Shining the "Silverlight" on Dynamics GP "12"

As we draw closer to the release of Dynamics GP “12” which is slated for later this calendar year, I wanted to focus a little bit on what may be one of the most under-reported features of the new release: the new Silverlight client for Dynamics GP.

This is BIG news…especially for anyone interested in cloud and/or thin client deployments of Dynamics GP. While the thick client that customers have been using for almost 20 years will still be a deployment option, Silverlight provides a thin client, zero footprint deployment option. For our customers running Dynamics GP in the NjevityToGo cloud, the silverlight client represents a lower cost deployment option because they will not need to license Remote Desktop and Office apps as part of the cloud deployment. It also means that Dynamics GP can be running through-cloud and directly on the client’s desktop…interacting directly with their local printers, drives and office apps.

Not only will this be lower cost, but it should also run in any browser that supports Silverlight…can anyone say Safari? Now we don’t have any ‘official’ word from Microsoft yet on this, but you can bet we will be testing the use of Dynamics GP on a Mac running Safari as soon as start getting code drops. More on this in a later post!

What is most amazing about this release is that Microsoft has figured out how to bring all dexterity based apps along for the ride. So, every third party product written for Dynamics GP in dexterity (and there are THOUSANDS), will work in Silverlight right out of the gate. What this means is that Dynamics GP will be a true web-based, thin client, zero footprint application, but will retain all of the functionality that it has accrued over the past 20 years. How can a new player to the web app space like NetSuite possibly compete against this?

It seems that sometimes you really CAN have your cake and eat it too. Way to go Microsoft on figuring out how to turn Dynamics GP into a web application AND keeping all the funcationality we have come to love. I can’t wait to get my hands on this and unpack it a bit more. But as it looks right now, Dynamics GP “12” is going to deliver TONS of value.

For more information on why Silverlight was such a great choice for Dynamics GP, click here.