Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 - Ignify eCommerce · Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 New functionality...

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Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 New functionality analysis Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Microsoft Dynamics is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. This paper is an independent analysis of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 features by Ignify Inc. Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009

Transcript of Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 - Ignify eCommerce · Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 New functionality...

Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009 New functionality analysis

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Microsoft Dynamics is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. This paper is an independent analysis of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 features by Ignify Inc.

Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009

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Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................................6 General new functionality .................................................................................................................... 6

Breadcrumb bar (BCB) ..................................................................................................................... 6 Travel buttons .................................................................................................................................. 8 Address Bar...................................................................................................................................... 8 List page .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Filter Pane ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Pre-filtered Forms .......................................................................................................................... 11 Role Centers ................................................................................................................................... 12 Workflow ....................................................................................................................................... 12

General Ledger ..................................................................................................................... 15 Fill Utility .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Posting Restrictions ........................................................................................................................... 15 Reason Codes .................................................................................................................................... 16 Generated Allocations ........................................................................................................................ 17 Reversing Entries ............................................................................................................................... 18 Budget Revisions ............................................................................................................................... 19 Intercompany Eliminations ................................................................................................................ 19 Post Net income to Multiple Equity account dimensions .................................................................... 20 Voucher templates – GL and AP ........................................................................................................ 21 Remit-to Address ............................................................................................................................... 21 Invoice Matching - AP ....................................................................................................................... 22 Print Management – AP and AR ........................................................................................................ 22 Centralized Payments – AP and AR ................................................................................................... 22 Centralized Statements - AR .............................................................................................................. 23

Fixed Assets .......................................................................................................................... 24 Attributes ........................................................................................................................................... 24 Capitalization Threshold .................................................................................................................... 25 Transactions Reversals ....................................................................................................................... 25 Replacement cost and Insured value update ........................................................................................ 26 Create Fixed Assets from Purchase Order........................................................................................... 27

Trade and logistics DYNAMICS AX 2009 ............................................................................. 28 Accounts receivables ......................................................................................................................... 28

Print management ........................................................................................................................... 28 Global address book ....................................................................................................................... 30 Credit card interface ....................................................................................................................... 31 Sales order screen Pro forma .......................................................................................................... 33 Shipment documents ...................................................................................................................... 34 Return Management ....................................................................................................................... 35 Customer information on payment journal ...................................................................................... 37

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Accounts payables ............................................................................................................................. 38 Purchase requisition: ...................................................................................................................... 38 Request for quote (RFQ) ................................................................................................................ 38

Inventory management ....................................................................................................................... 40 Arrival overview ............................................................................................................................ 40 Consolidated picking ...................................................................................................................... 42 Staging ........................................................................................................................................... 42 Importance of Feature: 9 ............................................................................................................. 42 Completeness of Feature: 8 ....................................................................................................... 42 What’s good about this?.............................................................................................................. 42 What’s still missing? .................................................................................................................... 42 Shipping Carrier Interface .............................................................................................................. 43 Transfer Journals ............................................................................................................................ 44 Multisite ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Multisite in Trade and Source ......................................................................................................... 46 Multisite in Inventory Management ................................................................................................ 46

Production ............................................................................................................................. 48 Available-to-Promise ...................................................................................................................... 48 User interface improvements to Gantt chart .................................................................................... 49 More transparent Job Scheduling in Gantt Chart ............................................................................. 49 Production at Multiple sites ............................................................................................................ 50 Production unit ............................................................................................................................... 50 Consistent Inventory Dimensions ................................................................................................... 51 Site specific Production parameters ................................................................................................ 52 Site specific BOMs and Routes ....................................................................................................... 53 Site specific Master data settings .................................................................................................... 54 Advanced On hand ......................................................................................................................... 55 Multisite Production Scenarios ....................................................................................................... 55

CRM ......................................................................................................................................... 59 Snapshot of new functionality in CRM ............................................................................................... 59

Managing Leads ............................................................................................................................. 60 Managing Opportunities ................................................................................................................. 61 Define Processes ............................................................................................................................ 61 Importing Business Files ................................................................................................................ 62 Use of List Pages for Navigation .................................................................................................... 63 Define Responsibilities ................................................................................................................... 64 Account for Time Zone Differences in Activities ............................................................................ 64 Enable Sales Force Automation Activities through Enterprise Portal ............................................... 65 Track Business Information through Global Address Book ............................................................. 66 Use Virtual Companies to Restrict Address Book Access ............................................................... 66

Project Accounting .............................................................................................................. 67 Integration with Microsoft Project Server 2007 .................................................................................. 67

Activity tree and Activity Hierarchy ............................................................................................... 67

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Synchronizing DYNAMICS AX Projects with Project Server ......................................................... 68 Integration to Production ................................................................................................................ 70

Project Production orders setup ...................................................................................................... 70 Production Order creation from Project........................................................................................... 71

Integration to Purchasing................................................................................................................ 71 Project Purchase Requisition .......................................................................................................... 72 Project RFQs .................................................................................................................................. 73

New Project Control Options .......................................................................................................... 73 Committed Cost ............................................................................................................................. 74 Exporting Project controls to Excel ................................................................................................. 75

Project Trade Agreements ............................................................................................................. 76 Project Price Groups and Trade Agreements ................................................................................... 76

Project Stages ................................................................................................................................. 77 Project Stage Control ...................................................................................................................... 78

Project List Pages ........................................................................................................................... 78 Project Role Centers ....................................................................................................................... 79 Integration with Fixed Assets ......................................................................................................... 80

Technical ................................................................................................................................ 81 New Layers in Dynamics AX 2009 .................................................................................................... 81 Work flow ......................................................................................................................................... 83

Workflow Benefits ......................................................................................................................... 83 Integration with more VCMS systems ................................................................................................ 85 Integration with Visual Studio IDE to develop and deploy reports ...................................................... 88

Managing Project and Assembly References ........................................................................... 89 Deploying Reports to a Report Server ............................................................................................. 89 Displaying Reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX .............................................................................. 89

Development Tools Enhancements ..................................................................................................... 91 Task Recorder .................................................................................................................................... 91 Role Centers ...................................................................................................................................... 93 Code upgrade tool enhancement ......................................................................................................... 94 Cross company support ...................................................................................................................... 96 DateTime Date Type .......................................................................................................................... 99 X++ SQL Enhancements .................................................................................................................. 100 Enterprise Portal .............................................................................................................................. 102 .NET Business Connector Proxy Configuration ................................................................................ 103 Automation of IIS Configuration ...................................................................................................... 104 Role Centers and user Interface ........................................................................................................ 104 Application Integration Framework .................................................................................................. 106 CRUD ............................................................................................................................................. 106 Programming Model Changes .......................................................................................................... 107 Consume Web Services.................................................................................................................... 107 Performance..................................................................................................................................... 108 Reverse Engineering Tool ................................................................................................................ 109

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Support new model Type ................................................................................................................. 109 E- Signature Support ........................................................................................................................ 110

Deployment Improvements ................................................................................................... 111 Overview: ........................................................................................................................................ 111 Description: ..................................................................................................................................... 111

Localized Installer ........................................................................................................................ 111 Side-by-Side Installation .............................................................................................................. 111 Improved Service and Maintenance .............................................................................................. 112 Multiple-Version Upgrades .......................................................................................................... 112 New Time Zone Management ....................................................................................................... 113 Batch Jobs .................................................................................................................................... 114

Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 115

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Introduction Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is an exciting new release that brings users new and improved functionality and a new user interface. This version introduces a number of new features in both the technical and application areas. This document provides information to help you recognize new features in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. This document does not cover functionality that has not changed since the previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

General new functionality This section describes some of the general changes to Microsoft Dynamics™ AX 2009, including the redesign of the user interface, and the introduction of a new demo data company to improve user experience for demonstration and learning purposes. Following are the general new functionalities introduced in DYNAMICS AX 2009

Breadcrumb bar o Travel buttons o Address bar

Command bar Navigation pane Area page List page Action pane Filter pane Preview pane

Breadcrumb bar (BCB) BCB allows the user to jump around or navigate to other areas in the system. The BCB is made up of two areas: travel buttons and the address bar. The address bar allows for navigation to other areas in the system, while the travel buttons allow sequential navigation backwards as well as forward when applicable.

Changes to the user interface have been made to: Better represent the Microsoft

Dynamics AX (Powerful, Solid, Comfortable, and Compelling)

Improve the user experience Improve the learning experience Leverage design concepts from

Microsoft® Windows® Vista and Microsoft® Office® 2007

Introduce a new navigation model Introduce an approval workflow

process to allow better collaboration around document processing

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Importance of the feature 6 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? Navigability in general is much easier in Dynamics

AX 2009 and the application is now more intuitive User can traverse between the screens using the

forward and backward buttons User can directly type the form path in the address

bar and open a form Automated regression testing will become easier as

forms can directly be opened from the address in the address bar instead of via the AOT as was required previously

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Travel buttons Travel buttons of the BCB allow the user to go back to the previous page(s) as well as forward, if the user has gone to a previous visited page by means of the travel buttons also the user can move directly to a previous page several levels back through the history drop-down arrow.

Address Bar The address bar allows for navigation to other areas in the system.

