Portuguese Microsoft Dynamics AX – Axapta: beta testing

By Andrew Karasev

Alba Spectrum Technologies

São Paulo: +55-11-3444 4949, USA +1-866-528-0577, +1-630-961-5918,

help@albaspectrum.com

At the end of December 2005 Microsoft Business Solutions Brazil held partner readiness seminar in Sao Paulo office, where several local MBS partners, including XPTA, Albaspectrum, Cadia demonstrated localization features: Sales, Purchasing, Inventory with localized sales and purchasing taxes.  At the end of the third day MBS released beta CD with Brazilian Portuguese interface.  Within a few weeks we will be publishing demo screen shots in Brazilian and US media to better educate multinational corporations IT departments – as of now – beginning of 2006 – Axapta / Microsoft Dynamics AX scheduled to be released in March/April 2006.  Some highlights on Axapta and its perspectives on the Brazilian ground: Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

• ‘Start from the ground’.  In the case of Brazil – it doesn’t have a lot of other Microsoft ERP installations (historically – there are really few Solomon, Great Plains clients plus Microsoft Navision is getting probably the first hundred).  The reason why – Brazilian specific (similar to other large countries: Russia, India, China), where we see complicated and non-standard taxation regulation/legislation.  As the result – we see a lot of local ERPs, such as Microsiga.  As Microsoft indicated – starting from the ground is excellent chance to place Axapta/Dynamics AX on the first position and potentially use licensing incentives to attract mid-size client.  Similar picture is in Russia – where the number of Axapta and Navision installations is approximately the same
• International Business.  We expect Axapta to be very popular among multinational corporations, having manufacturing facilities in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador where Axapta could play excellent role of the system, connected with the MRP at the headquarters in USA or Europe
• Modern Architecture.  Axapta, being designed at the end of 20^th century, tried to learn all the available ERP development and design lessons and pitfalls.  Known issues, such us code and customization upgrade, object oriented encapsulation of custom code, Multilanguage, complex taxation, etc.
• Competition.  Competitors are SAP with mySAP, SAP All-in-one and SAP Business One (SBO is scheduled to be released for Brazil in January 2006 with tax localization and Portuguese language), Oracle with Oracle Financials/E-Business Suite/Applications and probably Microsoft Navision (well – it is also MBS ERP, so competition is not that fierce, but we still should mention it).  If you are in decision making mode – you should get an opinion from ERP implementing partner, supporting multiple platform: SAP Oracle and Microsoft.
• Custom Development.  In Axapta you can customize the system with GUI customization tools, however you should still expect MorphX and X++ programming and customization work.
• Connection to LATAM.  In Latin America: Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Chili you see strong presence of Microsoft Great Plains/Dynamics GP and SAP Business One – this means that connection to LATAM is a bit complicated, just due to these legacy applications.  In Venezuela and Columbia we see good growth of Axapta installations, especially in Oil & Gas and Textile industries.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: Brazil: +55-11-3444 4949, USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico