Microsoft opening up the vault of KB articles

Up until now, access to Knowledge Base articles for Dynamics Ax was limited to people with access to either CustomerSource or PartnerSource.  This also means access to people with a valid Service Plan for Ax.
Microsoft decided a while ago to align it's policy regarding KB's for Dynamics Ax with other MS products.  This means that all KB articles are now publicly available, no restraints.  Which of course makes it a lot easier to reference them in communication between partners and customers, on internet fora etc.  And it makes them accessible to search engines as well, helping to spread the information.

You can search for any KB over here:

Microsoft Support

or with this more specific link for Ax:

Dynamics Ax Solution Center

30.000+ articles are already available.  And new KB's will be created with a public profile.

Switcher

Microsoft is gaining market share with the Dynamics suite, but only marginally.  Today it still is not a real threat to number one, SAP.  In fact, they are profiling Dynamics Ax as an addendum to SAP, king of the Tier 1 throne.  With Dynamics Ax for subsidaries, branch offices.

 

But with the introduction of Dynamics Ax, they really do target a competitor.  And that competitor is Lawson, with is S3 and M3 software.  Please remember, Lawson is now part of Infor.  Infor has the same ambitious plan as Microsoft had almost 10 years ago: Create one single ERP suite, with one code base.
But as you know, any take-over comes with some uncertainties for both customers and partners.  And Microsoft hopes to benefit from that uncertainty.

Two initiatives under one name are launched: the Switcher campaign.

• Microsoft is giving up to 50% discounts on the standard list price of Ax 2012, for customers switching from current Lawson ERP software to Dynamics Ax 2012
• Secondly there is a reimbursement for partners investing in training and certifying their Lawson consultants in Ax 2012

The name of the campaign sounds like a new television series, airing Friday evening.  But it's not, it's real and tempting for people involved with Lawson software today.
And while it will not create a landslide, it will certainly add some percentage points of growth to Microsoft's customerbase and it's partner ecosystem.

Electronic concrete

Virtual Launch event of Microsoft Dynamics Ax 2012 today.  Can't miss it!  Microsoft really pulled out the big guns.  Steve Ballmer, Kyril Tatarinov, Hal Howard, ...

A one hour event, with a nice mix of promotional talk, some demo's, user experiences.  The message is clear:

•    Ax 2012 is released
•    soon on a computer near you
•    in better shape then ever...

More to come.

Oh and the title of this post?  Microsoft compared deploying it's competitor's ERP as like 'pouring electronic concrete'.  Pretty vivid image, not?