Microsoft Dynamics C5

Microsoft Dynamics C5

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Available in	Multilingual
Type	ERP
License	Proprietary
Website	Microsoft Dynamics C5

Microsoft Dynamics C5 is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft ^[1].

The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. Value-added resellers (VAR)s as well as customers can have full access to the business logic source code, and it has a reputation as being easy to customize.

More than 70,000 licenses have been sold since 1995. Microsoft has guaranteed that the product will be sold until year 2018 ^[2].

A hosted solution has been launched so smaller firms do not need to have program installed. Instead they can choose to use the program in a Remote Desktop Services environment ^[3].

History

C5 was launced in 1995 as replacement to the DOS-based Concorde C4 by Damgaard Data. At the time of the release it was sold under the name Concorde C5 in Denmark and Arctos abroad.

The logic source code is named eXtended Application Language (XAL) and borrowed from a larger product called Microsoft Dynamics XAL, also originally a Concorde product from Damgaard, which was political redrawn from the market because it shared the same market segment as Microsoft Dynamics NAV. XAL, and to some extent C5, offer database and OS options for a number of non-Microsoft products like Oracle, DB2 and Linux. The name eXtended Application Language was chosen due to the fact that it was an enhancement of the logic scorce code used in products like NAV.

In connection with Microsoft XAL's exit from the market the product was changed from targeting only small enterprises to target medium-sized enterprises too, so customers running on the discontinued Microsoft XAL could convert their product easily to C5.

The product is sold almost entirely in Denmark because Microsoft consider the competition among solutions sold to smaller companies too harsh. A project aimed at converting C5 into a European version known as Dynamics Entrepreneur was discontinued in 2008 due to the conditions on the market ^[4]

Versions

The first versions were sold in 1994. Today they are classified as supported versions and unsupported versions. January 2010 Microsoft has changed their trade agreements so customers no longer can expand the unsupported versions with more database capacity or users.

Supported versions	Microsoft Dynamics C5 2008 (until January 8, 2013), Microsoft Dynamics C5 2010 (until January 13, 2015), (As of December 1st 2011 Microsoft Dynamics C5 2012)
Unsupported versions	4.0, 3.0, 2.10, 1.8, 1.60.4, earlier

Features

The program come installed with all modules. The customer can unlock a module by purshasing a license key. Like with all Dynamics products only a very limited number of dealers are allowed to sell the license keys to ensure market and price control.

External links

• Microsoft Dynamics C5 Official Site

References

1. ^ Microsoft Dynamics C5, Microsoft (Danish)
2. ^ Dynamics C5 Roadmap, release year 2010
3. ^ Danmarks største ERP-succes skal på nettet, by Dan Jensen, Computerworld, July 12, 2007 (Danish)
4. ^ Microsoft dropper dansk-udviklet stor-satsning, by Dan Jensen, ComputerWorld, November 19, 2008 (Danish)