Microsoft Creates Modular Software Architecture with Dynamics 365

Last week, Microsoft announced a bold new suite of products under the Dynamics 365 brand. Dynamics 365 is a collection of cloud apps and services for business, allowing customers to mix and match the features they need from a lengthy catalog including sales, marketing, customer service, field service, project management, accounting, and more. 

More than ever before, Microsoft is knocking down the barriers between its products, and creating a modular solution architecture that allows customers to choose apps which meet their business needs without adopting a software suite that includes features that they don't need. The core of the philosophy is a common data model which will make it easier to integrate products, along with software development tools (PowerApps, Azure Logic and Flow) to not only connect multiple Microsoft products in business workflows but to include other hundreds of other products such as Dropbox.

Part of the inspiration for Microsoft is to catch up with Salesforce. Microsoft's online marketplace Appsource is planning to add capabilities to make it easy for customers to buy business solutions and add-ins from other software vendors which snap into Dynamics 365. Microsoft product pricing is also changing to a model which more closely resembles the Salesforce pricing scheme.

If breaking Dynamics CRM into its constituent elements of sales, marketing, and customer service were not enough disruption, Microsoft is using Dynamics 365 to allow modular purchase of ERP apps. For enterprise customers, this means an enhanced bet on Dynamics AX, while small businesses are targeted with Project Madeira based on Dynamics NAV. Integrating ERP into the Common Data Model will dramatically reduce switching and integration costs. These moves may encourage more Microsoft Dynamics customers to switch from other Dynamics ERP products in order to enjoy the fruits of Microsoft R&D spending.

The New Microsoft is investing heavily in Dynamics 365. It is receiving some of the most obvious benefits from artificial intelligence and machine learning, mobile technology, analytics, visualization and much more.

I am sharing more detailed information on Dynamics 365 in my blog and Microsoft has announced it is planning additional announcements as the ship date of November 1, 2016 draws near.