Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Microsoft AppSource

Big day yesterdag – but also a confusing one.

A while ago, Microsoft announced Project “Madeira” as a “Public SaaS” offering from Microsoft, clearly based on our beloved NAV (but unspoken). There was a lot of fuss .. lots of people blogged about it (including me). But when you look at the name – Project “Madeira” – one could imaging this was not the final name .. right? If it is final, well .. then it would suck (only my opinion 😉 ).

Microsoft announced yesterday “Microsoft Dynamics 365” and “Microsoft AppSource”. My first reaction was: ah, the final name of Project “Madeira”. But apparently, when reading into it, that only seems a wrong assumption..

Let me try to get you AS confused as I am at this moment 🙂

And let’s start with the official Microsoft landing page for Microsoft Dynamics 365. There, you find the official blogpost that introduces this new product (?). It introduces Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft AppSource.

I guess, this says quite a lot:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 evolves our current CRM and ERP cloud solutions into one cloud service with new purpose-built apps to help manage specific business functions, including: Financials, Field Service, Sales, Operations, Marketing, Project Service Automation and Customer Service.

Without stating which actual product is behind the scenes – it mentions “current ERP cloud solutions and CRM” .. and the fact it’s going to be a cloud service. Well, not only that, even with apps (Extensions?) to help specific business.

Until now, it smells a lot like Project “Madeira”, but also may be some kind of AX version of it as well.. .

But then again, when you read further in the blog, things like “Cortana Intelligence” that will be natively embedded, or “Project Service Automation”, IoT, big data, … will be included .. does make me wonder if they are “only” talking about Madeira. I guess not. Then again – does it really matter?

My guess is that Project “Madeira” is just part of a much bigger picture, called “Dynamics 365” (the name makes a lot of sense, by the way), where there is a strong focus on making ERP available as a service in the cloud (just like Office has become a cloud service), and where customers can customize their cloud service with apps .. . Whether it is NAV or AX or CRM in the background, that doesn’t really matter – you want a solution and it’s going to be Dynamics 365 – depending on the solution you want, it will give you the product in the background (whatever it is) – making available the apps that is part of that particular service… . Something like that. The only thing I know for sure: time will tell :-).

I strongly recommend you reading the blog yourself to make up your own mind.

What is clear at this point

There is going to be a Microsoft ERP offering called Dynamics 365, and you will be able to easily choose, download and install apps from the AppSource.

What is this “Microsoft AppSource” all about?

Let’s start with the youtube video about it:

https://youtu.be/hpq_Y9LuIB8

And then, just browse to the URL (https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/) and travel around in the AppSource. As such, you can even find apps (Extension) for NAV .. so I assume this is the “app store” we have been wanting for a while :-). It looks a lot like the Store: you are able to find apps (Extensions) for different products. I don’t see “Dynamics 365” as a separate product, but I assume it’s going to be either part of the products, or either a family name.. .

When is this available?

The blog mentions this fall – which happens to be the same time frame as Project “Madeira”.. .

Is that all? Because it is still foggy …

Yes, it’s quite foggy .. also for me. Probably I’m missing the big picture here .. sorry for that. But at least let me give you the resources I could find for now:

I look forward to the next couple of weeks, where all this probably will become very clear!
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.waldo.be/2016/07/07/microsoft-dynamics-365-microsoft-appsource/

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    • Jacques Bolduc on July 7, 2016 at 7:36 pm
    • Reply

    Great blog as always Waldo. My guess is that Microsoft will “insert” NAV SAAS as soon as it’s ready between Madeira “SMB Solution” and AX “Enterprise solution” branded with something like “Mid-size solution”. Somewhere in 2017. We’ll see 🙂 I am pretty excited by the tremendous movement in the Dynamics sphere. Lots of nice things coming

      • waldo on July 7, 2016 at 7:42 pm
        Author

      Thanks 🙂

      Looks like you are right. Jason Gumpert from msdynamicsworld.com approached me earlier today with kind of the same information. I added his articles at the end of this blog..

    • chrmaske on July 7, 2016 at 9:57 pm
    • Reply

    Hola!
    Firs off, I did read that you can’t trademark island names, and that is the reason that they named it Project “Madeira”. So it couldn’t be the real name even if they wanted to 🙂

    For me as a potensial customer Dynamics 365 is very exciting! As from what I can read Dynamics 365 will come in 2 versions: Business and Enterprise. The ERP module of the Enterprise version will be based on AX and the ERP module on the Business version will be Project “Madeira”. The name of Project “Madeira” will be “Dynamics 365 Financials for Business”, a comprehensive accounting and business management solution for SMBs. (Source: http://www.waldo.be/2016/07/07/microsoft-dynamics-365-microsoft-appsource/)

    Regarding “SaaS NAV” implemented as a third option next year – for me this makes no sense. They already have a solution in Dynamics NAV that is based on NAV! It must be much easier to implement more functionality into “Madeira” and sell more complex role licenses, than to maintain and integrate a third system built on the same platform. And we also know that Microsoft have a vision that all customization for NAV will be through extensions, and that makes the products even more alike.

    Mike Ehrenberg also said that when Project Madeira reaches general availability in the fall, it will offer “best in class financials” and will be a “great fit” for SMB customers, including those who currently run GP and NAV, and may in the future look to upgrade to a cloud solution. (Source: http://msdynamicsworld.com/story/microsoft-announces-dynamics-365-its-new-approach-cloud-based-business-apps)

    IMHO it looks like most of the NAV partners forget that Dynamics is moved to the Cloud + Enterprise Division. The guys that has the last word of the product roadmap are those that live and breath by the cloud, and have basically bet their careers that Azure will grow and be best in class. Of source they understand that they have to deliver on premise solutions, but they are working very hard to make it more appealing for business to move their business systems to Azure. And of course over the next years they will try even harder. To me a lot of NAV & GP Partners are in denial and think that they can just keep doing what they have been doing for the last 15 years. Those who invest in Dynamics 365 today will be the winners in the future, those who are planning on only selling on prem NAV will die.

    Salute!

      • waldo on July 8, 2016 at 7:17 am
        Author

      Thanks for your view, and confirming the two models: Business and Enterprise. I missed that somehow in my brief investigation ;-). And thanks for you strong view on things – always refreshing! 🙂

      Ps, you officially have the longest comment ever on my blog :-).

  1. Hey Waldo! Thanks for posting this information about Project Madeira and Dynamics 365. It does sound like there is a bigger plan in the background – possibly the eventual merging of the products into one cloud solution where customers can pick their features. It seems that we are in the next evolution of Dynamics. Fun to be part of it! I look forward to your next blog(s) on the topic. 🙂

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