o World Vision is changing children’s lives through supply chain excellence

o Lotus F1 Team is transforming their global racing operations at mind-blowing speed!

o Vitamix Corporation is enabling rapid growth by streamlining processes right on the shop floor

The post Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Coming December 1st appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Among the wealth of information that was shared at the recent Convergence 2011 Conference was a powerful early adopter customer success story with US distributor and manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic systems Hydra-Power Systems.

Just to make sure that this case was not lost amid the rest of the Convergence buzz, I wanted to share it with you again as a great example of a customer that is already experiencing the power, simplicity and agility that the coming release can enable.

With a multisite operation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Hydra-Power Systems has relied on Microsoft Dynamics AX as a highly dependable, flexible, and scalable business enabler since 2007. So when the company was given the opportunity of joining the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program to gain early access to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 , they jumped at the chance. Bob Jablonski, operations manager at Hydra-Power Systems, was especially keen to investigate how the release could introduce new efficiencies and enhancements to help the whole business run more smoothly, improve responsiveness to customer demand, and make the company even more competitive.

The new solution will be used across the organization to streamline and boost productivity: delivering insight and reporting to company leadership; enabling visibility and efficiencies for inside and outside sales teams; enabling engineering managers to run and track manufacturing projects more effectively; and helping warehouse employees optimize management of inventory, receiving, and shipping processes…and just about everywhere else in-between.

The final goal of the implementation is for employees at Hydra-Power Systems to use Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to perform all of the tasks that are central to their roles, equipped with the reports, dashboards, alerts, and other decision-making tools that they need to help them move the business forward and serve their customers better.

The upgrade and implementation progress has been fast and surprisingly non-disruptive. Largely handling the pre-release upgrade on his own, Jablonski has been able to run an efficient, phased implementation of functionalities for specific business activities and requirements over time. And with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 providing so many new capabilities as part of the core product, the implementation is primarily based on standard product functionality, with far fewer customizations than were previously necessary to meet business needs. As Jablonski comments: “By providing us with all these capabilities and making them easy to implement and operate, Microsoft gives us opportunities that usually only large companies with ample resources experience.”

As for the business needs of the future, although uncertain, they are certainly not forgotten. As Jablonski adds: “With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, it’s very easy to scale horizontally or vertically to meet the challenge of whichever requirements the business presents.”

Sounds like Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is already providing impressive upgrade value at Hydra-Power Systems by delivering a powerful business foundation that’s simple to implement and use today, and with the agility to seize compelling new business opportunities as they arise.

You can read the full customer success story here, and see the Hydra-Power Systems video here.

Ross Thorpe

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Product Marketing

The post Industrial Equipment Company Hydra-Power Systems Advances Its Business on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

At the end of last week, Microsoft received a very favorable ranking on Gartner’s 2010 Business Intelligence Platforms Magic Quadrant, with a coveted “top-right” placement that shows completeness of vision, coupled with the ability to execute – two critical attributes that only generate value when delivered together.

In putting together the influential report, Gartner spoke to more than 50 Microsoft BI customers, and received more customer survey responses than any other participating vendor – which in itself is positive feedback.

In the vendor abstract Gartner credits Microsoft for its overall approach, highlighting ease-of-use and TCO advantage, the ability to deliver pervasive BI and OLAP capabilities, and noted that Microsoft’s development tools are rated among the best in the market by the customers who were surveyed.

Microsoft’s BI strategy is based on the vision of “Pervasive Insight”, delivering capabilities as a unified part of our Information Platform (SQL Server), Business Collaboration Platform (SharePoint), and our Business Productivity Suite (Microsoft Office) to help drive better decision-making across customer organizations, and through the familiar interfaces that people use every day.

For Microsoft Dynamics ERP users this means easy, RoleTailored access to the integrated data and analysis tools that best meet individual needs and experience. Whether a user is looking for easy access to analyze and share information with Microsoft Office Excel, or more sophisticated functionality through Microsoft SQL Server technologies such as SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft’s integrated, end-to-end BI solution will help boost productivity and insight from the production floor to the board room.

And there is more to come. Last week also saw the official announcement that SQL Server 2008 R2 will be on pricelists from May 2010. This next rev of SQL Server, and the related PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010 ad-ins, continue to showcase Microsoft’s commitment to business intelligence and mission-critical workloads.

Hmmm…completeness of vision, and the ability to execute….that sounds familiar…

Read more about Microsoft’s BI strategy here and the Microsoft Dynamics BI advantage here.

Ross Thorpe

Microsoft Dynamics Product Marketing

The post Microsoft BI on the (top-)right track appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As we head into the fall conference season here at Microsoft, first out of the gate is the Microsoft Project Conference held a couple of weeks ago in Phoenix, AZ (the conference website can be found here for those of you interested in the event content) Microsoft Dynamics ERP had a strong presence at this event by virtue of the long-standing relationship between the Microsoft Project team and our own Microsoft Dynamics SL ERP application.

Microsoft Dynamics SL is our ERP application which specializes in helping project-driven mid-size organizations manage their projects to profitability through ERP capabilities including accounting, job costing, time collection, billing, financial reporting, resources and budget data, labor costs and more. It’s somewhat of a specialty market to be sure, but for the thousands of project-based customers on Microsoft Dynamics SL around North America, it’s their lifeline to profitability and staying on track—especially important in this economy. Anyway, back to the conference—lots of big announcements related to Project 2010 and really cool new features and functionality were highlighted. It’s an exciting release and Microsoft Dynamics SL plans to support the connection with Microsoft Office Project 2010. As more and more of our customers connect their systems and accelerate the sharing of information across applications, this connection will be really important for our Microsoft Dynamics SL customer base, and is just another example of why project-based organizations turn to Microsoft Dynamics SL—it works with what they have and what they’re moving to.  Visit the Microsoft Dynamics SL Test Drive site to see and learn more on the powerful value of this Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution.

Eldita Ginger,
Sr. Product Marketing Manager

The post Projecting our voice for ERP Customers on Microsoft Dynamics SL appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.