Microsoft Unveils Collaboration With HP Enterprise
November 19 2015 - 9:40AM
Dow Jones News
Microsoft Corp. is courting corporate customers by forging a new
collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. as well as
upgrading a key software suite for the cloud.
The software giant and HP Enterprise, the corporate-computing
company formed by the recent breakup of Hewlett-Packard Co., in
2014 announced a set of joint efforts that included cloud computing
services and consulting. Now they're extending their partnership to
build offerings based on Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating
system that target HP Enterprise's corporate customers.
HP Enterprise in October announced plans to wind down its cloud
service, known as Helion Public Cloud, that provided raw computing
power. But the Palo Alto, Calif., company continues to offer online
access to Web-based applications; for example, the company works
with Microsoft to offer the popular Office 365 productivity suite,
said Chris Moyer, an HP Enterprise vice president.
The new collaboration with HP Enterprise takes advantage of
Windows as a service, Microsoft's term for offerings that include
automated management of updates to the operating system. The
as-a-service approach will help HP Enterprise's corporate customers
manage software on their computers, said Ajit Moodliar, a Microsoft
director of business development.
The two companies, which have worked together on applications
for the automotive and other industries, said they also are working
on additional products and services targeting the retail, energy
and transportation industries.
Microsoft on Thursday also is announcing a Web-based overhaul of
its Dynamics suite of business programs that compete with offerings
from companies that include SAP SE and Oracle Corp. Falling under
the heading ERP, for enterprise resource planning, the software
manages chores such as accounting, inventory, manufacturing and
human resources.
Microsoft entered the ERP market by buying Great Plains Software
Inc. in 2001 and Navision AS in 2002. The product line evolved with
versions denoted by year of introduction, the latest of which was
Dynamics AX 2012.
The latest version, simply called Dynamics AX, runs in a Web
browser rather than requiring special software installed by
customers. Though it isn't the first version to be available in an
online format, it is the first designed specifically to run on
Microsoft's Azure cloud service, Microsoft said.
Microsoft said Dynamics AX includes many features to appeal to
users of different mobile devices and Microsoft Office
applications, as well as new tools to help analyze data generated
by businesses.
"This is from our perspective a transformational release," said
Mike Ehrenberg, a Microsoft executive who holds the title of
technical fellow.
Dynamics AX is the latest sign of a philosophy pushed by Satya
Nadella, who was named Microsoft's chief executive in February
2014. One of his key themes, dubbed "One Microsoft," is intended to
get divisions that previously developed products separately to
collaborate and make their software work together. The ERP service
brought together technologies involved in Office, Azure, mobile and
browsers in a new way.
"There was never any synergy," said Josh Greenbaum, an analyst
with Enterprise Applications Consulting, a research firm in
Berkeley, Calif. "Dynamics AX is sort of a proving ground for the
One Microsoft strategy."
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 19, 2015 09:25 ET (14:25 GMT)
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