Microsoft has released the latest version of its Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning (ERP) product featuring significant enhancements around usability, roles-based personalisation and compliance.

Dynamics AX 2009 features a radically redesigned user interface, to enable greater user productivity and improved decision making, claimed Microsoft's UK product marketing manager, Gary Turner.

"There is a theme of convergence running through all of our ERP products in areas like a common user experience, workflow and so on, in what are three essentially different products," he explained. "A lot of the paradigms and ways of working [in ERP products] are five to 10 years old now – the whole are of the user interface has probably been overdue a makeover."

Thus, Microsoft has improved the interface to make it look and feel more similar to Office software, giving users the ability to "manage and manipulate rich data screens" more easily, he added.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 also includes a Role Centre feature, which provides a user-centric method of using the product, based on 30 predefined roles.

AX 2009 also features improved scalability and integration with other Microsoft products such as Windows Essential Business Server, SQL Server 2008, and Microsoft unified communications.

"There is a high degree of complexity in [ERP deployments] which is why we've invested in the user experience and in utilising existing Microsoft technology – to drive down that complexity," argued Turner.

To aid compliance efforts in globally distributed companies, AX 2009 serves up a single integrated view of internal controls, key performance indicators (KPIs) and other compliance data, and country-specific functionality to help firms adhere to local regulations, said Microsoft.

Microsoft's focus on usability and roles-based interfaces could help the product "gain greater stickiness and drive adoption" in the race to catch up market leaders SAP and Oracle, according to Ovum analyst David Mitchell.

"I'm rating Dynamics as having the potential to grow pretty rapidly in the marketplace and it's able to take customers further up the size scale than it did before," he added. "Most people forget Microsoft [in the ERP space] but with the acquisitions it has made it's managed to create a fairly good platform for the mid-range."