What’s a Small Manufacturer to Do? Go With Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 or AX 2009?

Last February, medical products maker AliMed Inc. decided to switch from a six-year-old ERP system that was no longer being supported and implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.

But then a month later came news that Microsoft was nearing introduction of Dynamics AX 2009. Fred Fish, AliMed's CIO, saw all kinds of intriguing options in AX 2009: the company could, out of the box, integrate to its shipping system, its credit card processor, and its customer relationship management (CRM) system.

"With AX 4.0, we would have to pay extra to accomplish these integrations," he says.

Once AX 2009 was formally introduced earlier this month, and Fish had the opportunity to do further assessment, AliMed, which has 250 employees and about 100 concurrent system users, decided to stay with its original plan, and implement AX 4.0 this October. What were the deciding factors?

-- It wanted numerous third-party add-ons, and these wouldn't all be available on AX 2009.

-- It didn't want to go with a brand new system. "We'd rather hold out for at least the first service pack," says Fish.

-- It didn't want to delay adoption of a new system. "We're so far along" with AX 4.0. Going with AX 2009 would have meant "a slippage of the schedule."

The decision to adopt AX 4.0 doesn't mean the company has given up on AX 2009. "We'll probably do it in Phase 2, sometime next year."

He credits his recent involvement in the AX User Group with helping make the decision easier than it might otherwise have been. "We're a new member. The value has been having more experienced users share their knowledge."