headquarters. On the back end, Microsoft has provided ...