COPENHAGEN, Denmark, November 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Landmark release and other innovations for ERP and CRM customers highlighted at Convergence 2008 Copenhagen.

Microsoft Corp today opened Convergence 2008 Copenhagen, the premier Microsoft Dynamics customer event, with The Dynamic Business, a visionary keynote address from Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions at Microsoft.

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As part of the keynote address, Tatarinov announced the general availability on 1 Dec of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and articulated the company's deep-seated commitment to continuous innovation across its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) products.

Our customers and partners are facing complex issues today. Customers need to streamline operations and find ways to use resources more efficiently while partners are looking for strong opportunities to create and maintain vertical solutions, Tatarinov said. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 allows us to squarely address the needs of midsize businesses in today's economic climate and to support our partners' investments. By using the role-specific user friendly ERP solution, both groups can boost productivity and work smarter, maximising their effectiveness in driving business impact.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 will introduce several new capabilities designed to increase usage of ERP and fuel individual and organisation-wide productivity, including the following:

-- Personalised Role Centers corresponding to 21 key job functions provide individual employees with tools, alerts and efficiency capabilities attuned to the needs of their particular role from within a single location, while other RoleTailored attributes make employees' jobs easier as their work takes them to other parts of the application.

-- Sophisticated business intelligence (BI) capabilities, based on the new Microsoft SQL Server database layer introduced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, enable employees to drill into data, identify trends, generate business insights, and monitor how they're tracking against key performance indicators (KPIs).

-- .NET Web Services allow partners and customers to integrate data and business logic from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 with other applications to support a wide range of scenarios. For example, businesses wanting to deploy credit check functionality to enable employees who normally do not have access to the ERP system to run credit checks on a new customer can easily create web services that make the process simple and efficient in providing the employee with access to recent and accurate credit data.

Our employees have enthusiastically embraced Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 because it fits their individual needs rather than force-fitting them into a one-size fits-all system, said Henrik Dam Jespersen, CEO of Hurup Furniture. The ease of setup and tight integration with the Microsoft products we already use allowed us to get up and running quickly and smoothly, and we're already seeing increased productivity, reduced costs and smarter decision-making.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 will be made generally available in Australia, Canada (English and French), Denmark, France, Germany, India (English), Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the US on 1 Dec. Availability in an additional 28 national markets will be announced nearer to the specific country release dates. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/nav.

Tatarinov also highlighted initiatives taking place across Microsoft Dynamics, under the company's commitment to continuous customer-driven innovation, that will enable businesses to drive further value from their investments in Microsoft Dynamics solutions, including the following:

-- Microsoft Dynamics Integration Components Add-In for Windows Essential Business Server 2008. This new administration console enables midsize businesses running Microsoft Dynamics solutions to simplify their management overhead and lower their total cost of ownership by administering their Microsoft Dynamics environment from within a single, familiar console where their other applications are administered. Based on customer feedback, this add-in will greatly reduce the setup and ongoing management of IT. The add-in was made available to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 customers first, on 18 Nov.

-- eService Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The eService accelerator, available at no charge to existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 customers, gives businesses the ability to offer web-based, self-service capabilities to their customers while tracking and managing these interactions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. By helping their customers quickly find solutions online, businesses can increase customer satisfaction while reducing call volumes and related costs. Available by the end of 2008, the eService Accelerator can be used within the customer's own web portal, or they can use the prebuilt portal solution powered by Microsoft.

-- Business networking for Microsoft Dynamics communities. The Microsoft Dynamics Community site is a dedicated, purpose-built social networking environment that enables customers and partners to connect with their peers to pool knowledge, share best practice, collaborate for mutual success and stay up-to-date on the latest Microsoft Dynamics-related developments. The site counts more than 16,000 registered users. New business networking capabilities are being rolled out to help customers and partners home in on community members with specific profiles by conducting searches by industry, location, product line and other criteria. Microsoft receives content from trusted news outlets Thomson Reuters and MSDynamicsWorld.com to the site. More information is available at http://community.dynamics.com.

I have been using the Microsoft Dynamics Community for more than a year, and it is a great forum for exchanging knowledge and networking with expert professionals. I have gotten to know industry experts, asked and answered detailed questions, and held discussions with peers on a regular basis, said Arijit Basu, principal consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers India and Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP. Microsoft Dynamics Community is a must for all individuals -- customers and partners -- who want to improve their business and help one another with networking and sharing knowledge about Microsoft Dynamics products. It feels good to be part of such a dynamic community.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialised services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 16,000 people in over 64 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.

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