Although there are existing portal options for inquiry and reporting, most of the financial transactions are only capable of being entered through LAN or WAN connections, or some combination of third party products and reports (SRS, exported info, etc). Of course many Microsoft customers have ‘eCommerce’ sites for Orders, but it isn’t the same as being a true ‘Accounting Web Client’.
This year at their Customer Conference “Convergence”, Microsoft announced that all four of their ERP products lines will soon have the option of “Web Clients”. Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 (due to release this calendar year) will have these options available first, while the other products (Microsoft Dynamics AX) will soon follow suit. During the conference we were treated to actual demonstrations, screenshots, and details of the technology, wetting our appetites for the long-awaited web-client feature.
There have been a few blog entries giving an indication of the features and system requirements of the Web-client, including Silverlight and .Net technologies. Microsoft will release a final system software requirements document once the Beta release has been complete, and we will distribute that information to our client base.
Of course the primary excitement for this technology is the ability of remote users to ENTER data perform their daily functions thru the Web Client using a browser into their ERP systems. But some additional key features we saw within the demonstrations allow users of organizations with these Web Client connections to:
- Enjoy the flexibility of multiple windows open for the ERP application thru the Web Client;
- Use the familiar “Ribbon” options at the top of the user screens;
- See a “Connected” status to stop the ‘happy clicking’ of impatient users;
- Observe child Windows that dynamically update from changes to the Main screen “on the fly”!
