Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 BDM Overview Demo...

DEMONSTRATION

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 BDM General Overview Part 1

March 2008AX2009-DS001-1Version 1.1

1. Demo Overview

I. Introduction

The objective of this script is to give customers and partners a preview of new features and functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 that match the value proposition messages.

The four value propositions message are : Improve Productivity (Part1) Manage Growth and Change (Part2) Compete Globally (Part3) Simplify Compliancy (Part4)

This script is focused on Improve Productivity.

II. Audience

This script should be used to present an overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to customers. This script is targeted at a BDM audience. Some talking points have been added on technology notes which you can use if questioned on the underlying technology or needed to share some additional information.

III. Scenario

The script is based on the new “Contoso Electronics” company demonstration data. Contoso is a global electronics manufacturer and retailer. They manufacture and sell televisions and home theater systems

This script is focused on an overview or introduction of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. There are examples of scenarios used in the talking points that can be used to describe the usage of features.

IV. Problems this Demo Addresses

This script is targeting the Improve Productivity pillar. It is designed to show how the new user interface features like role centers, improved client UI, unified communication, self service BI can be used to help information workers find information to help them make more informed business decisions.

V. Purpose of Demo (Solutions to pains, benefits, value proposition)

This script is focused at providing an overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX capabilities that can help improve user productivity.

Key Pains Legacy systems difficult to find information quickly. Data is stored in multiple places and requires multiple screens to perform a single task. Legacy systems are unable to allow users to extract data easily to make sense of the data.

Key Benefits Role Tailored User Interface: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 role centers and client user

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Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 BDM Overview

interface provide a role tailored user experience to improve the navigation experience of the business application.

Unified Communications: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 provides integrations to technologies like unified communication server combined with features like the global address book simplifies the storage, maintenance and access to data like contact information.

Self Service BI: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 provides integration to technology to allow users to extract information out of the business application to make informed business decisions without the need for IT support in writing reports.

Key Competitive Points Role Tailored User Interface: Microsoft is continuing to invest in research to improve the

user experience in our business applications. Starting with the research that went into the customer model Microsoft is using this researching to provide role tailored out of the box user experiences that work the way you work.

Unified Communications: Microsoft in continuing to innovate across a broad range of technology. Unified communications in an area that we are investing heavily to allow new forms of collaboration with-in and organization and between trading partners.

Self Service BI: Microsoft have been innovating and investing continuously with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office over many years to enhance the tools available at the desktop for data analysis. We continue these investments with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 by providing cubes with pre-defined measures and dimensions that can used out of the box with application like Microsoft Excel.

Note : Technology Notes provided in each section it is not necessary for you to necessarily present. They are provided to give you the background in case you are questioned in the course of presenting. You can also use them to be knowledgeable in a discussion with a technical decision maker (TDM).

2. Demo PresetConfiguration

a. Make sure that the VPC is up and running, that you have logged on. This script was written to work with the Internal Sales Training VPC which you can find details about here http://sharepoint/sites/demoax/News/Pages/Article1.aspx

b. You will need a few roles for the different parts of these demos view document associated with the article above for how to use the different options to use multiple role on the VPC.

c. All users are in the CONTOSOAX domain and the passwords are “pass@word1”. So if you are to log on as Inga then you would use CONTOSOAX\INGA with the password as pass@word1.

d. The script has written to minimize role changes and the role changes are called out in the script following.

3. Related MaterialsThis script is provided with a Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) Click through.

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http://sharepoint/sites/demoax/News/Pages/Article1.aspx

4. Demo- Improve ProductivityThis demo is about introducing the Role Tailored experience in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. This demo provides an overview of the major UI concepts, introduced integration to unified communications, and provides a glimpse of the self services BI tools that are available to users of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

Presenter’s Discussion Points Click Steps and screen shots

IntroductionMicrosoft Dynamics AX 2009 is introducing the Role center as the primary work surface and entry point for a user of the business application. I’d like to take a few minutes to introduce you to AX 2009 and provide an overview of the of how users can be made productive with

Role Tailored user interface Unified Communications Self Service BI.

Introduce Role Centers and Role tailored UIWe have been working hard for many years to build the customer model. (http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/product/familiartoyourpeople.mspx)We have used this research to provide 30 out of the box Role Centers. Each of these role centers are surfacing the information that is specific to the jobs or the tasks that they person needs to carry out their work.

Let’s have a look at a couple of examples of the role center and how they can be used to improve user productivity.

First Charlie the CEO. Charlie is a typical business executive implementing strategies to help grow the business be manages.

Typically Charlie has been a role that would use a business application as they have been too complex and difficult to use. Charlie would rely on the accounting team for information. Now he has access to view the information that is important to him to monitor the business.

