News
Convergence EMEA: Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Coming in 2014
- By Gladys Rama
- November 05, 2013
Dynamics AX 2012 R3, the next release of Microsoft's enterprise resource planning (ERP) product, is scheduled to arrive in April 2014.
Microsoft made the announcement during Tuesday's opening keynote of its Convergence 2013 EMEA conference, taking place in Barcelona, Spain this week.
Dynamics AX was most recently updated in December 2012 with Dynamics AX 2012 R2. Next year's Dynamics AX 2012 R3 will enable the product to be sold both as an on-premises solution and as a cloud service hosted on Windows Azure and sold through partners, Microsoft said.
"Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 introduces support for deployment on Windows Azure via Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), bringing customers true choice and portability between on-premises and private cloud deployments, along with all the benefits and security features that come with the world-class Windows Azure service," Microsoft said in its announcement.
Two other Dynamics ERP solutions, Dynamics GP 2013 and Dynamics NAV 2013, have been available as Windows Azure-hosted products via Microsoft partners since June.
In addition to support for Windows Azure deployments, Dynamics AX 2012 R3 will also feature new management capabilities for transportation and warehouse functions, as well as new Lifecycle Services aimed at managing Dynamics AX implementations.
This blog post on Microsoft's Dynamics AX blog gives more information about the R3 update.
Dynamics CRM News
Microsoft also made announcements related to Dynamics CRM 2013, the most recent version of its customer relationship managment (CRM) offering. The hosted Dynamics CRM Online '13 became available in early October, while the on-premises version hit general availability last Thursday.
On Tuesday, Microsoft confirmed that it has released touch-optimized smartphone apps for Dynamics CRM 2013, though it appears that the apps have been available since late October. The apps support Google Android, Apple iOS and Windows Phone devices, and do not require an additional licensing fee. Tablet apps for Windows-based and Apple iPad devices have been available since early October.
Microsoft also launched a promotional program for Office 365 users who are looking to purchase Professional-level Dynamics CRM Online licenses. The promotion, which will end on March 31, 2014, would give qualified Office 365 subscribers a 40 percent discount off the Dynamics CRM Online licenses.