Microsoft Dynamics ERP Selection: GP, AX, NAV, SL, CRM – Consultant Notes

Microsoft recently (in September 2005) changed the name of its ERP product: Great Plains – Microsoft Dynamics GP, Navision – Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Axapta – Microsoft Dynamics AX, Solomon – Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft CRM – Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The idea is probably a good one: to unify the future concordance product under the name of Microsoft Dynamics. There are multiple possibilities, however, for merging all MRP systems into a single Microsoft Dynamics and what should be built on and what should be phased out. We cannot be judges, we will give you some information for you to take into account. This article is intended as a first entry point to look “under the hood” of Microsoft’s ERP applications and will probably compare the facts with the competition: SAP (especially SAP Business One if you are a small or medium business or an international branch of a multinational corporation), Oracle E-Business Suite/Oracle Financials, also known as Oracle Applications.

or Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0/Microsoft Great Plains. This ERP was initially designed by Great Plains Software: Great Plains Dynamics and Great eEnterprise hit the market in the early to mid 1990s. If you remember those good old days of the IT boom, no one knew which operating system would win: Unix/Solaris, Microsoft Windows, Apple MAC OS. That’s why the traditional (and pioneering) way in those days was to create a shell, written in C language to abstract it from the graphical platform. Great Plains Dexterity was this shell, programming language (Sanscript). The second fundamental idea was to abstract Great Plains Dynamics from the database platform, however the abstraction was done at the level of “cheap” database platforms: Ctree/Faircomm and Btrive, later Pervasive SQL 2000, for Microsoft SQL Server 6.5/7.0/ 2000 Great Plains used an atomic stored proc approach to speed up database access. Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains versions 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5 are currently available for Ctree and Pervasive; however, starting with version 8.0, Microsoft Great Plains is available only on the MS SQL Server/MSDE platform. Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 is currently offered in the US, Latin America, Canada (including the Canadian French version for Quebec), the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries where the official language is English, such as Southeast Asia, for example.

or Microsoft Navision/Navision Attain/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Some ERP analysts believe that Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions (later renamed Microsoft Business Solutions) bought Navision Software (established 1984). The fundamental ideas of Navision come to its own shell: C/SIDE, proprietary database platform: C/SIDE, etc. Navision was designed to be flexible and grow with your business, from the small market to the upper middle market. Navision Software had its own marketing plans before it was bought by Microsoft and expanded into continental Europe, UK, US (competing with Great Plains Software and Solomon Software). When Microsoft bought Navision, Microsoft Business Solutions offered and promoted Navision in Eastern Europe: Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, etc. It also tested Navision in Brazil (more than 100 implementations – 2005). Navision is more flexible to localization challenge (than Microsoft Great Plains)

o Microsoft Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX – Seems to be a rising star for Microsoft and can compete with the upper mid-market for ERP/MRP. Axapta has a modern design and its expandability is still in its modern architecture model (versus Great Plains or Navision where we see integrations with MS Office, Web Fronts/Business Portal/eConnect/eCommerce type of improvements). In late 2005 we see VAR activity from US and UK MBS to sign on for Axapta and consultant training.

o Microsoft Dynamics SL/Microsoft Solomon – This ERP is for project-driven organizations.

or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0/Microsoft CRM 3.0. This Microsoft CRM solution is aware of most of the recent Microsoft ideas and innovations: Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, XML Web Services powered by MS CRM SDK with C# and VB.Net sample code. Currently MS CRM 1.2 and 3.0 have integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP 7.5, 8.0 (with service patch) and 9.0 (coming soon…)

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