Microsoft will bring the third of its four ERP suites to the cloud by April 2014, officials said on November 5.

Microsoft's Dynamics AX 2012 R3 product -- due in the first quarter of 2014 -- will be available hosted on Windows Azure and sold through select Microsoft certified partners by April next year. Microsoft made its Dynamics GP and Dynamics NAV ERP products available hosted on Windows Azure in June 2013.

Microsoft also is making available today its promised Dynamics CRM client apps for iPhones, Android phones and Windows Phones. Late last month, Microsoft execs said to expect the CRM client apps for all three phone platforms to be available in their respective stores within 30 days .

Microsoft already made available the promised Dynamics CRM companion apps for iPads and Windows 8 tablets in early October 2013.

Microsoft execs made all of these announcements during the kick-off keynote of the company's Dynamics Convergence 2013 EMEA conference in Barcelona.

Other Convergence 2013 EMEA announcements from Microsoft included:

A new global pricing promotion that allows existing and new Office 365 customers to buy professional licenses of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for an up to 40 percent discount on their licensing price. The promotion runs through March 31, 2014.

Availability of 18 new industry process templates for businesses in sports management, healthcare, government, and non-profit organizations and other areas. These templates are designed for use with the recently released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 offering.

Microsoft's Dynamics ERP on Azure offerings are not re-architected versions of Microsoft's ERP software written from the ground-up for the cloud. Instead, they run on Windows Azure in virtual machines on Windows Azure.

Microsoft officials are not commenting on when Microsoft will be bringing its fourth ERP offering, Dynamics SL, to Windows Azure.