Microsoft Convergence Kicks Off In Atlanta
The annual Microsoft Convergence customer event kicked off on March 4th, 2014. Far from the days of the Stampede in Fargo, North Dakota, the event shows how far the Microsoft Dynamics customers, partners, and products have progressed. Over 12,000 attendees including customers, partners, staff, and prospects gathered in Atlanta, GA for the largest Microsoft Enterprise Applications conference. The sold out event featured a volunteer program on Day 0 and a good number of partner meetings the weekend before. Analysis from four key announcements on Day 1 include:
Microsoft Dynamics gaining momentum on the large enterprise and divisions of large enterprises. Key customers presenting in the opening keynote include Chobani, City Harvest Inc, Delta Airlines, Lotus F1 Team, New Belgium Brewery, and Weight Watchers. These presenting customers share a key theme of customer centricity and a Microsoft enterprise backbone. Moreover, many showcase the devices and services theme set by former CEO Steve Ballmer.
Point of View (POV): Constellation sees a growing trend where organizations and brands move to Dynamics for both CRM and ERP. The ability to integrate back to other Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Office 365, and Azure Services provides both a pull and a push. As organizations think about consolidating vendors and moving to the cloud, the Microsoft Dynamics team provides some compelling options in manufacturing, retail, distribution, public sector, professional services, and travel and entertainment. The launch of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Enterprise License at $200 per user per month show cases the move upmarket.
Dynamics CRM users gain key marketing and social capabilities. Microsoft announces the next release of Dynamics CRM in Q2 of 2014. Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, which was formed from the Marketing Pilot acquisition , debuts to assist with campaign management. The service and support offering gains new features such as Unified Service Desk along with closer integration to recently acquired Parature. Newly launched Microsoft Social Listening launches at no additional charge for Dynamics CRM Online professional license holders.
(POV): The rewrite of acquired entity Marketing Pilot provides some improvement to the original product. Parity at the Exact Target and Hubspot level will take at least two to three more releases. Release of unified service desk paired with Parature, provides a powerful combination in customer service and support. Microsoft Social Listening finally provides customers with a social tool that has been sorely missing in the line up. More importantly, in CRM and customer experience, the mobile access options have not forced customers onto Windows Phone and instead have provided native support of iOS and Android..
Dynamics ERP users prepare for new releases. Dynamics GP gets a release for Q1 2014 that includes identity management, workflow, and self service companion apps. Dynamics NAV shoudl receive an update in Q4 2014. More importantly, the team announced the availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 for May 1st 2014. Key themes include mobile enablement, support for deployment on Windows Azure in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) layer, and an end to end apps and services framework. . The cross offering with the Windows Azure team is the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services which improve implementation times and enable agile updates.
(POV): Microsoft has kept its promise to update the Dynamics ERP product lines, despite the flagship product investment in Dynamics AX. The support of Dynamics AX at the IaaS layer provides enterprise class capabilities in high availability, data and disaster recovery, and rapid deployments of pre-configured environments. However, the inability of the SQL Azure team to meet performance requirements for not only the Dynamics team, but also other ISV OEM’s continues to keep major enterprise apps from full deployment of database at the PaaS layer. The good news for customers, Microsoft has continued to improve the product lines and keep a steady cadence of upgrades and updates beyond traditional maintenance releases.
Partnerships with major SI’s and ISV’s continue to grow . IBM, Avanade, Capgemini and Hitachi lead the list of highlighted Dynamics practices. A partnership with Dominion expands the global ISV alliance in the dealer management vertical.
(POV): The Microsoft Dynamics team is taking a dual prong strategy on partnerships. On one end, investment in global system integrators expands reach and vertical delivery. On the other end, GISV partnerships provide a great base of platform usage and micro-vertical offerings. Some examples include Angila Business Solutions (Food Supply Chain), Escher Group (Retail Automation), Ferranti Computer Systems (Utilities), I.B.I.S. (Manufacturing and Distribution), and Incadea (Auto Software), and Tyler Technologies (Public Sector).
The Bottom Line: Microsoft Dynamics Matures Into A Short List Option For Enterprises and Brands
Microsoft is now seen as a neutral and trusted player in the enterprise. Prospects and customers seeking both standardization and innovation now turn to Microsoft Dynamics in their short lists. Most customers and prospects are in an ERP and CRM replacement cycle and the mainstream adoption of social, cloud, mobile, and analytics tilt the favor to many of Microsoft’s offerings. Many customers and prospects begin by modernizing divisions using two Tier ERP and deploying enterprise wide cloud based CRM. Meanwhile, global system integrators and global ISV’s see an opportunity to partner instead of compete.