List page The List Page consists of:

An Action pane A Filter pane Data grid A Preview pane Visualizations

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Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 8 What’s good about this? User can quickly get a summary view of data in the

grid. The action pane contains buttons that represents a

specific action. A button action is the task or operation that occurs when you click a button. Examples of button actions include opening another form, deleting a specified record, and printing a list of records.

The business users may ask for most of information on the action pane, which may be extra effort for developers.

What’s missing/ negative Not much. However, not all forms are on the list but

with good reason as otherwise the list would get crowded and some forms require you to select reference data before you can go to the form.

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Customizations become a little more tricky as you need to maintain several additional references and this increases the development time required in certain instances.

Filter Pane To find and view an individual record or a group of related records, list pages include a filter pane. The filter pane contains the filter controls that you use to search all of the list page's records. The filter controls allow you to search a specified column for all records with a specified value.

Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 9 What’s good about this? User can select the field name directly on which filter

has to be applied from the drop down.

What’s still missing? The drop down only shows the column names which are shown on the grid. It would be ideal if the user could see all the fields from the drop down.

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Pre-filtered Forms Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 9 What’s good about this? In AR and AP modules the various statuses of sales

orders or purchase orders can be easily viewed. To view the open sales orders/purchase orders or

shipped but not invoiced sales orders, unconfirmed purchase orders can be directly viewed from the navigation pane.

Earlier user had to apply filters on the status field to view the various statuses of purchase/sales orders.

Customers/Vendors on hold can also be viewed directly from the navigation pane.

What’s still missing? The same type of filter for item master should also

be there, like items on hold. Filter should also exist for shipments for various

statuses like – shipment activated, shipment sent etc.

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Role Centers Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 includes customizable home pages called Role Centers. Role Centers display specific data, reports, alerts, and common tasks associated with a user's role in the organization. Users can access Role Centers from the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 client or from an Enterprise Portal Web site. Role Centers

Uses Enterprise Portal framework Installs using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 setup Uses SharePoint or MOSS Web parts Uses SharePoint site for both EP and DYNAMICS AX client

A user profile is a set of default information for a specific role in an organization, such as Chief Financial Officer or Accounting Manager. The user profiles determine the content that is displayed on Role Center pages. When a user is assigned to a profile, it specifies which Role Center the user sees when they open the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 client or an Enterprise Portal Web page. Developers can create new role centers using the Homepage property. The following list of cubes are available out of the box -a -b Importance of the feature 9 Completeness of the feature 7 What’s good about this? The CFO or accounts manager can see information

specific to their roles Uses Enterprise Portal framework Installs using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 setup Uses SharePoint or MOSS Web parts Uses SharePoint site for both EP and DYNAMICS

AX client

What’s still missing? Role centers should have functionality to be integrated with outlook for viewing the calendar, contacts, emails, tasks etc.

The current list of KPIs is fairly limited. A more exhaustive list would be helpful.

Workflow The term workflow is defined in two ways: Workflow is a System

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Workflow is a system that is included in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. The Workflow system provides functionality that can be used to create individual workflows, or business processes. Workflow is a Business Process A workflow represents a business process that defines how a document “flows” through the system by showing who must process and approve it. This workflow shows who must process and approve expense reports.

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Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 7 What’s good about this? Consistent processes

Process visibility Centralized work list Pre-defined templates that can be configured to

workflows

What’s missing? Setup of a workflow is fairly complex and time consuming. The Dynamics AX team could have taken a page from the Dynamics CRM team and build similar UI driven work flows in the application. The workflow as it stands now requires programmer knowledge as opposed to Dynamics CRM which allows a power business user to build at least application workflows.

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General Ledger The key enhancements in finance module include:

1. Support for shared services scenarios for: a. Centralized payments across companies. b. Centralized payment receipts across companies.

2. Support for automated back-end allocations. 3. Support for three-way matching for accounts payable.

Additional enhancements address more advanced financial needs, allowing large or growing businesses to manage globally distributed and complex organizations. These features include:

1. Company consolidation and elimination enhancements 2. Ability to post net income to multiple equity accounts 3. Budget revision capability

Fill Utility The Fill Utility enables authorized users to mass update records, similar to the find and replace functionality. It assists administrators or users during implementations or when business process changes affect multiple records. Fill utility Log is provided to view a record of changes that were made by using the Fill utility with information on Name of the table, Modified field, New value, Created by, Created date and time, Query statement, and Old value. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 - With history of the changes being maintained as Fill

Utility Log this feature is complete. What’s good about this? This feature can be useful post data migration where

mass renaming is required

What’s missing/ negative Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

This features common business requirements viz., Renaming Item names, Payment terms etc., which should have system-wide effect.

Posting Restrictions The posting restriction feature will provide an additional layer of control on posting ledger journals. The Posting restrictions feature enables an organization to specify, on a journal name basis, if specific users or user groups can only post the journals that the user or user group members entered or created.

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Posting restrictions can be defined by user group or user. In the Posting restrictions form, set up and maintain posting rules for journals. The purpose of Posting restrictions is to restrict journal posting to the user who created the journals for the users who are assigned the control. If the user is not assigned to a posting restriction, the user can post all journals for the journal name. The Posting restriction by user ID report displays by user the Journal type, Journal name, and if a Posting restriction is enabled. Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? Earlier this restriction was done through User permissions

and by blocking journals for specific user groups by using journal names.

Reason Codes Reason codes are standardized codes that can be used in various transaction types or changes to field values to provide background data about the transaction. For example, auditors or managers frequently want to see reasons recorded for various transactions. Using standard

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reason codes instead of transaction text gives users guidelines on what codes to select from, and provides management and auditors with the ability to analyze transaction history by specific reason. Reason codes can be used with:

Fixed assets General ledger Accounts payable Accounts receivable Bank

Module Forms General ledger General journal form

Process allocation request form Elimination proposal form Consolidation, Online periodic form

Fixed assets Fixed assets journal Inventory to fixed assets journal Depreciation book journal form Reason form

Accounts receivable Cancel payment form Free text invoice form Transaction reversal form

Bank Payment reversal form Cancel pay

Accounts payable Invoice journal form Check reversals journal Deposit slip payment cancellations journal

Importance of the feature 7 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes. Useful in standardizing the transaction types and for analysis of specific transactions through reports

Generated Allocations Use predefined allocation rules to perform generated allocations, which is the distribution of posted amounts to destination account and dimension combinations at any point in time, generating new journal entries. Allocation rules have many calculation methods including Basis,

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Fixed percentage, Fixed weight, and Spread even. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 also provides the ability to allocate across multiple companies, also known as Intercompany allocations. Importance of the feature 9 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes

Reversing Entries Reversing entry functionality lets users enter a general journal transaction with a reversing date. Upon posting the transaction in the general journal the original transaction is posted based on the transaction date, and the transaction reversal is posted based on the reversing date.

Reversing entry functionality will provide transaction reversal for accruals. Accrual type transactions are needed to accurately reflect balances on financial statements.

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Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? This will automatically create a reversing entry and can be

very useful for accruals that are created at the end of the period and reversed at the beginning of the next period

What’s missing/ negative . Do we see this being useful?

Yes.

Budget Revisions The budget revision feature enables organizations to maintain an audit trail of changes that are made to budget amounts. This gives users visibility into original budget amounts versus budget amendments. User-definable revisions, added as separate lines in the ledger budget window, enable the entry of changes to original budgeted amounts, if the associated budget model is tracking revisions. The budget revision is assigned a unique revision value and date. The budget revision feature also enables the viewing of budget amounts as of a particular date on forms and reports. Following features are available with this functionality

Budget revision date ranges: The combination of the revision date range and the budget period date range on each Budget revision determines into which revision a budget change falls.

Track Revisions New Budget Revision detail report and modification of existing reports including the

revision fields Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

No. Very few customers ask for Budgets as they are mostly maintained offline

Intercompany Eliminations Elimination transactions are required when a parent company does business with one or more subsidiary companies and uses consolidated financial reporting. Some transactions that occur between the companies must be eliminated because consolidated financial statements must only include transactions that occur between the consolidated entity and the other entities outside the consolidated group. Because of this, transactions between a parent company and its subsidiary companies must be removed or eliminated.

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Predefined elimination rules create elimination transactions in a company specified as the destination company for eliminations. The elimination journals can be generated during the consolidations process or by using an elimination journal proposal. In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, the recording of an elimination transaction is a manual process. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the automation of elimination transactions decreases the complexity and time that is required for the consolidation process. Types of companies associated with the Intercompany Eliminations Consolidation company A company created to report financial results

for a group of companies. The financial data from the companies is consolidated into this company, and then a financial report is created by using the combined data.

Elimination company An elimination journal is valid only in companies designated as an Elimination company. A company can be both an Elimination and Consolidation company.

Source Company The company in which the amounts to eliminate reside.

Destination Company The company in which the elimination journal is created and posted.

Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? This finally brings true consolidation capability into

Dynamics AX What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes. In case of multi-company / Group company scenario, this is a mandatory requirement.

