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Dynamics GP 2013 R2 Reaches General Availability

The R2 version of Microsoft's Dynamics GP 2013 enterprise resource planning (ERP) product became generally available on Wednesday.

Microsoft first officially announced Dynamics GP 2013 at Convergence in March. Since May, the company has been highlighting some of the key changes and features in the new product in its "Feature of the Day" blog series.

One new feature is the ability to perform database backups to Microsoft Azure. "In many cases, Microsoft Dynamics GP database backups are typically stored on the same disk or at least the same computer as the SQL Server," according to Dynamics GP marketing manager Pam Misialek in this "Feature of the Day" blog. The Azure backups feature gives organizations the ability to perform off-site backups in disaster-recovery scenarios.

Another improvement is the new workflow system. In Dynamics GP 2013 R2, "the workflow design experience is now in a Microsoft Dynamics GP window, replacing the prior Workflow system, and removing the dependency on SharePoint," Misialek wrote in another blog. "This system allows users to design workflows, such as approval paths, for documents in Dynamics GP."

Dynamics GP 2013 R2 will have four workflow types: payroll timecard approval, project timesheet approval, purchase order approval and purchase requisition approval.

Microsoft spotlighted other improvements on Wednesday, among them greater integration with Office 365. In this demo, Microsoft gives one example of that improved integration by showing how a user can create detailed Excel charts using information surfaced from Dynamics GP 2013 R2. The user can also click on a data point in Excel to return to Dynamics GP 2013 R2 and find related information about that data.

Dynamics GP 2013 R2 also has improved interoperability with Lync, Word and Outlook.

According to this MSDN blog, Dynamics GP 2013 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is included in Wednesday's R2 release. SP2 of Dynamics GP 2013 was released in September 2013. The next major release of Dynamics GP -- Dynamics GP 2015 -- is expected to arrive by year's end.

About the Author

Gladys Rama (@GladysRama3) is the editorial director of Converge360.

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