The application, due out on Dec. 19, is the successor of the company's flagship Great Plains suite and has been tweaked to better utilize the underlying Microsoft desktop, portal, business intelligence and development technology. The company will follow up with a similar version of its Axapta and other ERP software suites next year.

The company ultimately plans to have a unified set of software with a common code base and interface, which will complete its ambitious Project Green initiative. Microsoft began to detail Project Green, now called Dynamics, last spring at its Convergence 2005 user conference, where it got mixed reviews from customers.

GP 9.0 will offer 21 separate role-based interfaces, said Lynne Stockstad, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics GP. The preconfigured interfaces will have a Microsoft desktop look that's designed to allow end users to perform their functions with minimal training. The interfaces will include customer service, operations, finance, human resources and IT roles. The software also comes bundled with business intelligence enhancements to enable access to transactional data and permit analysis and reporting capabilities.

GP 9.0 also has improved integration with other Microsoft technology, including an XML integration engine that will more tightly link the application with Microsoft's next-generation Dynamics CRM software, which is also due for shipment in December. The company also tightened links with the Microsoft SharePoint Services collaboration portal to help IT staffers quickly add new users and assign them their roles. A new Visual Studio 2005-based tool kit will allow developers to manipulate GP 9.0 metadata and business logic.

Dynamics GP 9.0 pricing for the single-user Standard Edition starts at US$3,500. Dynamics AX, the successor to Axapta, will ship in the first quarter of 2006.