With the introduction of role centers in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Charlie is able to have visibility seeing the key business indicators that he is interested in.

Steps Login as CHARLIE. Show Charlie’s CEO Role Center and the AX 2009

Client. There is no need to click on anything in this stage. This will come in the next step.

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http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/product/familiartoyourpeople.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/product/familiartoyourpeople.mspx

Highlight that Charlie is a business executive and won’t be typically using the Microsoft Dynamics AX Client. He would be more likely to use the Enterprise Portal as it will be a tool that he could also use while travelling.

The key to the Role Centers is that they same information is displayed when viewed from the AX Client of the Enterprise Portal.

Then show the same page in the Enterprise Portal. This is the default role page that will be displayed. The Role Center link is in the favorites list of all users.

Technology Notes: The AX Client is a 32Bit Windows Application that

is installed on the user’s desktop or accessed through a terminal service connection.

The Enterprise Portal is access through a web browser typically Internet Explorer.

The Enterprise Portal foundation is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and optionally Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (MOSS). WSS is the minimal technology needed to run the Enterprise Portal.

Using MOSS provides additional collaboration capabilities and is needed for some role centers that use the KPI web part.

Introduce Role Centers and Role tailored UINow we know Charlie as a CEO is interested in monitoring key pieces of business information like profitability but he may also need from time to time to track other statistics.

With the Role centers surfacing reporting and KPIs data Charlie has the ability pick and choose what information he subscribes to. With a few clicks he can change the view of the information he has access to.

While highlighting the Financials KPI web part not that Charlie has a few indicators. He can easily add and remove the KPIs.

Using the manage function Charlie remove existing KPIs. Highlight that the KPIs allow visibility across companies.

Change back to the AX Client. Highlight the Financial KPI web part. Click the Manage KPIs link.

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This is an important feature for growing complex entities that need to have visibility across their organization’s legal entities.

No need to change anything here just click cancel.

Using the Add link allows Charlie to add one of the many KPIs that are provided out of the box with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

With this release we have done the work to provide a range of OLAP cubes across the functionality we ship. In traditional business applications this has been complex as it often involved consulting to build these cube. We have done the work to provide the cube out of the box and provide tools to publish the cubes from the business application.

We will have a look at the use of these cubes latter in the demonstration. They key point here is that we have shipped the cube preconfigured with a range of KPIs that can be used to get visibility into the data in the business application.

The key benefit is that these are provided out of the box and users like Charlie can simply select and subscribe to the ones that they need to monitor.

Click Add KPIs.

From the Cube list drop down and select one of the

Cubes. For example the General Ledger Cube.

Highlight the range of KPIs that are available by dropping the list down.

If you have time in your demo to wait for the role

center to refresh select one otherwise as this is an overview just click Cancel.

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Point out in the top right hand corner there is a personalization feature. Make a note that it is there so users can change what web parts they have available if needed.

Technology Notes: The BI infrastructure is provided by Microsoft

SQL server components. The Cubes are run and managed on SQL Analysis Services.

The reports that are displayed in the Role Center are displayed using SQL Reporting Services.

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Role Tailored Experience for the Task workerSo we have just given a brief overview of the role center experience with a high level user like an executive. But we know that the users who benefit the most from the productivity enhancements in the application are the user who live in the application.

Take for example Inga the purchasing manager. Inga is a business person having to deal with managing status of orders moving through the system and reporting and analyzing the status of information.

Inga’s role center as another example of one of the 30 role centers that will be shipped out of the box provides Inga insight into the status of the purchasing process.

Switch between the AX Client Role Center and the Enterprise portal to again highlight that it is the same information.

Change Roles. Log on or start the Internet Explorer and the AX

Client as Inga. Open the role enter for both the client and the Enterprise Portal

Switch back to the client role center for the rest of this part of the demo.

You can see on Inga’s role center that she has some additional visual indicators of the status of information that she can work with. To task workers we want the business application to help the find and response to

Show the Unified worklist Show the Cue’s list.

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information and not have to spend time digging and finding information. The business application show help them by proactively providing indicators and status information so they don’t have to spend time just checking information.

We are providing web parts like the Unified work list that consolidate alerts, workflow events, and activities from different parts of the application like CRM or project. The unified work list allows a user like Inga to better manage the items that have to be dealt with.

The Cue’s provide a KPI if you like of the documents in the business application. The Cue is a visual indicator to the status of these documents. Point out that Inga can quickly see status information in the Cue. This allows her to decide if she needs to take action. For example Delayed Purchase. You can see that there is a status information like a warning message. This gives Inga a visual indicator that she has to deal with an issue.

These Cue’s have a useful function Inga can drill into them and view the document associated with the Cue. Once her she can view the information in the associated documents.

