History of Dynamics Ax(Axapta)

 

Axapta is a highly respected accounting system and ERP solution which wasoriginally brought to the United States from Europe in IBM in 1996. Axapta wasfirst created in 1983 by brothers Erik and Preben Damgaard in Copenhagen,Denmark. The company claims that from the start, Axapta wanted to create aninternational product that was integrated, scalable and flexible so that theywould be able to build one CD for all markets and platforms. It was ErikDamgaard's vision to build a platform that could evolve with technology andmarket demands. Written completely in Java, Axapta is designed to be a complete ERP solutionwhich includes advanced distribution, process and discrete manufacturing,built-in CRM capabilities, and outstanding customization. The product grewsteadily throughout Europe and in 1996, IBM brought Axapta to the United Statesmarket. It is important to note that IBM s motivation behind teaming up with asuccessful software application is primarily for marketing leverage. Most peoplewon t attend a seminar on hardware, databases, or infra-structure and IBM has along standing history of using various software applications to attractprospects. For example, IBM teamed up with Business Management Series in 1988,Platinum Software in 1990, Lotus Notes in 1994, Axapta in 1996, and ACCPAC in1999. This is a marketing strategy that works well for IBM, but the point isthat IBM s primary focus was never on Axapta. After the IBM/Axapta relationshipplayed out in 2000, Axapta (Damgaard Software) merged with their long-timeDanish rival Navision Software.

1998 - Axapta 1.0 is released in March.

• Released in the US and Denmark
• Financial, trade, inventory management, logistics and production, Microsoft SQL Server 6.5

1998 - Axapta 1.5 - Early release in Norway, Sweden, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium Spain and the European Union.

• Publishing Manager
• Call COM
• Service Pack technology
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0

1999 - Axapta 2.0 - July:

• Project Accounting module
• WMS
• External OLAP
• Option Pack concept
• ActiveX support
• COM-connector and an early release of Axapta Object Server

2000 - Axapta 2.1 - January: Market demands from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain.

• Web tools and CSS (The first WebApp)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, database log.
• Receives Microsoft Windows 2000 logo.

2000 - Axapta 2.5 – December: Complete Web applications development environment.

• Auto upgrade tool
• ESS (Project)
• Banking
• First step of Load’n’Go
• OLAP within Axapta
• XML support
• FA to Denmark, Austria and UK. Domains and ASP support
• DBCS Support.

2001 - Axapta 2.5 Market Pack – October: Released in France and Italy.

• Marketing Automation (CRM)
• Commerce Gateway
• Product Builder (Web application as well), training
• Event Management (Web application as well).

2002 - Microsoft Axapta 3.0 - October:

• Microsoft Axapta Enterprise Portal, intercompany collaboration.
• New security and configuration keys.
• Expanded geographical reach (more countries).
• Demand planning.
• Enhanced partner productivity tools.

2006 - Dynamics AX 4.0  - March:  The seventh major Axapta release brought with it an updated look and feel. As the first version that Microsoft was involved in from the beginning it attempted to integrate better with existing Microsoft technologies.

• AOS became a true Windows service
• .Net business connector was provided
• CLR Interoperability was introduced
• XML data exchanges were supported through a set of code classes (Application Integration Framework)
• Full Unicode support was introduced
• Service Management module.

2008 - Dynamics AX 2009  - June: Originally named AX 4.1, later renamed to AX 5.0 (and finally AX 2009), the eighth major release of Axapta brings with it yet more improvements to the UI. This new version adds role-based concepts to both the Enterprise Portal and windows clients, support for timezones (utc), a new Site inventory dimension, and Enterprise Portal development through Visual Studio projects.
2011 - Dynamics AX 2011  - Q1: Sometimes dubbed AX 6, it is said to include additional improvements to the user interface and application enhancements focused on specific industries like Retail, Media & Entertainment, and Public sector. Originally AX 2011 was due to be released toward the middle of 2010, but this has since been put back to Q1 2011.