Microsoft has launched a series of online services that can be attached to its Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings, including a new Sites Service built on Windows Azure platform, a new Commerce Service and an expansion of its Payment Service.
According to Microsoft, the Sites Service allows customers to create and manage web sites within the Microsoft Dynamics ERP application such as create landing pages for marketing campaigns, request for quote sites to get quotes from business partners, sites for product registration information and customer feedback and human resources sites for job recruiting.
In addition, it also includes embedded intelligence and optimisation models, which provide analytics to help customers make the most of their marketing efforts all within the context of their Microsoft Dynamics ERP application, the company claims.
The company said that its new service Commerce extends multichannel commerce scenarios by providing a link between the ERP products and different e-commerce opportunities such as business-to-consumer e-commerce marketplaces, e-commerce storefronts or built-in shopping cart functionality. This enables customers to list products and accept orders from a multitude of places, all from one interface.
The Payment Service enables customers to process payment transactions from the Microsoft Dynamics ERP interface across multiple channels, including e-commerce, point of sale and call centre transactions. It works with payment processing services, including Visa and MasterCard.
Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, said: Our customers increasingly appreciate the option of moving certain applications and services into the cloud while maintaining an on-premise option for their ERP solution. Providing this choice and flexibility is a competitive advantage for us and our partners around the world.
The new Microsoft Dynamics ERP Sites and Commerce Services are expected to be available in the first half of 2010, with the additional payment service providers expected to be available in the first quarter of 2010.
