Microsoft Advances Successful, Two-Tier ERP Strategy with Powerful, New ERP Sol ution

Brief business description

Microsoft is said to be the world’s largest software company which started in the United States. According to the newsletter Microsoft – History of a Computing Giant by Mary Bellis, Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. With nearly 90,000 employees and 110 subsidiaries worldwide, Microsoft needed to replace its diverse expense-reporting systems with a single, centrally managed solution that was easier to use and yielded more consistent, detailed information. This was an opportunity to extend the company’s two-tier ERP strategy, standardizing on Microsoft Dynamics AX for operational units and integrating with the SAP system for corporate financial accounting. The Finance Operations team and Microsoft IT collaborated with the product group to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 as the standard solution. In doing so, Microsoft performed a repeatable deployment scenario that can be of value for many enterprises. What’s more, Microsoft uses the solution as an “innovation layer” to complement the company’s SAP system, enabling faster rollout of timesaving functions to employees throughout the organization. It also design and sell hardware including the Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console, Kinect for Xbox 360, Xbox 360 accessories, and Microsoft PC hardware products. Microsoft provides consulting and product and solution support services, and also train and certify computer system integrators and developers.

(http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/dynamics/customer-success-stories-detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000010466)

The business problem

According to Jodi Ford – GPO Director – Global Accounts Payable at Microsoft, the number one issue that people brought up at employee meetings outside the United States was the manual expense