Post Net income to Multiple Equity account dimensions Earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX enabled a specified equity account, also known as the retained earnings account, to be used when posting net income or loss during the year-end closing process. The Skip specification by dimension option, if cleared, generated the year-end closing transactions by using the dimensions for each transaction being closed. This did not enable the organization to specify one or multiple dimensions to be used in combination with the equity account. New to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is the ability for organizations, during the fiscal year close process, to post the net income or loss to the equity account in combination with one or multiple dimension combinations. Importance of the feature 7

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Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes. This was done manually earlier.

Voucher templates – GL and AP A voucher template is a voucher that is used as the basis of future vouchers. Voucher templates can be used with a general journal or an accounts payable invoice journal. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Remit-to Address Remit-to Address functionality lets the user define a remit-to address for vendor checks. In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX all paper checks are sent to the primary address of the vendor. There is no mechanism for setting up a remit-to address that differs from the vendor's primary address. New to Microsoft Dynamics 2009, users can define a remit-to address for the vendor. The remit-to address is used during the generate payments function as the payment address when the method of payment selected is check. This functionality does not let the user select a remit-to address on the invoice; it provides an alternate address that is used on checks. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 8 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Should have facility for defining more than one remit-to

address Do we see this being useful?

Yes

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Invoice Matching - AP Accounts payable invoice matching is the process of matching the vendor invoice, purchase order, and packing slip information. Vendor invoices are frequently based on packing slips that represent actual shipments, instead of on purchase orders. Sometimes the invoiced amounts do not match the purchase order amounts, and sometimes the shipped quantities do not match the invoiced quantities. Following features are added to achieve this functionality

New fields in Account Payables Parameters New fields in Inventory model Group – Receiving requirements and Deduction

requirements Item Price Tolerance groups Vendor Price Tolerance groups

Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes

Print Management – AP and AR Print management works with Accounts receivable and Accounts payable. Print management original records, copy records, and conditional settings can be defined at the module, account, or transaction level, controlling various activities that include the following:

Number of copies to produce Multilingual document footer text Print destination

Print management setups are now available for the following:

Specific Vendor or Customer Transaction Conditional print management settings - Customize the document output by using

conditional settings that are applied based on the results of a query. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s missing/ negative Do we see this being useful?

Yes

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Centralized Payments – AP and AR Organizations that include multiple companies can create and manage payments by using a central company. This eliminates the need to enter the same transaction in multiple companies and saves time by streamlining the payment proposal process, the settlement process, open transaction editing, and closed transaction editing for cross-company payments. In a centralized payment organization, each operating company manages its own invoice information and payments are received or paid by a central company, called the payment company. During the settlement process, the applicable due to and due-from transactions are generated. Users can specify which company within the organization will receive the realized gain or realized loss transactions, and how cash discount transactions that are related to a cross-company payment are handled. A virtual company must be set up for centralized payments. The same virtual company is used to process centralized vendor payments and centralized customer payments. Centralized payments can be done with all the standard features viz.,

Cash Discounts Realized exchange rate gain Credit notes with/without primary payments

Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s still missing? Do we see this being useful?

Yes. In case of clients with multiple entities

Centralized Statements - AR A centralized statement is a consolidated customer statement sent from one company that includes transactional data from one or more selected companies. On earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, a user was only able to print a customer statement for one company at a time. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 enables centralized statements. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s still missing? Do we see this being useful?

Yes. In case of clients with multiple entities

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Fixed Assets

Attributes Additional attributes provide a more detailed level of asset tracking, while minimizing data entry. Following are the new attributes introduced:

Major types - high-level classification types of assets, such as Equipment, Buildings, Land, Infrastructure, and Utilities.

Acquisition methods – Purchases or Donations Asset conditions - good, excellent, new, used, or refurbished Property type – Regular asset, Continuing or other intangible properties Replacement cost factor - percentage to increase or decrease the replacement cost of

the fixed asset Insured value factor percentage to increase or decrease the insured value of the fixed

asset GIS Layer ID - Identifies the default Geographic Information System (GIS) layer for fixed

assets (A GIS database is a third-party application) Quantity - number of units for the fixed asset Unit of measure - common unit of measure for the asset Unit cost - cost for each unit Model year - The year that the item was built Insurance vendor - insurance company that insures the fixed asset Agent - insurance agent for the insurance policy of the fixed asset Policy expiration date - expiration date on the insurance policy for the fixed asset Policy amount - amount for which the fixed asset is insured Last periodic value/cost update - date that the replacement cost or insured value was

last updated Insured at fair market value - indicate that the insurance for the fixed asset covers the

cost to replace the item. GIS reference number - The Geographic Information System (GIS) reference number,

which indicates the location of the fixed asset within the GIS layer Parcel ID - If the asset is land, enter the identifier for the parcel (plot or tract) Location memo - Notes about the location of the fixed asset Room number - room number where the fixed asset is located Contact person - name of an individual who might know more information about the

location of the fixed asset Lease note - If the fixed asset is leased, enter a reference number for the lease or a

different note about the lease Titleholder - The organization that holds the title for the fixed asset. Disposal restrictions - special procedures, if any, for proper disposal of the fixed asset

Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 9 What’s good about this? What’s still missing? Many of these Attributes are useful but are not complete as

client requires more information most of them related to

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Plant maintenance which are not covered here Do we see this being useful?

Yes

Capitalization Threshold Companies are usually required to depreciate assets that cost more than a defined amount. This defined amount, which is known as the Capitalization threshold, is defined as the threshold amount where assets will be depreciated if their cost price is equal to or exceeds the defined value. Assets that are depreciated will have their depreciation expense recorded and reported on during the asset's useful life. Similarly, assets that cost less than the threshold amount will not depreciate, but all non-depreciation costs (acquisition cost, adjustments, and so on) are still recorded and will update the general ledger. These assets are recorded for tracking purposes only, usually to a ledger expense account. Companies can define the threshold amount that they will use. Additionally, the threshold can be different for different types of assets. For example, technology purchases frequently have a different Capitalization threshold than office furniture. To help in ease of entry and more accurate tracking, a new Capitalization threshold is now available in the fixed asset group form. Assets auto created through purchase orders with an acquisition cost lower than the asset group's defined threshold will default the depreciation flag on the value models to an unchecked state, to indicate that depreciation will not be recorded for the asset. Assets purchased through fixed asset or other journals do not default the depreciation flag based on the capitalization threshold, but may have alerts established on their acquisition costs so that their depreciation check box may be manually adjusted. Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 8 What’s good about this? What’s still missing? This functionality is not valid for Fixed assets acquired

through FA journal or other journals where the depreciation flag has to be checked manually

Do we see this being useful?

Transactions Reversals On earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, transaction reversal functionality was added to enable users the ability to back out a transaction through a reversing entry. This functionality was not extended to the Fixed Asset module or to transactions in which an asset is referenced. Therefore users were unable to reverse Accounts Payable Invoices, General Ledger transactions, and AR Free text invoices that were linked to a fixed asset or any transactions entered within the fixed asset journal.

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The ability to perform reversals of fixed asset transactions is now provided. Letting the user reverse FA transactions creates a consistent user experience across application areas, and streamlines the process of correcting fixed asset related transactional errors. Examples of types of fixed asset transaction reversals that may be performed include the following:

Acquisition reversal (from fixed asset journal) Acquisition reversal (from accounts payable) Depreciation reversal Disposal- Scrap reversal Disposal- Sale reversal Write-up and Write-down reversals Revaluation reversals

Revoking the reversal transaction: Transactions previously reversed may also be reversed Importance of the feature 10 Completeness of the feature 10 What’s good about this? What’s still missing? Do we see this being useful?

Yes. Most common requirement as there are many chances of errors while acquiring the Fixed assets

Replacement cost and Insured value update Employees who work with fixed assets frequently do not put their main focus on asset management tasks. This results in the need to regularly automate their tasks. One such automation in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is the automation of updates to an asset's replacement cost and insured value. Companies also usually insure their assets for either the full replacement cost or a percentage of replacement cost, and have to regularly maintain these insured values for insurance inventory and audit purposes. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 provides a periodic process that enables a user to update the replacement cost and insured value of a group of assets, by using the newly added replacement cost and insured value factors on the Fixed Asset Group. Importance of the feature : 6 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

:

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Create Fixed Assets from Purchase Order In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, a user can attach a fixed asset to a Purchase Order line item; however the asset record must already exist within the fixed asset module. When the Purchase order line is invoiced, an acquisition transaction is created on the asset record, and the asset status is updated from “Not yet acquired” to “Open.” The acquisition process at a typical company may differ from this. For example, the user entering the purchase transaction (perhaps a purchasing agent) may know that the order is for a fixed asset, but may not know the asset number to associate to the purchase order. In other cases, the user entering the invoice (perhaps an accounts payable coordinator) may know the purchase was a fixed asset, but again typically may not know the asset number to assign the invoice to, because this function is typically performed by a staff accountant. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, new functionality exists that will enable a user to assign a purchase line item as a fixed asset purchase without requiring the asset record to be created beforehand, and auto-create the asset during the packing slip or invoice posting process. This feature will also let you define posting accounts for use in purchasing, when the item being purchased is for fixed asset usage. Additionally, organizations can manage the posting of asset acquisition transactions during purchase invoice posting through user group assignment. This enables an organization to assign a specific user group that can post asset acquisitions from purchase orders, or disabling this functionality. Additionally, the acquisition proposal functionality in fixed asset journals has been improved, to allow for acquisition of assets that have been invoiced, but are not yet acquired in fixed assets. This function is available so that the user who manages the fixed asset records (typically not the same user who records the vendor invoice for the asset) can create the asset acquisition transactions on the asset, and update the asset status to open, by retrieving purchase invoices that have been recorded against the asset. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes.

