Integrating w/ Microsoft Dynamics AXThomas Due KayProgram ManagerMicrosoft IT

René DünweberDeveloperMicrosoft IT

Introducing Microsoft Dynamics AX

Integrating with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012How to build integrations with Microsoft Dynamics AXHow are we leveraging Dynamics AX at MicrosoftQuestion and closing

Agenda

Introducing Dynamics AXA business solution for global enterprises that supports industry-specific and operational business processes, along with comprehensive, core enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality for financial and HRM. It empowers your people to anticipate and embrace change so your business can thrive.

Economy GeopoliticsTechnology Cloud

Business Success Demands Change

People

Business Workloads

Horizontal Operational Workloads

Industry Operational Workloads

Administrative Core WorkloadsFinance HR

HCM Project Budget Formulation

Expense SRM Sales Force Automation

Marketing Automation

Customer Care

Retail Service Manufacturing

Distribution

Ente

rpris

e In

frast

ruct

ure

Enterprise ArchitectureEn

terp

rise

Appl

icatio

n Horizontal OperationalIndustry Operational Administrative Core

Microsoft Infrastructure

Development tools

MorphX

Dynamics Infrastructure

App Server(s)AOS Services

Integration hostFile system MSMQ

WCF adapter

Productivity Apps

Integrations comes in many shapes & formsFocusing on the right integrations across the application portfolio increase business value, drive visibility and effectiveness, and decrease operational cost structures.

System Architecture

Integrating methods and optionsDocument services (XML)• Inbound (File, MSMQ, WCF)• Outbound (File, MSMSQ)Custom services (WCF)• Inbound (WCF)Any .NET enabled integrationCLRInteropSystem.Data internally (DW)Text files (and binary)Built-in (X++)• WCF, SSRS, SSAS, and moreEverything with a Microsoft logo

DEMORené DünweberSenior Development EngineerMicrosoft IT

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Where to start…..?Reduce the time and cost of custom development by using and adapting the built-in services and functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX.For increased agility, create reusable components based on the core Microsoft Dynamics AX functional types.

Data quality is essential to an effective ERP solution. Spend the time to define data structures before starting to build a solution.

Focusing on the right integrations across the application portfolio increases business value, drives visibility and effectiveness, and decreases operational cost structures

Integration ServicesDocument Services Custom Services

Service definition and data contract

Auto-generated based on underlying query and options entered in the AIF Document Service Wizard

Defined by the developer

Transport protocols

Any supported adapter (HTTP, WCF, MSMQ, File) Any supported adapter (HTTP, WCF, MSMQ, File)

Customizations Entire document service can be customized Entire customer service can be customized

Entity complexity Any query complexity including query with dimensions, polymorphism, date-effective information content

Suitable when the entity complexity is low, but the developer can write the code to handle any complexity as well

Business process support

None, document service is data bound due to the tight relation between query and service

Yes, the customer service is designed to handle this

Performance Record-based insert and updates with option to run inbound message processing in parallel

Record-based and whatever is defined by the developers including parallel processing

Microsoft Office Add-in support

Built-in support for consuming document services for updating data

No preinstalled integrations

Preinstalled interfaces

More than 75 Document services (AxD) Non

Other Data is inserted directly into application tables Can be staged or inserted directly into appl. tables

RecommendationMethod Typ

eDynamics AX Application

Application Dynamics AX

Synchronous – read/write

Simple

AX class -> Proxy -> Application Application -> ? -> AX Custom Services

Complex

AX Document Services (AxD) -> AX class -> Proxy -> Application

Application -> ? -> AX Document Services (AxD)

Asynchronous – read/write

All AX Document Services (AxD) -> MSMQ (< 5mb) -> BizTalk -> WCF Adapter -> Application

AX Document Services (AxD) -> File Share (> 5mb) -> BizTalk ->WCF Adapter -> Application

Application -> WCF Adapter -> BizTalk -> MSMQ (< 5mb) > AX Document Services (AxD)

Application -> WCF Adapter -> BizTalk -> File Share (> 5mb) > AX Document Services (AxD)

Web Services

BizTalk Server w/MSMQ

Recommendation is applicable to Dynamics AX 2012

Microsoft Dynamics AX is an ERP application

DON’T integrate directly at the SQL-level

Always use Dynamics AX runtime for integrations

Rene’s guiding principles

Leveraging Microsoft Dynamics AX internallyMicrosoft runs in business on ERP enabling platform simplification, business agility & growth, while providing prescriptive guidance on business, process & technology, and showcasing Microsoft technologies.

Business Value• Proven processes and out-of-the-box functionality• Competitive total cost• Speedy delivery to keep pace with a volatile industry

Enterprise Showcases• Showing how others can benefit from the same Business Value• Applying real-world scenarios to drive improvements back into the

product

When Do We Use Dynamics AX?

Crawl (2005-2008)• Opportunistic growth targeting discrete businesses and special needs• Liberal customization• Our wins: able to implement to very aggressive timelines, usability• Our challenges: functionality gaps, budget too small for implementation, too specialized for distributed

ownership, long term cost of customized instancesWalk (2009-now)

• Focus on Industry Solutions and businesses with adequate budgets• Constrained to the capacity of our specialist resources• Minimized customization• Our wins: stability encourages more adoption; our experiences help product group build for the enterprise• Our challenges: we’re turning business away if business can’t fund an implementation or our resources are

stretched too thinRun (our aspiration)

• Hosted online business capabilities on a pay-per-use basis• What we’ll gain: Microsoft Dynamics AX becomes viable for small budgets; we encourage consistent

processes across organizations• What we’ll need: ability to host and expose capabilities, internal willingness to snap to common processes

Our evolving approach using Dynamics AX

Microsoft Dynamics AX adoptionRetail

Services

Financial

Microsoft Retail Stores

IEB

SRM

HCM

20MFG

Company Store

Russian Payroll

XBOX

Microsoft Operation Puerto Rico

Microsoft Business Solutions MS Expense

GFS/MSN

Recruiting (Rainier/v7.0)

HSG Microsoft IT

Microsoft Consulting Services

MS Financing

Questions?

Thank You

Thomas Due Kay, tduekay@microsoft.comRené Dünweber, rdnweber@microsoft.comMicrosoft IT, SESIT Dynamics AX - Denmark

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.