DALLAS—Unlike many Microsoft products, Dynamics/GP, its Great Plains ERP application, is on a fast track.
Microsoft rolled out Great Plains 9.0 in the fall of 2005.
On March 27, Microsoft began delivering the first of a family of slated new feature extensions to that product.
And in January 2007, Microsoft Business Solutions is set to deliver Great Plains 10.0.
Even Microsoft officials admit the pace may be too fast for some of its customers.
But theres a reason behind Microsofts madness: The company is out to make sure it is moving toward the converged Dynamics platform that is due out in the 2009+ time frame.
Microsoft is sticking quite closely to the Microsoft Business Solutions road map the company outlined a year ago, according to company officials attending the Convergence conference for partners and customers in Dallas.
To keep to that schedule, Microsoft Business Solutions is moving toward more frequent, iterative releases of its flagship ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) products—Dynamics/AX, Dynamics/SL, Dynamics/GP, Dynamics/NAV and Dynamics CRM.
Of those, at least for the time being, Dynamics/GP is on the most ambitious schedule.