Microsoft Dynamics NAV News & Tips
Five Year Mainstream Support Declared at Convergence 2008

Convergence 2008 took place March 11-14 in Orlando, Florida with over 9,500 attendees. Keynote speakers Steve Ballmer, CEO; Kirill Tatarinov, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions; and Kevin Shofield, General Manager, Microsoft Research gave insight as to the future of Dynamics ERP and technology in general.

One of the most significant announcements came from both Steve Ballmer and Kirill Tatarinov regarding Microsoft’s commitment to the Dynamics product line.

As Ballmer put it “…the biggest decision I’ve made as CEO was pushing into the business application area; one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, one of the most important decisions I’ver ever made … and I’m darn excited about what we’ve done, what we can do for you, and certainly our long term commitment to the area.” He went on to say, “We have a long term view for every one of these products in terms of how we enhance it and bring new functionality, and drive it forward. They will all continue to be enhanced many years into the future.”

Kirill Tatarinov was much more specific. “We now have five-year mainstream support of all major versions of Microsoft Dynamics, which means that all of those ERP and CRM products which you have today will be supported for five years. We also now have five-year extended support, which means that if you and your users make the decision to stay on that particular version longer, we will have special provisions that would allow you to do that, and you would be able to effectively stay on the pace of innovation on your terms, not on the terms of your vendor. This is a truly unique offering in the business applications industry today. And we also have custom support provisions that would allow you to stay on that version of software even longer if you and your users so desire. “

Tatarinov also announced that Microsoft will publish a detailed statement of direction which will spell out exactly what’s going to come out of each new release and how important it may be to your organization. The Statement of Direction will be released 12 to 18 months before each scheduled release date.

Tatarinov’s passion for the Dynamics products was evident. “Making software useful is important. Making software usable is a little more important. Making software desirable, making software such that your people love it is what it's all about. We want to build software that gives people love. We want your people, we want users in your organization, to love Dynamics.”

You can watch the keynote addresses in their entirety at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/convergence/default.mspx.

 

We now have five-year mainstream support of all major versions of Microsoft Dynamics, which means that all of those ERP and CRM products which you have today will be supported for five years. We also now have five-year extended support, which means that if you and your users make the decision to stay on that particular version longer, we will have special provisions that would allow you to do that, and you would be able to effectively stay on the pace of innovation on your terms, not on the terms of your vendor.

Keynote Speech by Kirill Tatarinov, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions