Here’s the latest on FRx’s future. This was current as of February 8, 2008.
Part I: Management Reporter
The new version of FRx is not called FRx at all. The current version of FRx 6.7 will continue to be supported for a while. More about that later in this post.
FRx Software Corporation, as of last summer, has been merged into Microsoft. The new version of FRx that we’ve been anticipating for quite a while now (several years) will be called Management Reporter. It is a module inside PerformancePoint Server, a business intelligence application. Management Reporter will be a standalone module and may be purchased separately. It will also work with financial data in PerformancePoint.
There are many ERPs that currently integrate with FRx. Which ones integrate with Management Reporter? Right now, Dynamics AX, formerly known as Axapta. Microsoft elected to create the first integration with AX. I believe that it has officially hit the streets.
Who’s next? Dynamics GP, fka Great Plains. Due out late this summer.
After that, Dynamics SL, fka Solomon, in 2009.
Dynamics NAV fka Navision will be an FDM (Financial Data Mart) version. Meaning it’s not a live connection, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I see many clients running an FDM version.
There will be a tool for migrating reports from FRx to Management Reporter.
There are usability enhancements in Management Reporter, but gaps in functionality as well.
What about the multitude of other ERPs? Turns out that each of those vendors will be responsible for creating their own integration to Management Reporter. I’ve heard varying reports on how interested they are in doing so. Time will tell.
Management Reporter is a complete rewrite, coded in .NET and with a SQL Server backend. At last!
Part II: FRx Future Plans
FRx 6.7 will continue to be supported for a while. Microsoft was announcing last fall that they would continue to support FRx until the release of “Office 15”. (As a reference point, Office 2007 is code-named Office 12. They are skipping Office 13, and there’s no timeframe yet for Office 14.) I’ve heard more recently, however, that that timeframe is not final. What I’ve also heard more recently is this: there are long term plans to support FRx through 2011. That’s the end of development. Support beyond that is to be determined.
What if you use one of the forty-some-odd non-Microsoft ERPs? Like Sage or Epicor to name just a couple? Then your support will depend on your software vendor and how far they extend their support contract.
What if your non-MBS (Microsoft Business Solutions) vendor doesn’t extend their support contract and you want to stay with FRx? Can you get support directly from FRx in Denver? (Now officially Microsoft, the FRx support team remains in Denver.) I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m headed to Convergence (Microsoft end user conference) in early March and will find out.
That’s it for now. More answers in March. Stay tuned!
Hi Jan.
Is there an updated thread to this? We are currently using FRx with Solomon, however are in the process of implementing PerformancePoint 2007 for other enterprise BI needs. I would love to integrate PerformancePoint 2007 into Solomon as it would give us near-realtime reporting capabilities.
Please let me know. Thanks!
Hi Michael…while there are newer posts on Management Reporter (see the link to this category directly under the post name), there’s not just a whole lot of new information. Everyone is waiting for direction from Microsoft.
If you’re already implementing PerformancePoint, I’d suggest that you read every post on Management Reporter, especially the one on ‘Got Functionality’. MR is definitely a version one product and has much less functionality than FRx does. Check it out to see if it’s missing something that you can’t live without. Good luck…Jan