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Trade and Logistics The analysis for the trade and logistics is divided into the following sub-modules..

Accounts receivables Accounts payables Inventory management

In this section we will discuss each of these sub-modules for the new functionalities being introduced in each of these sub-modules.

Accounts receivables The sales orders and customer has been segregated to see the open sales orders, or invoiced sales orders or customers on hold etc. This has been elaborated in section: Filter Pane

Print management In Dynamics AX 2009 new print management setup has been introduced for customers and vendors. The print management setup information for each document type is defined in a hierarchical list that consists of modules, accounts, and transactions. At each level of the hierarchy, define print management original records, copy records, and settings for any of the available document types. When a document is generated, it is printed according to the effective original record and effective copy records. Up to 99 original or copy records can be created for every document type. Up to 19 conditional settings for each original or copy record can be created, in addition to the default setting.

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Importance of the feature : 6 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : User can restrict for each document whether the

original or a copy of document should be printed The user can define print management setup for free

text invoices also

What’s still missing? : Print management should also be extended to output orders, production orders, and shipments.

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Global address book On customers/vendors screen a field as address book is added to classify customers/vendors as organization or person. The address book is tied with the global address book and all the address like – business address, home address, delivery address, payment address can be defined in address book.

Information about all of the following entities is tracked in address book form:

Customers Vendors Employees Business relations Contact people Competitors

Importance of the feature 8 Completeness of the feature 8 What’s good about this? The addresses can be classified in detail

The addresses defined can be transferred to sales order/purchase order and use for delivery of invoice, delivery of goods etc.

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Credit card interface On the customer master, we can maintain the credit card information pertaining to that customer.

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The saved credit card can then be used to pre-authorize a sales order and then a settlement can be done when the item is shipped. The credit card number is stored in an encrypted format.

Importance of the feature 9 Completeness of the feature 7 What’s good about this? The credit card number is encrypted.

Transactions can be pre-authorized and you can setup the additional amount to be pre-authorized for freight in value or % terms with a maximum to be pre-authorized

The transactions for this customer such as sales orders can be charged via credit card.

What’s still missing? Payment gateways supported at this point only are

the Microsoft Dynamics Payment Services and Authorize.NET. A broader list that included Paypal Payflow Pro, Chase PaymenTech and some of the other leading processors would make this a lot more useful

Free Text invoices do not support the credit card

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payment method.

Sales order screen Pro forma The pro forma packing slip, pro forma invoice can be printed directly from the pro forma button on sales order/purchase order screen.

Importance of the feature : 6 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Users can view the pro forma before posting the

sales order directly from the form.

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Shipment documents While posting the sales order packing slip, the shipment labels can be printed showing the delivery address.

Importance of the feature 7 Completeness of the feature 9 What’s good about this? Carrier setup with integration to FedEx Ship

Manager, UPS World ship and Clipper Ship. The shipment labels are printed directly and user

does not have to depend on any other third party software for labels and pasted on the box.

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Returns Management In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, a user can control who can return items, which items can be returned, and the destination for returned items. Returns can be categorized according to return reasons or methods of disposition, and specific charges can be combined with the different return categories. Additionally, reports can be printed to determine the volume of returns for each item or customer and the time that is spent on handling customer returns. Also, a report is available to help determine how well the return process is managed. Return Reason Codes Applying reason codes on returns can help simplify the analysis of return patterns. The reason codes are set up to determine why a customer wants to return item(s).

Disposition Codes Disposition codes are defined as part of setup; they express what must happen to the returned items from both a physical and a financial perspective. The available options are defined by the disposition actions. As part of the item arrival and inspection, a disposition code will be assigned to the returned goods.

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In addition to specifying how to dispose of the returned goods, disposition codes can cause miscellaneous charges to be applied to the return line and may additionally be used to group returns for the purpose of statistical analysis.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : The goods once returned can be directly pushed into

a sales order from Return’s screen. Miscellaneous charges can be applied on returned

items. A return can be refunded, replaced or a credit note

can be issued. Automatic generation of RMA numbers. Ability to send acknowledgement when the goods

have been received

What’s still missing? : Support for return to vendor is missing Do we see this being useful?

: Very much so.

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Customer information on payment journal The customer payments can be settled and viewed from the customer payment screen on payment journal. On the payment journal screen, click Enter customer payment button and on customer field select the customer for which the payment has to be settled. All open transactions for the selected customer are shown in the grid below.

Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Open transactions for customer can be viewed from

this screen. The open transactions can also be viewed across

companies. Show document button shows the origin of the

transaction. Save to journal button will copy the payment to

journal and user does not have to go into settlement screen.

User can select the currency and enter the amount to be settled, the exchange rate conversion is done by system automatically.

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Accounts payables The purchase orders and vendors have been segregated to see the unconfirmed purchase orders, purchase orders not invoices or vendors on hold etc.

Purchase requisition: Purchase requisition functionality now offers users the option of creating purchase requisitions, which are documents that authorize the purchasing department to purchase materials. In addition, a purchase requisition workflow can be created that enables control of the purchase requisitioning process, before the purchase requisition is accepted and the purchase order is created and submitted to vendors. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : Purchase requisition functionality gives better

visibility to the purchased goods – like who requested and the reason for requisition.

What’s still missing? : A purchase requisition can be converted into a quote but not purchase order directly

Request for quote (RFQ) A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is a standard business process whose purpose is to invite suppliers into a bidding process to bid on specific products and/or services. It is a document issued when an organization wants to buy something and chooses to invite companies so that they can submit competitive bids

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Scenario Create a Request for Quote The purchasing agent has a future requirement of an item which can be supplied from more than one vendor. User creates an RFQ for the item, selects which vendors they want to reply on the RFQ, and then states the required response time (expiry date) on the RFQ. User chooses multiple vendors to respond to the RFQ and then chooses to send the RFQ to the selected vendors. After a time, purchasing agent receives the vendor replies to the RFQ. He enters the reply information on the RFQ, both header and line for each vendor. The original RFQ information is kept, and the vendor received information is added in parallel to existing RFQs, in such a way that agent may easily refer to what was requested and what was replied for each vendor. When the RFQ expiry date is passed, Agent then receives a notification. Agent consults the RFQ to see if replies from any of the vendors are missing. Because all replies have been collected, He decides to compare the replies. He has the option to have Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 help her perform the comparison by ranking the replies according to criteria such as best total price, best total delivery time, and so on. When doing the comparison, Agent identifies one RFQ reply as better than the other replies for total price for the RFQ reply. He accepts this reply and the status of the vendor specific RFQ reply is updated to Accepted. Upon accepting the reply, a purchase order is created from the vendor specific RFQ reply. Replies from the other vendors on the RFQ are rejected, and he decides on a reason code to be assigned to the rejection.

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Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : The RFQs are shown can be shown on

website/SharePoint, so that makes it easy for vendors to view the RFQs. Effort for sending the RFQs is reduced.

One of our customers had requested this feature and it was not present in 4.0. Now we can go back to that customer and show that this functionality is out of box.

What’s still missing? : The RFQs should be covered by master planning as

well. There should be an option of planned RFQs and user can firm planned RFQs to convert them to RFQs.

Do we see this being useful?

: This features common business requirements viz., Renaming Item names, Payment terms etc., which should have system-wide effect.

The following features are common in AR and AP.

Print management Pro forma Global address book

Inventory management The objectives are:

Arrival overview Explain the shipment reservation process Explain the new consolidated picking method Describe the Pick and Deliver process Staging functionality Describe how to set up, activate and complete a refill pallet transport Explain the new shipment carrier interface feature

Arrival overview The new Arrival Overview form provides an overview of items that are expected to arrive and information about the date that they are expected to arrive. The new Arrival overview form is introduced to improve the overview of items expected to arrive as incoming goods. The Arrival overview form is an improved tool to estimate and plan the resource capacity that is required to efficiently handle incoming goods.

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Scenario The purchasing department needs a good overview of the expected incoming items, including when to expect them. When items arrive, user is now able to efficiently match the information that arrives with the items to the receiving information in the system. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Users are able to view and plan well about the goods

to be received in inventory. Users can quarantine the items which does not meet

the quality standards of the organization. Items to be received can be received in various

warehouses/locations as per the needs Packing slip can be posted from this screen also.

What’s still missing? : Those purchase orders with batch number

dimension on are not shown in arrival overview screen. (bug)

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Consolidated picking Now items can be picked by using three methods:

Consolidated picking Order picking Inventory transaction picking

Consolidated picking is termed as such because multiple orders can be combined into one picking list. The orders can potentially be of different types, for example sales order or transfer order. Consolidated picking uses advanced shipment functionality such as reservation through shipment, activate picking, activate pallet transport, and guided picking routes. Consolidated picking lets the user perform a guided picking operation if the items to pick are inventory and location controlled. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Users can pick more than one orders at a time.