Click on the Delayed Purchased Cue. This will drill into the Delayed Purchased list page.

Navigation of the business applicationPause for a moment to think about what we have done. Simply viewing information and deciding if I need to deal with it then being able to quickly go to that information allows workers like Inga to be productive.

We know that these types of users have to work with a lot of information about of the business application. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 we are making it much easier for them to use familiar concepts to navigate the business application.

For example we know that we have new generations of users that are working with business applications and we also know that you also sometimes have temporary or part time staff that need to work with the business application. It is typically expensive to train these users. So we are providing navigation features that will be familiar to users who have used a web browser.

For example Backwards and Forwards buttons. These might sound simple but it now allows the user to move allow the business application like you down browsing

Collapse the Navigation Pane by clicking the

<<. Click on the Backwards button to Navigate back

to to the Role Center.

Click on the Forwards button to go back to the

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web pages. list page.

Users also have the ability to see the history of where they have been to select page they have already visited.

Click on the History button to show the drop down of the history of where you have been.

Additionally we know that menu systems are hard to learn. So we are introducing a new way to navigate the functions with an address bar or bread crumb bar.

I can use this to navigate to a specific company or to a specific part of the application. For example if I wanted to find purchase orders. I can navigate using the bread crumb bar.

Click the drop down for Company.

Click the drown down for the system area and

select Accounts Payable

This will take you to the Account Payable Area

page. Click Purhcase Orders.

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I’m now looking at a list page. List pages are a new concept we are introducing into the business application to allow you find and filter information quickly. Now with the Action Pane we are providing a context aware functions system similar to the ribbon concept introduced in Microsoft Office 2007.The functions that are available in the list are laid out in a flow similar to the logical process flow for example see across the top Purchase, Receive, Invoice etc.

Also the functions that are available are aware of the context the user has selected for example the receive functions are only available on an open order.

Purchase Orders list page is displayed

Hightlight the Action Pane

Click the Receive tab

While keeping the receive tab displayed. Change to a purhcase order that is a different status for example move from a record that is an Open order to an order that is Received.

We also know that busy users need to find data quickly. For example Inga gets a call from Earth Televisions to say that shipments are delayed. She can find all the orders from Earth with the simple filtering capabilities.

Highlight that we have done the work to provide the most common fields to filter on that would be typical for the role using this list. For example you can quickly pick Vendor name, purchase order etc. However you can search on any field in the system.

We also know that you many not what to look at all the

Show the filter box

Type Earth in the Filter

Drop down the filter list to show the available

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details of the data. You just want a quick glance that what that order is. So we are providing a preview pane that saves time by note having to drill into the details of the order if you don’t’ have to.

Click the go button to filter

Show the filtered list.

Hover over the preview pane

Now we know that business people like Inga needs to deal with the information quickly once they have found it. For example if Inga has delayed shipments from a Vendor this is going to have flow on effects in the business and she needs to notify people.

Inga can quickly open the document from here and see the details.

Select Order 000054 or 55. Right Click on it and select Purchase Order

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For example this order may have come through the new purchase requisitioning functionality and see the vendor is delayed she should notify the requisitioner. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 now has integration to Office Communicator. This allows Inga to see presence information to see if the requisitioner is online.

This will open the orde form. Depending on if

you have done this demo already the form might be in Advacned or Simple Mode. On the buttons on the right if you see Advanced click that to change it to say Simple. If it says Simple already no need to do this step.

This will display more details on the order. Click on the Setup tab

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This is a fundamental productivity tool as Inga doesn’t’ need to go an look up a phone number or email she can collaborate directly from the document. This saves her precious time.

With the communications integration you can collaborate also with trading partners like customers and suppliers.

Show the option for collaboration Instante Message, E-Mail or Call.

Close the Purchase Order form when you have finsihed

Technology Notes:

This presence information is available in the AX Client.

This is also specifically linked to Office Communicator as the IM client.

The ability to make a phone call is dependant the communications infrastructure that the customer has for example Office Communicator needs to be connected to Office Communications Server 2007 which has the ability to be connected with phone PABX systems.

Managing contact details and ComplianceWe know that we dealing with contact details can be a compliance issue. How do you know who you can contact. We also know that having a centralized view of contact information across your organization is difficult. With this release we are introducing a new feature called the Global Address book that allows you to manage contact data for your organization.

From here you can keep a record or your contact details either organizations or people. This avoids individual users keeping small lists that are not available to the rest of the organization.

This feature works across companies and allow you to link for example a customer in one company to a supplier in another company if they are in fact the same record so that you can have a centralized view of that business association.

Select the Basic area page

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From the area page select Global Address

Book

This will display the globa address list page

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This will display a list of the contact details. Point out the Public and the Communicator Sign-in address.

