Microsoft’s latest release of Dynamics AX will become generally available in the first quarter of 2016, but for those that want to test the product before, a public preview will be available from early December.

The upgraded Microsoft Dynamics AX looks and works like Office, and offers integrations for data sharing between Dynamics AX, Dynamics CRM and Office 365.

ERP systems are not known for their flexibility, but the new version of Dynamics AX offers firm’s greater agility and faster time to value via a more flexible architecture. This gives users the possibility of incremental implementations. Faster, turnkey, deployment will be enable thanks to enhancements from Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services, built on Azure.

Azure Machine Learning will also give users near real time analytics, which can be visualised using Power BI, embedded in the application itself.

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise said: "When you combine the hyperscale, enterprise-grade and hybrid-cloud capabilities of Microsoft Azure with the real-time insights and intuitive user experience of Dynamics AX, organisations and individuals are empowered to transform their business operations."