City of Redmond Steps into the Future with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

You probably know that the City of Redmond, Washington, is home to Microsoft and thousands of Microsoft employees. The city also uses Microsoft products and technologies to help it serve constituents and run operations. With recent implementations of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft System Center, and other technologies, the City of Redmond sees Microsoft as an important partner in its strategic technology plan, and this summer will take several big steps forward.

In July, the City of Redmond will go live with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, our latest version of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, replacing the its old JD Edwards ERP system, which was unable to provide all the public-service capabilities and flexibility that the city needed.  As part of an early adoption program, the city closely collaborated with Microsoft product teams and developers to make Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 a powerful solution for the public sector. As a result, many ideas and requests from public servants at the City of Redmond have become part of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. An upgrade to Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 will take place around the same time.

On May 12, the city invited all its employees to a kick-off event where many of them could see for the first time how Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will help them in their day-to-day work, and how powerful and simple the new solution is. Although many participants included workers from the city’s administrative and finance departments, representatives from the fire department, the police force, and emergency services also took time to stop by to learn about the purchase requisition and expense management capabilities that the new solution will offer them. Representatives from Microsoft and Tyler Technologies, the city’s implementation partner, demonstrated the new financial management capabilities, employee self-service features, Role Centers, business intelligence, and other innovations. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Tyler Technologies made significant contributions to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and is also working with the city to deploy the solution together with some of Tyler Technologies’s own software tools for the public sector.

In his keynote address, Mayor John Marchione said, “We are partnering with one of the world’s best corporations, maybe the world’s best software company. The Microsoft local and state team has been instrumental in the progress we’ve made so far in our desktop, back-office, and server technology…. With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, our jobs will become a lot easier. In fact, jobs in cities across the nation will become easier because of what we accomplished here.”

I also had a chance to speak with CFO Mike Bailey, who provided more insight into the City of Redmond’s vision of using technology to enhance the way employees work and serve constituents. “What is fundamentally different today is the mindset about how the city works and how we can use technology to be much better at what we do,” Bailey said. “Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is probably the strongest example of how technology can help us improve constituent services so that people can interact easier with the city, get their questions answered faster, and experience a much more transparent, responsive municipal government.”

The City of Redmond is a great example of a local government organization that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 was specifically designed to serve, and we’re excited that the solution will help them better manage their organization, and better serve people like us… their constituents!

Regards,

Pepijn Richter, Product Marketing Manager Microsoft Dynamics AX