Staging The purpose of the Staging feature is to give user, who is responsible for shipping and receiving, an overview of shipments in the outbound dock and enable the warehouse worker, to rearrange and re-pack shipments. The Staging feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 makes it possible to move items between pallets within a shipment or across shipments, and to move items to the floor from the picking pallets. Importance of Feature: 9 Completeness of Feature: 8 What’s good about this?

Business users can stage the items received and can hold the inventory till the time quality check is in process

The items those are not meeting business quality standards can be easily returned back without receiving those items into inventory

The items received can be staged first and then redirected to the relevant warehouses/locations

What’s still missing? Item arrival overview should show returned items as well.

Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Business users can stage the items received and

can hold the inventory till the time quality check is in process

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The items those are not meeting business quality standards can be easily returned back without receiving those items into inventory

The items received can be staged first and then redirected to the relevant warehouses/locations

What’s still missing? : Item arrival overview should show returned items as

well.

Shipping Carrier Interface Microsoft Dynamics AX customers use many shipping carriers to deliver their products to customers. The new shipment carrier interface provides integration to the shipping carrier's software. A user can perform the following tasks:

Calculate freight charges and add them to invoices as miscellaneous charges Facilitate a will-call request by using the Sales pickup form Request and manage tracking numbers by generating them in the shipping carrier

software, and then copying them into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Print labels with the carrier software using address information from Microsoft Dynamics

AX 2009 Scenario The person responsible for shipping and receiving, posts a packing slip. The information on that packing slip is stored in a way that allows the carrier software to read it. User uses the carrier software to pull the packing slip information from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, and then prints labels and requests a pickup from the selected carrier for the package. The accounts receivable administrator invoices the sales order and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 updates the order with shipping charges and packing slip information before the invoice is created. Importance of Feature: 8 Completeness of Feature: 6 What’s still missing?

Dynamics AX 2009 can only communicate with shipping software and not the web service

Price comparison functionality not available. A report should be printed showing the orders which are delivered or which didn’t got

delivered on time. If more than one package is being shipped – user should have ability to ship the cost

across all packages. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 6 What’s still missing? : Dynamics AX 2009 can only communicate with

shipping software and not the web service Price comparison functionality not available. A report should be printed showing the orders which

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are delivered or which didn’t got delivered on time. If more than one package is being shipped – user

should have ability to ship the cost across all packages.

Transfer Journals In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, both receipt and issue use the same LotID, but to make financial postings when site dimensions on receipt and issue are different and have a financial dimension associated with the transactions, requires additional LotID information on the transactions. Instead of having the same LotID on receipt and issue transactions, a new unique Transfer reference LotID is added. User, who is responsible for shipping and receiving, does not experience any difference from the existing functionality within transfer journal, but to make the new LotID information visible, a LotID field is added on the General tab in the Journal lines form.

The LotID is also shown in the Transactions form for the journal. The following example shows posting to ledger when a user posts a Transfer journal with different From and To site dimensions.

Importance of Feature: 5 Completeness of Feature: 9 Importance of the feature : 5 Completeness of the feature : 9

Multisite Adding multiple site capability to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 impacts all functional feature areas that support supply chain transactions that are relevant to the different sites. Multisite functionality enables users to work with multiple sites, within a single legal entity (that is, one Microsoft Dynamics AX company). Multisite feature will be really helpful for the customers which have presence in more than one geographical region. Site has been added has new storage dimension in the Dynamics AX 2009 The following graphic shows a company with three operational sites, located in different states in the United States. The relationships of the sites to one another, the flow of goods, the various work centers, warehouses, and soon, need to be thoroughly understood before multisite is activated.

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Multisite in Trade and Source Multisite functionality impacts the Trade and Source area in the following ways:

Time zones, delivery date control and preferred customer deadlines: The delivery date control feature has been enhanced so that order entry deadlines can be specified for each site, depending on the sites time zone. In addition, preferred customers can now be assigned a later order entry deadline than other customers, when necessary.

Set up of preferred vendors: A preferred vendor can be set up based on the coverage planned inventory dimension that exists for each item.

Split posting: Order posting can be split based on address information. Now order posting can also be split based on site.

Multisite in Inventory Management Many enhancements made in Inventory management to support multisite have a direct effect on the production and master planning areas of SCM. The changes listed below (with the exception of Posting to General Ledger), are described in more detail in the Production and Master Planning lesson.

Site implemented as an inventory (storage) dimension: The new site dimension, and enhancements to the existing dimensions framework, provides the structural foundation of the multisite functionality. Much of this change in functionality takes place in the Inventory management area of SCM. Site is implemented as an inventory storage dimension to ensure that it gets stamped on all transactions, and to maximize leverage of the existing framework and infrastructure. The site dimension is mandatory when multisite functionality is active.

Warehouse hierarchy system: This system is set up in the Inventory management area to associate one or more warehouses to a particular site.

Site specific BOM and routes: Site specific BOMs and routes can be created to allow for the automatic selection of the correct BOM and route version (as well as the item dimensions) when working with multiple sites.

Posting to General Ledger: Transfer journals and transfer orders across site dimensions can now be posted into the General Ledger.

Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this?

: Another level of detailing can be maintained by using sites as storage dimensions.

The order entry deadlines can be enforced. Warehouse hierarchies can be maintained under

sites. On-hand visibility extended with filtering by site. Ability to maintain BOM and routes for the same item

on different sites.

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What’s still missing? : Site is a storage dimension, if site is not activated before implementation, user may not be able to use it later, because dimensions cannot be edited once transactions are done in system.

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Production

Available-to-Promise Available-to-promise (ATP) functionality has been introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. This functionality is used primarily by manufacturing/distributing companies that sell products from their own inventory. It not only takes lead times and available dates into account, but also planned receipts and issues. ATP does not replace the current explosion functionality (which in practice can be seen as a capable-to-promise (CTP) calculation), or the current delivery date control functionality. Instead, the ATP functionality is an alternative that can be selected, when a CTP or delivery date explosion is not necessary.

Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This is an alternative to existing Explosion functional with a better

user interface and enhanced coverage including planned issues and receipts

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What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : This enhancement will provide complete statistics of an item and

is very handy for Sales people in Distribution and Manufacturing companies

User interface improvements to Gantt chart The Gantt Chart has been updated in Microsoft Dynamics 2009 with the latest version of the external Netronic XGantt tool. Improvements have been made to the user interface that includes a better time scale display, the addition of colors and histograms and a simplification of the setup process. Other new features are:

Indication of late orders Progress bar Order and resource views User defined grouping criteria New manual rescheduling A lot of smaller fixes, for example multiple load histograms for work centers

Figure: Resource view of Gantt chart

More transparent Job Scheduling in Gantt Chart The Gantt Chart has also been improved to increase transparency during job scheduling. The Resource view shows jobs based on work centers and the Other view shows jobs based on orders.

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Figure: Order view of Gantt chart This enhancement allows the user to simulate different scheduling scenarios and test various options. This is possible since planned scheduling changes are not official until the changes have been submitted. For example, the Shop floor supervisor can move jobs around in the production schedule to see the consequences of various alternatives. When he or she is satisfied that the schedule is optimal, a decision can be made as to whether or not to finalize and commit to this new schedule. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Gantt chart has now become very user friendly and gives more

detailed information on the processes times. What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes. Gantt chart has been enhanced to a greater extent from

previous versions of Ax with more detailed information at the processes. Manual rescheduling, validation and Saving the changes is a very useful feature for Production plants

Production at Multiple sites The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Production module now includes features that support a company's ability to maintain a variety of production sites distributed over different geographic locations. The production sites must be contained within a single legal unit, that is, they must be run by the same defined Microsoft Dynamics AX company.

Production unit The production unit is a new dimension used in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 in the multisite environment. It provides a means of structuring and assembling all company resources and data in groupings that are relevant to each site or company. The production unit:

Reflects the physical layout of resources and data particular to each site or company. Is unique for each site or for each company. Simplifies BOM maintenance and identification of resources at each site or company.

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Is used to filter information (in key forms), to enable the user to print documents or view analytical data for each site or company.

Is not stamped on any inventory transactions.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This is a major functionality added in DYNAMICS AX 2009

through addition of Site as a mandatory inventory dimension. Now companies with multiple production sites can manage the planning and Production site-wise. Site-specific BOMs and Routes add more flexibility to the planning engine.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes; Very useful for companies with multiple Production sites.

Most of the companies have multiple Production sites to avail local purchase benefits, tax benefits or cater faster deliveries to customers. DYNAMICS AX 2009 has complete solution for such companies.

Consistent Inventory Dimensions Consistent inventory dimensions are a prerequisite for the implementation of multisite functionality. In the previous dimension framework, there was no guarantee that an inventory dimension had the same value for all inventory transactions with the same Lot ID. For instance, if the site inventory dimension was changed after an order was picked, but before it was invoiced, the cost and revenue may end up on different sites, and it is not possible to measure the profit and loss by site.

