Microsoft’s Hal Howard Assesses Varying Needs of Dynamics NAV and AX User Bases

Hal Howard, Microsoft's General Manager of ERP R&D, sat down to talk about Microsoft Dynamics ERP with MSDynamicsWorld.com following his keynote address to the AXUG Summit 2008 late last week and touched on a number of topics, including the rollout of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and the future relationship of Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Regarding the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 release, he said he is "happy with the level of new features and that we deliveredon time, that was a positive." Particularly positive improvements included the expense management module, Role Centers, inventory costing, multisite capabilities, and enhanced application performance.

With the continued progress in addressing ERP needs in both Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX, Howard stated that he is still resisting any comprehensive merging of the architecture or feature sets. The different products attract" philosophically different user bases" with different profiles and goals. 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is designed for businesses that operate primarily in a single country, looking for a solution that they can get up and running quickly at low cost.  Microsoft Dynamics AX is aimed toward larger mid-market companies with greater operational complexity. 

Some items are common across Microsoft Dynamics ERP offerings.  "Value is being shared across the portfolio relative to user experience, tight integration of the stack, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server integration. But the business scenarios are different and will continue to be different," said Howard.

When asked about surprises in meeting with the Microsoft Dynamics user groups these days, Howard said he is "rarely" surprised anymore.  With the frequency of user feedback between the user groups and other customer feedback avenues, he is seeing issues with enough warning to address them ...