Microsoft was expected to disclose the shipping plans during its TechEd conference, which began yesterday in Boston.

The Dynamics AX 4.0 software is the latest piece of Microsoft's next-generation Dynamics software portfolio, which the company said offers tight integration with its infrastructure software and with other Microsoft and third-party business applications.

Micosoft has already released its Dynamics GP 9.0 (formerly Great Plains) and Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon) applications. The AX 4.0 software was first previewed in April at the Convergence 2006 user conference in Dallas.

New Users Oldcastle Precast Inc. in Auburn, Wash., began installing Dynamics AX 4.0 as an early adopter in April, said CIO Bill Blyth. The concrete products manufacturer is looking to use the software to send sales and purchase-order information from one facility to another without having to re-enter the data, he said.

Oldcastle currently uses the earlier Axapta 2.5 release, which lacks such capabilities. Blyth said he expects the new version to be fully installed at his company by February.