In general, the shift to devices and services at the corporate level will help create synergies for the Microsoft Dynamics team. Further, leadership changes with Satya Nadella as CEO should help the Microsoft Dynamics team given his rotation through the division. However, any reduction of marketing and development resources will hurt growth as these competitive markets require proper investment to compete with well-funded and high profile Silicon Valley based start-ups. Overall, the future looks bright for customers, prospects, and partners in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. Customers and prospects should keep Microsoft Dynamics in the short lists.
Your POV.
Are you looking at ERP and CRM replacement? Do you need specialized requirements for your industry? How are you doing this today? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.
Please let us know if you need help with vendor selection efforts. Here’s how we can assist:
Vendor selection
Implementation partner selection
Connecting with other pioneers
Sharing best practices
Designing a next gen apps strategy
Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
Demystifying software licensing
Related Research:
News Analysis: FinancialForce.com ERP Arrives To Signal The Era Of Best Of Breed Cloud Suites
News Analysis: Acumatica Raises $10M In Series C Funding, Aims For 1B In Revenue By 2023
News Analysis: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Acquires Parature For Customer Service Capabilities
News Analysis: Aptean Six Months After The CDC Software And Consona Merger
Slide Share: The CMO vs CIO – Pathways To Collaboration
Event Report: Seven Trends From This Year’s Human Resources Technology Conference 2013 (#HRTechConf)
Event Report: Metaio’s #InsideAR Conference Hails The Future Of An Always On, Always Augmented Reality
Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
Research Summary And Speaker Notes: The Identity Manifesto – Why Identity Is At The Heart of Digital Business
News Analysis: Kana Express 13 Addresses Omni-Channel Customer Service for Mid-Market
News Analysis: Oracle’s Cloud Strategy – Revisionist History or Cloud Genius?
News Analysis: The Vibe On Informatica’s Virtual Data Machine
Monday’s Musings: The Controversy Surrounding Gartner’s CRM Market Share Analysis
Research Summary: Constellation Cosmos – Cloud Bill of Rights for SaaS Apps, Actian and Netsuite Achieve Epic Status
Executive Profiles: Kirill Tatarinov, President Microsoft Business Solutions
Event Report: Microsoft Dynamics Convegence 2013 (#conv13)
Event Report: Customers Very Happy At Ultimate Connections 2013 (#ulticonnect)
Event Report: Informatica Analyst Day Reveals A Growth Strategy
Trends: Seven Priorities In The Shift From CMO to Chief Digital Officer
News Analysis: Adobe Behances The Creative Class With $150M Community Acquisition
Market Maker 1:1: Steve Miranda, Oracle Fusion Applications Update – The Inside Story
Monday’s Musings: Understand The Four Organizational Personas Of Disruptive Tech Adoption
Event Report: IFS World Conference 2012 – Innovations Abound Beyond ERP (#IFSWoCo2012)
News Analysis: SnapLogic Snaps Up $20M In Series C Funding For Cloud Integration
Event Report: The Day 0 & Day 1 Tweet Stream From #OOW12
Event Report: The Tweet Stream From #DF12
Event Report: Dreamforce X (#DF12) Emerges As The South By Southwest (#SXSW) For The Enterprise
News Analysis: Epicor Acquires Solarsoft, Moves Closer To $1B in Annual Revenues
Monday’s Musings: The New Engagement Platform Drives The Shift From Transactions
News Analysis: KANA Enters MidMarket With Trinicom Acquisition
Best Practices: From First To Worst – Continental In A Post United World, Lessons In Next Gen Customer Experience
Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business
Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
Product Review: Google+, Consumerization of IT, and Crossing The Chasm For Enterprise Social Business
Monday’s Musings: Using MDM To Build A Complete Customer View In A Social Era
Monday’s Musings: Mastering When and How High End Brands Should Use Daily Deal Sites Such As Groupon
Best Practices: Applying Social Business Challenges To Social Business Maturity Models
Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business
Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
Research Report: Next Gen B2B and B2C E-Commerce Priorities Reflect Macro Level Trends
Tuesday’s Tip: Applying The Five Stages Of Adoption Towards SCRM Projects
Monday’s Musings: Avoiding Failure In Social CRM Projects Requires Ecosystem Coordination
Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management
Monday’s Musings: Why Every Social CRM Initiative Needs An MDM Backbone
Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps
Reprints
Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .
Disclosure
Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.
* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.
Copyright © 2001 – 2014 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!
The post Event Report: Microsoft Convergence 2014 Day 1 Demonstrates Solid Momentum and Mindshare ( #CONV14 ) appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.