What Do Recent Changes at Microsoft Mean for the Future of Dynamics?

Are you wondering what recent changes at Microsoft mean for the future of Dynamics?

Have you heard the rumor that Microsoft will sell the Dynamics line?

Ever since Microsoft purchased the Great Plains, Navision, Solomon and Axapta products and rebranded them as Microsoft Dynamics, there have been rumors that Microsoft will suddenly decide to sell them again. Honestly, there has never been any foundation to these rumors, but that doesn’t stop competitors from resurrecting them, hoping to sow seeds of doubt that your investment in Dynamics will no longer be backed by the powerful mega software company.

I had an interesting talk with Bob McAdam who has been involved with the ERP community since 1999 and is one of the hosts of the Enterprise Software Podcast along with Todd McDaniel and Darcy Boerio. He recently interviewed two industry experts, Mark Polino and Hal Howard on this topic and shared his thoughts:

Bob McAdam:

“I don’t know about you, but my guess is that when most people heard the news that Kirill Tatarinov was out and the Microsoft Business Solutions Dynamics line of business was separated into three sections reporting to different departments at Microsoft, they thought, “this can’t be good.”

We’ve seen all the changes in the products; we’ve seen the dropping of the certifications for SMB; we’ve seen Convergence make its pivot away from Dynamics and concentrate more on being a business conference.  So now we get this news and I’m sure a lot of people thought “uh oh, what’s next, is some or all of it going be sold off?

However, I was pleasantly surprised that when we interviewed industry experts Mark Polino and Hal Howard, for Enterprise Software Podcast Episode 25, their outlooks were very different.

We interviewed both of them on the same day, and neither got an opportunity to hear what the other one said until the podcast went up on the website.  The biggest surprise for me was that both of them, with different experiences in Microsoft Business Solutions, were very upbeat about the changes. Neither one of them said that Microsoft was going to unload part, or all, of the Dynamics pieces.  Rather they said that they were now better integrated and probably in a better place than they were before and will continue to thrive within Microsoft and not someplace else.

Mark Polino and Hal Howard are both very upbeat about the future of Dynamics within Microsoft;  it just looks a little bit different on the inside.  It’s not about internal structure, it’s about leadership.

Hal Howard gave ringing endorsements of the people that are now responsible in one way or another over this product lines Some in sales, some in development, some in marketing.  Hal has worked with all of those people.  He knows them.  He knows they’re smart, he knows they’re capable, and he said, ‘look, there is good leadership at Microsoft taking care of these pieces of a once whole division.  And as a result the future for Microsoft Dynamics is bright no matter how it’s shaped internally.’

Mark Polino said that he felt that because the division was now being broken up into three pieces  (development, sales and marketing) the Dynamics line would be better integrated and assimilated into the company itself.  This would make it less likely to be stripped off and sold out later. He considers that to be a good thing.

Hal had more specifics because Hal worked there for 10 years, but Mark agreed that this is not an indication that Microsoft will sell the Dynamics line. They have just better integrated it into their existing structure.

When you listen to their input on Enterprise Software Podcast Episode 25 you end up rethinking that doom and gloom some may have predicted at the outset.  Both our guests sound very positive about the future of Microsoft Dynamics.”

Find out for yourself; listen to the full podcast: http://www.enterprisesoftwarepodcast.com/enterprise-software-podcast-episode-25-nadellas-new-dynamics-and-polinos-new-book/

(And while you are at it, subscribe to the podcast and leave a review just to be nice to Bob and his hardworking team.)

Microsoft is committed to the Dynamics product line and we believe you will see even more integration between Dynamics and other Microsoft product you know and trust.

By Anya Ciecierski, ERP Software Blog Editor, www.erpsoftwareblog.com