Microsoft Dynamics AX

Microsoft Dynamics AX is one of Microsoft's enterprise resource planning software products. It is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family.

Microsoft Dynamics AX was originally developed as a collaboration between IBM and Danish Damgaard Data as IBM Axapta. Axapta was initially released in March 1998 in the Danish and U.S. markets. IBM returned all rights in the product to Damgaard Data shortly after the release of Version 1.5. Damgaard Data merged with Navision Software A/S in 2000 to form NavisionDamgaard, later named Navision A/S. Microsoft acquired the combined company in July 2002.

While owned by Navision Axapta version 2.0, 2.1 and 2.5 was released. Version 2.5 is considered the first real stable version of the ERP system.

In 2002 Microsoft released Axapta 3.0 which became a huge success. Fully updated it's a smooth running, easy to maintain/customize ERP system and many companies still use this even though it's 15+ years old.

In 2005 Axapta 4.0 was released. At first it was full of flaws but over time Microsoft managed to make this just as stable as the 3.0.

In October 2008, Microsoft released version AX 2009. It no longer officially supported the Oracle database. Some companies did manage to use this though. A fully updated AX 2009 is today still considered one of the best ERP systems around.

In September 2011, Microsoft released version AX 2012. It was made available and supported in more than 30 countries and 25 languages. Version R1 and R2 was full of bugs. Finally Microsoft decided to change the data model quite a bit and ended up with a very well functioning AX 2012 R3 System. Upgrading from R1 and R2 to an R3 became a very cumbersome task and many clients decided to stick to the R1/R2 version despite all the quirks.

The newest version was released in February 2016. This version lasted only a few months, though, as Dynamics AX was rebranded Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations in October 2016. It was originally intended to be a version which could be installed "on-premise". This was promised by Microsoft on and off for about a year. They ended up with deciding to only have one type. Dynamics 365 for Operations is running as a cloud service. Modifying this system to accommodate a companys unique needs is very time-consuming thus costly.