In September 2005, Microsoft renamed and integrated its ERP products – Great Plains became Microsoft Dynamics GP, Navision is renamed as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Axapta became Microsoft DynamicsAX, Solomon is now tagged as Microsoft DynamicsSL and Microsoft CRM is now known as Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The idea is to unify all future products under the Dynamics name.
In getting all the MRP system merged into a unified name, there are some applications that should be taken as base and there are some that needs to be phased out. To be able to identify which is which, here is some basic information on some of the Microsoft ERP applications.
• Version 3.0 of Microsoft CRM is one of the most abreast application with regards to other Microsoft innovations such as the Active Directory, XML Web Services, MS Exchange and MS CRM SDK. Recent development has MS CRM 1.2 and 3.0 integrated with Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 and 8.0.
• Project driven organizations will be better off if they use Microsoft Dynamics SL or Microsoft Dynamic Solomon. This ERP is modeled for such organizations and no competitor comes close yet compared to this application.
• Microsoft Business Solutions or Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains bought the Navision Software around the year 1984. The fundamental idea of Navision is in its database proprietary platform, C/SIDE. Before the Navision software was purchased by Microsoft, it has its own design, work plan and marketing strategies that became successful in both American and European markets. Navision is flexible enough to work with any business whether it is intended for small to upper mid-market. When Microsoft bought Navision, they started offering it in Eastern Europe and even in Brazil where it is said to have over a hundred implementations as of 2005.
• Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains today is a far cry from its original platform. Versions 5.5 to 7.5 are already available for Ctree and Pervasive database platforms. Version 8.0 is now available on MS SQL Server. The Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains is offered mainly in English speaking countries such as the USA, Latin America, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand South East Asia and some parts of South Africa.
