Microsoft Monday launched Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - a single, powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that is purpose-built for five industries (manufacturing, distribution, retail, public sector and service industries) and includes rich capabilities to support administrative business processes.

"Dynamics AX 2012 is a highly adaptable and scalable product that delivers value by enabling enterprises to take advantage of business opportunities and reduces risk by easily modifying processes to cater to the new requirements of business," a company statement said.

"Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will help provide faster business value, enable agility, help drive adoption, broaden usage and enable easier maintenance and upgrade through a continued emphasis on simplicity," the statement added.

Samik Roy, Director and Business Head, Microsoft Dynamics (Applications) Business, said: "We are excited to announce the launch of AX 2012 in India. The Microsoft Dynamics AX product community has grown to over 17,000 customers worldwide with an extensive partner ecosystem in more than 40 countries."

"This wave of innovation that we are delivering to the market demonstrates our core commitment to deliver real value to our customers through simple to use and easy to implement business solutions. Simple, Agile and Powerful are the 3 key words I would like to use to describe our new release," Roy added.

Noting that there has been a rapid growth in ERP adoption in India especially in the public sector, retail, distribution, services and manufacturing sectors, Roy said Dynamics AX 2012 "will bring customers a powerful, simple and agile business solution that will improve productivity and reduce TCO."

According to Somick Goswami, Director-Consulting, PwC India, "From a business integration and business consulting perspective there are some key business requirements which a solution should address effectively".

"These include the ease with which it aligns itself to an enterprise's business needs, enables better decision making, improves efficiency and productivity and is receptive to business nuances. The product / platform needs to be agile to meet the changing business requirements. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 responds effectively to all these indices of enterprise growth," Goswami added.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 "can unlock greater productivity, enable collaboration throughout the supply chain, and provide immediate insight with RoleTailored access to self-service business intelligence, contextual information, and processes", the statement said.

The natural interaction of ERP systems with Microsoft business productivity applications- Microsoft SharePoint, Windows, Azure, and Microsoft Lync and IT infrastructure technology; Dynamics AX 2012 "will help sharpen our competitive edge", the statement added. -IANS