With the collaboration offered with Unified communications and the integration provided with the Global address book users link Inga are able to collaborate more easily and more simply.

The global address book helps the organization manage compliance related issues on contacting external parties.

Click on a contact from the list like Aaron Con and open the contact form. You can do this by double clicking on the form.

Technology Notes: The Global address book leverages the virtual

companies’ concept in AX to be able to related contact details between companies.

Self Service BI.We know that users like Inga not only have to collaborate and deal with exceptions they also need to product their own reports or provide data to other people in the organization.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 we provide multiple way for people to make sense of the data. For example each list page we are allows users to simply export this data to Microsoft Excel.

This allows people to get data into Excel and manipulate it with little training and no need for support from IT to write custom reports.

You the address bar or the backwards navigation button to move back to the Purchase Orders list.

Remove the filter if the records are still filtered.

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Click on the General tab. Click on the Export to Excel button

Explain that the data is now in Excel and you can use standard excel features to format and present this data.

For example let me show you how to quickly convert this to a chart using pivot table functionality.

This integration opens it up for more people in your organization to mange data and make some sense of the data your are capturing in the system and help lead to more informed decisions.

This will dump the list data into Excel

Click the Insert tab. Click the button to Insert a Pivot Table

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Select the default option for wher the pivot is

placed. Click Ok.

From the Choose fields to add list. Draft Status into the Row Labels. And drag Purchase Order into the Values.

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This will present the data in the pivot

Select the data

Select the PivotChart button from the ribbon

pane. Then selet the 3D Pie chart. You may have to scroll in the list of chart to find the

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pie.

Click ok to accept this. Then use some formatting options like

changing the design and changing the chart layout to put % details

You will then have a simple formatted chart.

Advanced AnalyticsWe are providing simple integrations like the export to Excel to allow user to have self service BI

Open a new Excel worksheet. Click the Data tab in Excel. Click on the Existing

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tools. We are also providing the users the ability to inquire on the cube or OLAP data for more sophisticated analysis.

Again we know that our users have Microsoft Office and that they are familiar with Excel so you can use this OLAP data directly in Excel.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 we are providing out of the box cubes. Typically creating these is a complex and costly task. We have put the effort into providing the most common dimension and measure for you to report on.

We are providing this with a range of out of the box cube that covers the core modules in the application. Users of the business application can connect to these based on the security access they have.

Let me show you how you can easily analyze the data from Microsoft Dynamics AX and do a quick analysis of accounts payable data. This will show you how you can ask questions of the data.

Note : There is no need to explain all of the data analysis capability in Excel this is just to demonstrate that the cubes are out of the box and they can be used to make the analysis process available to more users of the business application.

Technology Notes: The cubes are published from Microsoft

Dynamics AX 2009 to SQL Analysis Server. The data is process in SQL Analysis Server so it

take the data from the business application and puts it in another store. This means that the data in the cubes is only current at the last process time.

There are performance benefits for doing this as the users are not reporting directly on the transactional data.

Connections button.

This will display the existing connections there is

a connection setup to Dynamics AX. Select this and Click Open.

Select Accounts Payable Cube and Click Ok.

Select Ok to Import the Data with the defaults

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Using the Pivot Table Field List drag and drop

the following fields into the list Company accounts -> Report Filter Master Outstanding Amount -> Values Date Year – Quarter -> Column Labels Vendor Grousp -> Row Labels

This will give you a basic view of open payables for a range of vendor groups across quarters.

Next using the Company filter select just company 1.

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5. ConclusionIn conclusion this demonstration has taken you through three major capabilities to help improve user productivity.

Role Tailored user interface was showing in the context of two different roles the CEO and a Purchasing manager. Using the role centers ability to surface the information that is relevant the user’s role within the organization the business application provide better visibility. Also with new concept in navigation it allows the user to use familiar concepts like a web browser to navigate the business application.

Unified Communications allows workers to collaborate in the context of the transaction they are working on in the business application minimizing the work and effort to find contact information. Combine this with the global address book allows new tools for managing contact data and compliance while allowing new ways to collaborate within the organization or with trading partners.

Self Service BI. Allows users to use functions like Export to Excel and the cube data within Microsoft Excel to analyze data and make more informed decisions. These tools have traditional been complex to deploy. Now users have these tools available at their finger tips to avoid having to call on IT to write reports.

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The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, this document should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Microsoft, the Microsoft Dynamics Logo, 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Office InfoPath BizTalk, Dexterity, FRx, Microsoft Dynamics, SharePoint, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual SourceSafe, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, FRx Software Corporation, or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions ApS and FRx Software Corporation are subsidiaries of Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes in a way that helps you drive business success.

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