In keeping with the football theme I thought I would perhaps discuss how Dynamics AX has been more a part of our football experience than we think.
It is a little known fact that the world’s wealthiest football club runs and operates Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Let us take a second to consider some facts about the Spanish football giants:
Real Madrid football club was voted as the club of the century by FIFA
Real Madrid, the Spanish football club, has been the only club to win the 'European Cup Championships 9 times in its history and the Spanish champions on 31 occasions. It is arguably the biggest and best football club in the world
It operates as a large organisation which generates an annual turnover of more than €300 million from tickets sales, television rights and merchandising. Real Madrid remains the world’s largest revenue generating football club, according to the latest Football Money League from business advisory firm Deloitte (2009)
With this in mind the adaptability and power of the Dynamics AX ERP system becomes apparent. This quote was taken from a Spanish business case study on Real Madrid FC.
Way back, the club supported its activities with 70 IT systems and 15 disparate data sources. This made it difficult to gain control over its business performance across its operational areas. They addressed this issue by deploying a new IT infrastructure based on Microsoft business solutions- Axapta. This integrated data from across the organisation and presented it to managers in most appropriate format. It helped them to improve in the control of stock, replenish goods more effectively and enhanced services for customers at point of sale.
The Microsoft website had the following statement regarding the move by Real to it's flagship ERP product:
The Microsoft Dynamics range of business management solutions has the components to help sports clubs meet these challenges. Microsoft Business Solutions is also committed to building vertical market partner specialists to ensure that the Dynamics product range meets the unique needs within individual industries. The sports industry is an example of where partners have grasped the opportunities and developed specific expertise, which is benefiting customers.
This again emphasises not only the strength of the product but the role of partners in the continued advancement of AX as a market leading product.
Real Madrid are not the only club to make this move to Microsoft's Dynamics products with Blackburn Rovers and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a successful German Bundesliga club, following suite.
The strength of the AX solution and the relationship between Microsoft and the partners becomes evident when considering what these football clubs have been able to achieve.
This leaves us with the nagging question of “What exactly is the value of the Real Madrid asset register?”