Looks like Axapta 4.0--make that Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0--will take its formal bows next week at Tech Ed 2006. As in it will ship either at or reasonably close to show time, sources said. (Tech Ed kicks off in Boston on Sunday.)

That would mean the product will hit the company's latest release date with a few weeks to spare. It had most recently been promised for the first half of 2006.

Navision or Dynamics Nav 5.0, then Great Plains 10 (Dynamics GP 10) and Solomon 7 (Dynamics SL 7) are due next down the product chute, according to what company executives said at the company's Convergence confab in March.

Microsoft has promised to roll out new navigation and role-based user interfaces for its full ERP lineup even as it works towards converging the product lines.

Solution providers say as Microsoft transforms the UI of both the ERP products and Office 2007 apps to this role-based model and provides more linkages between them the surface differences between those apps will disappear.

Also at the big show, CTO Ray Ozzie will (again) talk about Windows Live and what opportunities it will foster.

And, there will be a presentation of two real-world "test cases" of early adopters using Microsoft's Windows Workflow Foundation (now dubbed 'Doub-F' apparently to distinguish it from the World Wildlife Foundation) in production.

Microsoft's first deliverable of WWF will be in SharePoint Portal Server 2007.