- Why should customers invest in Dynamics products today vs. waiting for Dynamics
365?
The core of Dynamics 365 is built upon the proven business processes offered by our existing Microsoft Dynamics applications. Customers investing in Dynamics solutions today get the best solution to run their businesses today and are able to leverage all the power and capability the Microsoft cloud has to offer. When they are ready to move to Dynamics 365, we will have a clear path for them to get to the new offering.
- Does xRM provide the consistent app platform and a common data model?
The technology referred to as xRM is the current application platform technology that support our customer engagement workloads. With new Microsoft Common Data Model we’ve taken extensive learnings from xRM as well as other application platform technologies from our Dynamics applications such as Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV. Based on these learnings we have developed a new data framework that is natively built on the Azure platform services and provides a rich set of standard business entities for our customers and partners.
- Is xRM going away?
No, the xRM technology is not going away. We will continue invest in this technology to support core extensibility scenarios required for our customer engagement solution.
- What does Dynamics 365 offer for Small and Midsize Businesses?
At launch, Dynamics 365 will include Dynamics 365 Financials for Business, a comprehensive accounting and business management solution for SMBs. That offering is currently in preview in the US and Canada today as Microsoft Project “Madeira.” In the months following general availability of Dynamics 365, we plan to rapidly expand the number of countries where Dynamics 365 for Financials is available.
Why is Microsoft introducing AppSource? Don’t you already have the Azure
Marketplace and other destinations for apps? How is this different – and is another marketplace really needed?
SaaS apps help organizations improve agility across business process categories. However, for business users, sourcing apps tailored to them, their business and their industry can be challenging. Microsoft AppSource helps business users discover and try apps, add-ins and content packages from Microsoft-certified partners, including those built on top of Microsoft Dynamics, Office, Cortana Intelligence and Azure
The Azure Marketplace is Microsoft’s destination for IT professionals and developers to discover, trial, and acquire IaaS implementations, APIs, data, and developer services.
High-level Microsoft marketplace positioning:
AppSource Line of business SaaS apps
Office Store Extensions to Office
Azure
Marketplace
Services for building apps on Azure
IT solutions templates for Azure
Windows
Store
Windows 10 apps and games