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The inventory dimensions framework has been enhanced to ensure that dimension values entered for size, color, configuration (and site) are kept consistent, not only for the source transaction, but for all subsequent inventory transactions that share the same account number.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : In the dimension group Size, Color and Site are by default marked

mandatory. User cannot change the dimensions in between the transactions, thus providing consistency in the information throughout the processes. Flexibility has been provided for this functionality by allowing changing the Site dimension in case of Sales orders to facilitate multiple shipments from different sites. Size and Color dimensions also change can be made in cases of erroneous data entry.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes; Using consistent dimension values enables a company to

keep track of the original transaction and trace it through to its completion. Profit & Loss statements can be site specific and hence there can be consistency in information required for P & L statement if the consistency is maintained in the Site dimension.

Site specific Production parameters Site specific production parameters allow companies to define specific parameters for each geographical site that often have differences between them when it comes to the actual production.

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Production parameters can either be defined based on the requirements of the individual sites or they can be defined at the company level. If they are defined at the company level, they will apply to all sites in the company. The following graphic is an overview of the kinds of production parameters that can be defined, including those with general impact, those that impact journals and those that impact the standard and automatic update processes.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : In the company hierarchy Site has been a significant addition and

hence the features have been accordingly parameterized. What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes; In case of multisite environment different Production sites will

have different policies / strategies depending on the products range / volume being manufactured. To cater this requirement each site should have different parameters to be setup.

Site specific BOMs and Routes Site specific BOMs and routes are created to allow for the automatic selection of the correct BOM and route version (as well as the item dimensions) when working with multiple sites. The main elements of this feature are:

BOM and route selection, now based on the new site and item dimensions, is considered in master planning.

For BOM versions that are not site-specific, the user can assign the BOM line consumption to a work center, as an alternative to the issuing warehouse as stated on the BOM line.

Defining a general BOM version It is common industry practice for the same BOM to be used to produce an item at different sites, using different routes. To support this, the user can now define a general BOM version that does not specify a site or a warehouse. The BOM line consumption is assigned to the work center and becomes work center consumption. The work center references a production unit, which further states the picking warehouse. Importance of the feature : 10

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Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : In multisite environment it is required that the BOMs and Routes

have to be site specific. BOM and Route versions can be maintained specific to each site. These are considered by Master planning for generating requirements and planned order accordingly. With the flexibility to create a general BOM version this feature looks complete.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes; For multisite environments

Site specific Master data settings Site specific master data settings enable the user to define item master data settings when creating and generating orders at the site level. These settings remain unchanged whether or not multisite functionality is active. Even if multisite is not active, the Site specific order settings form is still available and can be used to prepare for an eventual transition to multisite functionality in the future.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : A new inventory storage dimension Site has been added site

specific setting of an item can be setup. The details in Quantity tab in Item master of previous Ax versions has been moved to this feature which can be accessed through setup and breadcrumb bar

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : Yes; In case of multisite environment this is very useful. But in

case of single site this is an additional configuration item.

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Advanced On hand The Inventory On Hand feature has been added to provide a better overview of item availability. Users can now view and compare the alternatives for how to supply the items that the customer requires, at the point in time when the customer wants them.

Importance of the feature : 5 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Instead of going to Items forms and checking the On hand or

going to Inquiries and check on hand from this menu item we can directly check the On hand inventory. Does not have any new inquiries from this screen.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful? : No

Multisite Production Scenarios The table below lists possible production scenarios and the extent to which they are supported in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 at present. Production Scenario AX 4.0 AX 2009 Single Production Site, Multiple Warehouses X X Multiple Production Sites, Shared Distribution Center X Multiple Local Production Sites, One Shared Production Site X Group of Multiple Companies, Shared Distribution Centers X Local Production Sites in Multiple Countries X X Global Production Sites in Multiple Countries Single Production Spanning Multiple Locations X

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Scenario #1: Company with multiple sites and shared distribution

Company with multiple sites and shared distribution Process and Roles in such scenario:

The two production sites, as well as the distribution center, are modeled as operational sites One local production planner at each production site, is responsible for master planning for the

products that are only produced at that site One Global Production planner performs master planning for those products that are produced at

both sites. One local Shop floor supervisor, is only managing production orders for the production site he is

responsible for The warehouse in the distribution center has a different set of inventory parameters than the

production related warehouses. Each site is a separate profit center. In managing Sales orders, filters are applied to help avoid making mistakes by creating orders

directly from the production sites. Scenario #2: Company with multiple sites and one shared site

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Company with multiple sites and one shared site Process and Roles in such scenario:

All production sites are part of the same legal entity. Each production site is modeled as an operational site. Each production site is a separate profit center. The standard cost of items differs by site. There is only one BOM for each item, which is used by all production sites. Product designer at site S above creates and maintains BOMs for the specialized products. The local Process engineer creates and maintains routes for the production site that he is

responsible for. The local Production planner is responsible for master planning at his production site. The Shop floor supervisor can only manage production orders for his own site. The Sales representative and the Order processor, only manage orders from the sites in their

region. Some users can operate on data from multiple production sites. When transferring inventory items between production sites A-D, a markup shows profit and loss

for the site with the item in stock. Scenario #3: Single Production site at multiple locations

Single Production site at multiple locations

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Process and Roles in such scenario:

Each production site is modeled as an operational site Each production site is a separate profit center Each site can manage their inventory according to different strategies, that is using different

parameters Parts and sub-assemblies can be moved between sites with a minimum of overhead (for

example, without requiring Intercompany transfer orders) BOMs for products and sub-assemblies are created and managed across all three production

sites The global process engineer manages routes spanning all three production sites The global production planner, performs master planning across all production sites The order processor at the corporate headquarters, takes orders for both cast items, spare parts,

and finished farming equipment from customers across the country, and the system automatically determines which site to fulfill from based on where the item is produced

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CRM The CRM features of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 bring companies closer to the goal of clear management of the sales cycle. These features provide better visibility into sales processes not only for those at the home office of the business, but also to those that are at remote locations, or mobile, or outside the company. The features enable documentation of processes and procedures for future use and for training of personnel. The improved features will help companies to gain efficiencies in their sales processes and make improvements to the business health of the company.

Snapshot of new functionality in CRM Working with Leads Managing opportunities Defining Processes Importing Business Files List Pages Defining Responsibilities Accounting for Time Zone Differences Sales Force Automation through Enterprise Portal Using global address book

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Managing Leads Lead Management is a feature of Sales Force Automation that enables sales teams to collect and store information about a lead and also develop sales activities and tasks that qualify leads into opportunities. Lead Management - In Lead Management, the lead record stores all information that can be collected about any lead. This feature will provide Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM users the ability to store any collected information and methodically arrange or organize that information for retrieval, reviewing, updating, and reporting Lead Qualifying Process - Lead Qualifying provides Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM users the ability to determine a series of actions, changes, functions, or operations that determine if a lead qualifies as an opportunity or a customer. In this feature, Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM users will be able to associate these components to each stage in the qualifying process:

Activities Responsibilities Employees Campaigns Questionnaires and their responses

Users of this module will also be able to define rules for moving into the next stage or activity and then decide if the prospect is qualified. After qualifying, the user will be able to create the opportunity or customer information. When disqualifying a lead, the user can delete the lead or leave the status as disqualified. The leads can be converted into Business Relations, customers and opportunities. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : The previous version of Ax had only Business Relations.

Now the user can differentiate between leads, opportunities and business relations Now, the sales department can separate out possible leads from Business Relations

What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

: The Leads can be used as a pre-cursor to an entity being a Business Relations, to qualify them before proceeding. However there is a way that a lead can directly be converted to Customers. They can drive a lead through a sales process workflow and define the stage of the lead

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Managing Opportunities Opportunity Management enables the ability to create, develop, and close sales deals. Opportunity management also enables sales people to track information in a central location to facilitate the appropriate sales methodology. An opportunity is the record that brings all of the information from a selling scenario together. Opportunity management lets you centrally locate all opportunity related Interactions: Communications, Contacts, Competitors, Partners, Products being quoted, Quoted prices, Quantities, Sales stage, Associated documentation Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : The previous version of Ax had only Business Relations.

