Project Madeira was the preview name that Microsoft chose for what is called today Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business – with few more perks. Project Madeira is a full-fledged financial management solution under the big spectrum of accounting software and in the cloud. As a product that definitely means a lot to Microsoft, Project Madeira is not a replacement of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Project Madeira is built on NAV code but altogether is a separate product that Microsoft will consistently develop and release with the span of time.
Let’s have a look at some quick facts about Project Madeira:
Official Date of Release:
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· Public availability from April 12, 2016 through the official website
· The official release of Project Madeira was stated for the second half of the year. |
Quick Facts
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· Project Madeira is a codename. Interestingly, Microsoft has kept the real name a secret until the official release of the product.
· Microsoft chose the name ‘Madeira’ because it couldn’t trademark geographic locations. · Enables seamless integration of all financial processes within Microsoft Outlook in Office 365. · It is much more than just simple accounting (GL, AP, and AR)! With Project Madeira, Microsoft will have a comprehensive list of accounting features that they will be announcing soon. · It means there is absolutely no need to access a separate ERP simultaneously. · Without leaving the Outlook interface, a user can create customers, vendors, quotes, and invoices · A comprehensive product in the Cloud for web-based clients · Being based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform and other Microsoft services, it will also bring features from Dynamics GP. · The data migration tool is Madeira will help a user to migrate data from Excel and QuickBooks. · Here a single database will provide support to multiple companies. · The user can set up financials using wizards. · It has an inbuilt financial reporting system. · The system enables Workflow configuration coupled with the ability to leverage extensions made by the Microsoft partners. · ISV’s will be one among the most significant part of Project Madeira and a proactive Marketplace Strategy will support it. · The data will reside in the multitenant public cloud service of Microsoft Azure SQL database. · Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. · Application available for Windows Phone. |
Who can be the ideal user?
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· A company having 10-100 employees can optimize Project Madeira as a financial solution. Even large companies can use it.
· Being an underserved market that has zero stability concerns, the 10-100 employee companies are the best fit for Project Madeira. · Companies that are looking to have their first accounting and financial system can ideally use the product. |
How is Microsoft planning to sell it? |
· Project Madeira will be sold through CSP program of Microsoft Partners.
· By now, Microsoft has no plans to directly sell the solution to the end customers. |
For now, Project Madeira is only available for the US, even though Microsoft has declared it as a global product. Owing to the success of NAV in European countries, it seems Microsoft will soon plan a strong presence for Project Madeira in other nations. The project will offer an extension model that would allow the users to add options for making the solution more usable to a particular industry. It is learned that Microsoft gave the option of experimenting with this model to NAV partners through a preview part of Dynamics NAV 2016.