Microsoft has made the case for the transition, hoping to convince current Finance and Operations (D365FO) customers that the new approach will benefit them in the long-run, and that Dynamics AX customers that upgrade will never have to endure another upgrade project in the future. This is in line with Microsoft Office 365 Upgrade philosophy.
The transition comes at a time when D365FO is growing and adapted at a far higher pace than ever before in the ERP product family.
Customer mix
- 30% Enterprise and 70% midsize.
- 77% are New Implementations vs. 23 percent Upgrades.
Functional usage in D365FO production environments
- Finance: 98 percent
- Supply chain management: 82 percent SCM
- Human capital management: 81 percent
- Warehouse Management: 63 percent
- Project Accounting: 16 percent
Another reason is due to improved upgrade and migration tools and the approaching end of life of various versions of AX.
The current model calls for customers to apply at least one update every three months, meaning a customer can skip two monthly updates but then must deploy the next one. For each update the customer can specify the week, day (Saturday or Sunday for most, but some industries like retail are opting for mid-week), and the time.
Another validation step for new updates will be the Release Validation Program, which brings customer-specific projects into an environment where they can be validated ahead of a release. Test results are checked by Microsoft and any defects are shared with the customer. This program requires sharing code and data with a team at Microsoft.