Now the user can differentiate between leads, opportunities and business relations. Now, the sales department can separate out possible opportunities and all the related information related to that opportunity

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Sales and Pre-Sales Process

Define Processes Process Definition is a standard procedure for creating business processes for CRM functions such as the following:

Sales Cycles Lead Qualifying Marketing Campaigns Telemarketing Processes Case Management

There are no fixed sales or marketing processes that are common to all companies, but companies generally want to outline the methods, steps, and artifacts that employees have to follow while they work with leads, prospects, campaigns, and support cases. Some companies have simple processes, while others have specific and highly developed processes. Microsoft Dynamics AX is flexible enough to work for both types of companies. Example Sales Cycle

1. Contact CEO and work down the organization to the required point of contact 2. Share Product Catalogues over email 3. Gather and analyze all information about the account 4. Set up an appointment with the customer 5. Outcome from the meeting is that you must have completed the high level details

packet: a. Key business points including cost, risk, and schedule b. Write description of customer need

6. Prepare go/no go recommendation based on initial account information form

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7. Obtain approval of go/no go recommendation; include the original copy of the initial account information form

8. Communicate go/no go decision to customer 9. Continue to meet with customer and address any questions or issues; 10. Prepare Final Proposal 11. Obtain approval of final proposal 12. Make presentation to senior management 13. Send a thank you letter to the customer for the opportunity to work with them 14. Respond quickly to any inquiries 15. Close sale

Because of the varying applications for which processes are needed, Microsoft Dynamics AX has to provide a flexible framework to enable organizations to define their business processes as they want. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : The application allows the user to define multiple Sales

Processes and associate different workflows to different entities. The application now offers the feature of driving the sales process according to the process workflow defined in the system, ensuring the information and method of sales is exactly what needs to be to ensure growing sales

What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

: Defining the sales Process. A similar feature can be replicated elsewhere in the application for implementations

Importing Business Files Importing of files has been expanded in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to enable users to import large files to build records for credit cards, contact persons, and leads. Importing large lists of contact persons and leads will greatly reduce the time and resources companies have to build records in Microsoft Dynamics AX from information that is collected externally. The application supports the import of lists that contain names and contact information about individuals, businesses, and organizations. Some of these lists can be another company's contacts, leads, prospects, or customer records which they sell to, or share with, other companies. These lists can also be obtained from sources such as the Internet or consumer reports. Frequently, these lists contain hundreds of records which, if entered manually, result in large costs to the company. Import functionality greatly reduces the costs associated with entering these lists. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : There is a possibility of importing information related to

contacts and business relations from unstructured files. IN the previous version, only excel uploads were possible in very structured format

What’s still missing? : Feature Complete

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Do we see this being useful?

: Makes the implementation easy and reduces the system adoption time. User can get comfortable with the system very fast

Use of List Pages for Navigation Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 has improved navigation features that fit the roles of users. If a user has a role that frequently works with CRM features, the user can set up a home page that contains the CRM information that he or she works with most.

List page - a user interface element within the Microsoft Dynamics AX application workspace that contains an action pane and a list of related items that you can select and perform actions against

Action pane - the area at the top of a Microsoft Dynamics AX list page that contains action pane buttons that are relevant to the list page. Users select one or more records in the list page, and then click an action pane button to perform an action on the selected record(s)

Action - a button that is used to perform an action against the records that are selected in a list page; action pane buttons appear on the action pane

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Action tab - a set of groups displayed on an action pane that are relevant for a type of work; for example, the General tab has the List group which includes Print Preview, Send to Printer, Export to Excel

Action group - part of the action pane where a subset of actions are displayed

Importance of the feature : 6 Completeness of the feature : NA What’s good about this? : Improved look and feel What’s still missing? : NA Do we see this being useful?

: User friendly

Define Responsibilities Responsibilities are tasks or activities within a sales process that are defined by users and assigned to specific people within the organization. There is no limit to the number of responsibilities that can be assigned. The Sales Force Automation module must be licensed to use this feature. Letting users define responsibilities provides the organization with the flexibility to define a process on the organizational level and identify the person who is responsible for each activity. Then when a different process is used for a similar business procedure, the user who is assigning responsibilities can refer to the previously defined process to assign activities to people. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Various processes in the sales cycle can be designated to

different employees of the organization. What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

: This feature can be used to track the effectiveness of the Sales Force

Account for Time Zone Differences in Activities

Handling of time zones is enabled in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, and to accommodate this, changes have been made in the activities functionality. The time zone functionality is changed by the replacement of some date fields that are directly related to time fields by using combined date/time fields. All date/time field values will be stored in a unified time code (UTC). The date/time fields will be displayed in the actual users’ time zone in UTC. You must consider what this means for activities and how to work with activities in relation to multiple attendees and with Microsoft Office Outlook synchronization.

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For example, Barry, who is located in Denver—in the U.S. Mountain time zone—needs assistance from his colleagues on a task and enters two attendees on the associated activity, one in Seattle in the Pacific time zone (-1 hour) and one in New York in the Eastern time zone (+2 hours). Barry scheduled the task for 11:00pm on August 23 and can see that the task in Seattle is at 10pm on August 23 and at 1:00am on August 24 in New York. Barry wants to synchronize the activity to Microsoft Outlook and synchronize several activities he has entered in Microsoft Office Outlook to Microsoft Dynamics AX. Barry finishes the synchronization and validates that the times match in both applications. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Activities and tasks which are time bound can now be

synchronized with time zone differences in consideration What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

: Calendar synchronization between people and task deadlines

Enable Sales Force Automation Activities through Enterprise Portal Enabling access to Sales Force Automation features through the Enterprise Portal strengthens functionality and increases support for the field sales force by: • Giving users access to information regardless of their physical location • Increasing the usability for members of the sales force, thus increasing efficiency Organizations are looking to increase the bottom line in different ways. Two of those ways are: • Keeping valued employees by enabling them to work from home • Outsourcing departments Companies spend lots of money recruiting and training people and, if enabling them to work from home increases retention, the company saves money. By enabling tele-commuting, companies save money by: • Cutting moving expenses • Reducing office space • Reducing the need for furniture • Reducing incidentals that support employees in an office setting By rendering CRM functionality in Enterprise Portal, Microsoft Dynamics AX is providing companies the flexibility to make organizational decisions without additional headaches. Employees can access all the functionality and information that they must have to perform their jobs without installing the application on their computers. Additionally, salespeople can log on from any computer that has an Internet connection, extending their ability to close more sales. If the company chooses to outsource departments, they can still maintain ownership of the data by enabling the vendor to access the information from the main database. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10

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What’s good about this? : With CRM module being available on the enterprise portal, most sales force can log on to the web and track the status of the work rather than having to log into a domain and access Ax

What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

: Easy access to information

Track Business Information through Global Address Book

The global address book is a repository for every person or organization that your organization comes in contact with. Customers can be linked to one another across all Microsoft Dynamics AX. Multiple entities across different companies within the enterprise can also be tracked in the address book. This Global Address Book originally had the main goal of redesigning Business Relations into separate, more CRM-specific feature areas such as: • Leads for Lead Management • Business relations and competitors for Opportunity Management A move that was initiated by developers to normalize Microsoft Dynamics AX databases of people, businesses, and locations has since expanded the focus of this effort. The normalized database supports an address book that uniquely captures the basic identity of a person or an organization. The benefits of the global address book include: • View relations between people and organizations • View of all enterprise relations • Enable payroll or accounts payable clerks to view if employees are setup as vendors to pay expenses • Setup for new records by copying information from another record or company • Restricting the view of business relations to only pre-customer and pre-vendor information to enable viewing of information from the customer or vendor forms

Use Virtual Companies to Restrict Address Book Access Many enterprises prefer to have one single, global address book that is shared by all companies that enables a holistic view of all activity. However, some enterprises require the ability to sub-divide the address book into multiple address books so that the information is not visible to all companies. Importance of the feature : 6 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : More access to information What’s still missing? : Feature Complete Do we see this being useful?

:

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Project Accounting There are several changes to the Project module. Some changes deal with integration points into other modules and external systems, and other changes are to the core functionality. Integration points for Projects:

Direct integration with Microsoft Project Server Integration with Production module Integration with Purchase module

New features

New Project control menu to obtain and analyze project data Trade Agreements Enhanced Project Stages

Integration with Microsoft Project Server 2007 The Project Accounting module of Microsoft Dynamics AX can now be integrated to Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Project Pro. To do this, several changes had been made to Microsoft Dynamics AX. To integrate with the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Microsoft Project, an activity tree has been added to the Project Accounting Module. There have also been some custom fields added to Project Server to integrate with required fields on a project record in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Additionally, new tables had been created to manage the automatic integration to Project Server.

Activity tree and Activity Hierarchy The first major change made to the Project Accounting module is the addition of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to the Activity table. The WBS enables the project module to have an activity hierarchy. This enables Activities to be grouped together under a node and assigned start and end dates. The main purpose of this function is to give the project manager an overview of activity deliverables and supply order task on a project. With the new Activity Tree format for project activities, smaller tasks can be created as sub-tasks for larger tasks or phases of a project. Start and end dates can be assigned to activities in addition to assigning the task to a specific employee on the project. The activity hierarchy also can be displayed in a Gantt chart to obtain a graphical display of the sequence of the tasks to be performed for the project.

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Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This feature is for a dashboard view of the Project with all

the subprojects / subtasks. What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Work Breakdown Structure is a typical Project Management requirement. This feature has adequate functionality to drill down up to the required task of the project with various details.

Synchronizing DYNAMICS AX Projects with Project Server The changes that were made to the Activity screen were designed to create a smoother integration to Microsoft Project Server. Therefore, Microsoft Project Server and the Project Accounting module of Microsoft Dynamics AX now can be synchronized automatically. The synchronization provides several advantages for both Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Project Server users:

Direct integration into a Project Accounting system for Project Server users. View of project actuals in Project Server. Microsoft Dynamics AX users can take advantage of resource scheduling and planning

features of Project. Project managers familiar with Microsoft Project can take advantage of the Microsoft

Dynamics AX software in a format that they are already familiar with.

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The synchronization process was designed to keep projects in Microsoft Project and Microsoft Dynamics AX up to date with one another. But the synchronization does not occur on the creation or update on all objects. The following table outlines how the objects are updated by the integration between Microsoft Dynamics AX and Project Server. Microsoft Dynamics AX Term

Project Server Term

Integration Method

Activity Task PS to AX, AX to PS Hierarchy WBS PS to AX, AX to PS Employee Resource AX to PS Only Project Project PS to AX, AX to PS Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This is a major change in the Projects Accounting module.

Direct integration with Projects Server will reduce the redundancy of maintaining separate plan in Projects Server.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. This was the most required feature of most of the clients.

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Integration to Production In earlier versions, the only way to create a production order from a project was to create an item requirement and then a production order from the item requirement. Now a production order can be created directly from a project and can automatically create and post project transactions in step with the production posting.

Project Production orders setup

For the setup of Production orders in projects, there is one main option which determines how the production order creates project transactions. There are two posting methods for production which can be selected on the Production tab of the Project parameters table. The two options are Finished item and Consumed. For the Finished item method:

Project transactions that are created as items are finished using the production process. Only item transactions are created as the production order is report as finished. Not recommended for long production cycles

For the Consumed method:

Project transactions are created through each step of the Production process. Item transactions are created as raw materials are consumed. Hour transactions are created as employee hours are charged to the production order. This method is recommended for companies with long production cycles that have to

recognize costs as they occur in the production process. The consumed method also allows for using the new production cost buckets that will

track indirect costs.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Production orders can now be created from Projects and

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can be tracked accordingly. Item transactions as well as costs against the Production can be tracked in the Projects

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Useful for the clients who use internal Production units in Projects execution instead of procuring the material required for the project from vendors. With the available functionality it is also easy to keep track of the cost of the production.

Production Order creation from Project

Integration to Purchasing There are two new features in the Supply Chain Management module which also integrate into the Project modules:

Purchase Requisitions Request for Quotations (RFQ)

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Project Purchase Requisition Purchase requisitions have been changed to handle purchasing with the new workflow features built into Microsoft Dynamics AX. A purchase requisition adds approval steps to creating of purchase orders to help companies have better control over their purchasing. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, requisitions are submitted for approval through the Microsoft Dynamics AX workflow engine and are then routed to a specific person for approval. As soon as approved, the purchase requisition will become a purchase order in the system. For the use of project purchase requisitions in the Project Accounting module, there is more control over how to create project purchase orders by the project manager. Now the project manager can enable project team members to create purchase requisitions through either the Enterprise portal or the Microsoft Dynamics AX client and approve the necessary requisitions. As soon as approved, project purchase requisitions can be converted into either a project purchase order or project RFQ. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Purchase Requisition is a new functionality introduced in

DYNAMICS AX 2009 and has been integrated to Project module. With this functionality users can raise Purchase requisitions for specific Project thereby providing track of the requisitions per Project.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Project based purchase requisitions are very frequent requirements of clients and this functionality serves the purpose.

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Project RFQs A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is designed to help enable several vendors to bid on a purchase contract and then select a vendor based on price and delivery dates. After a vendor is selected, the RFQ will then be converted to a purchase order. There are several advantages for using RFQs for a project manager. When RFQ functionality is used, it can help the project manager find the lowest cost vendor or which vendor can provide the goods or service by the desired date. An RFQ created from the Project form will behave in the same manner as an RFQ created from the Accounts Payable form. The only differences are as follows:

A purchase order created from a project RFQ will be a project purchase order. The Project field on the RFQ will display the related project record.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Request For Quotation is a new functionality introduced in

DYNAMICS AX 2009 and has been integrated to Project module. Against a Project requirement an RFQ can be generated to various vendors and multiple Quotations. Upon receipt of quotations from vendor then depending on the lowest quote and other applicable factors the order can be placed on a specific vendor which will be a Project purchase order differing from the Purchase Order of Accounts payable module.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. RFQ is the most required functionality for Materials dept. of any company. This functionality is extended to Projects for more control on the project-wise quotations being received. This would provide history for future projects.

New Project Control Options New Project Control menu is a replacement to Statistics form and Invoice Control form with enhancements which will help Project Managers gain more control over projects. The new project control menu has the following options:

Project Statements (formerly the Statistics form) Cost Control (new form) Invoice Control (same as earlier versions) Hour Utilization (new form) Cash flow (new form)

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Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Project Control provides complete statistics of a Project. What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. These are statistics required by Management against each project.

Committed Cost The project module has been modified to now track committed cost. This is important for any project manager who wants to gain a more accurate view of project costs beyond only transactions that have been registered to the project. Committed cost is any cost that will be charged to a project but has not been charged yet. The following are examples of committed cost against a project:

A project purchase order that has been created but not invoiced. A project production order that has been created but not started. An hours journal that has been created but not posted.

The committed cost is especially important for the Cost Control screen which uses it to measure total costs of a project against the budget. Committed cost can be turned on and off for specific transactions by going to the Project Parameters screen. Click the Cost control tab and then click the desired check boxes to turn on committed cost for that transaction type. The choices are as follows:

Purchase order Item requirement

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Production Sales order Item journal

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : A Cost control tool which give the dashboard statistics of the

cost against various parameters that are selected viz., Purchase order, Production order etc., besides the standard Project transaction viz., Item, Hours and Expense.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. With this functionality all the costs that have been incurred against various activities like PO, SO, Production order, Item Requirement, Items Journal in a Project can be tracked.

Exporting Project controls to Excel Another change that has been made to make these project control screens more useful is the export to Microsoft Excel feature. Each of these screens has an Export to Excel button which will export the data that is displayed after it has been calculated into a Microsoft Excel pivot table that enables the project manager to manipulate the data as needed. The export to Excel option lets the user select what data measurements he or she wants to see in the pivot table and which dimensions he or she wants to view it by before the pivot table is created. Additionally, the option allows the user to modify the pivot table after it is created. Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 10

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What’s good about this? : This functionality exports the Project Controls - Project Statements, Invoice Controls, Cost controls, Hours utilization and Cash flow into pivot tables. Thus, providing flexibility to manipulate the data as required by the user.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Every user requires that his data can be viewed in Pivot tables considering various dimensions based on the screen he is viewing from viz., Project Statement, Invoice controls etc. User can select the dimensions he wants to see the information in Pivot tables the data is moved to excel in the required format.

Project Trade Agreements In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX Project Accounting, cost and sales prices are set up for individual projects, category, or employee. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the trade agreement functionality has been extended to projects that enable sales prices to be set up and applied to groups of projects.

Project Price Groups and Trade Agreements Traditionally, trade agreements used price groups to apply a sales or cost price to inventory on purchase and sales orders. Now price groups can be used to set sales prices for projects. This feature lets to create price groups as part of trade agreements and apply them to projects instead of only sales and purchase orders. Price groups are typically used to help manage cost for projects that must be handled similarly with regard to sales price, sales tax, and sales currency. Trade agreements can apply to a specific project or customer or multiple projects or customers. It can also apply to a project contract or multiple project contracts (for Time and material and Fixed Price). By assigning price groups to projects, project contracts, or customers, the valid sales prices are automatically available when journal transactions are created for hour, expense, fee, and subscription. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Sales price can now be defined against each customer on

Hour, Expense, Fee and Subscription. These prices can be used in the Projects against those customers. Defining the Sales prices can be done up to the category level. For example Hour has categories like , Expense, Fee and

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. For projects which have agreements with customers on Hours, Expenses, Fees and Subscriptions Project Trade Agreements will serve a greater usage. These Sales prices are automatically available in various journal transactions.

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Project Stages For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the project stage options have been redesigned to give the user more control over project stages and the transactions that can be posted in them. There are two major changes to the project stages that allow for more control:

Project stages have been expanded to allow for users to rename the five existing project stages and three new user-defined stages have been added.

Tasks can be customized for each project stage.

Importance of the feature : 10 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Three additional project stages and renaming are the very

much required features in Projects module. It was a limitation in earlier versions of AX. These stages are parameter controlled based on the type of Project.

What’s still missing? : Stages could have been user defined completely instead of limiting them to a certain number of stages as project stages vary from project to project.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. In case of distinct projects, the stages vary in number and also in names. Hence, it was difficult in earlier versions of Axapta.

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Project Stage Control

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, users can now control what activities are to be performed at each stage. This feature will provide users the flexibility of enabling the following tasks for the project stages Created, Estimated, Scheduled, and In process and also the new user-defined stages:

Create quotations Create forecasts Create estimates Create and post item tasks Create and post journals Create and post invoice proposals

For the Finished stage, the ability to reverse eliminations can also be turned on and off. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This feature is an extension to the project stages giving the

control over activities that can be performed at each stage What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. This feature is like defining what all activities have to be performed at each stage. With this no activity can be skipped if initially defined for a project.

Project List Pages One of the major changes to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is a new user interface called List pages. In past versions, several screens had to be accessed to sometimes complete common tasks. The new list pages’ functionalities combine these separate screens from which common tasks can be performed. In the project module, there are four customized List pages that are created specifically for the Project module:

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Projects - This page lists all current projects and enables a user to create projects, transactions, forecasting, invoicing, and many other project related tasks. There is also a My Projects secondary list page which lists projects tied to the user.

Project Contracts - This page lists all project contracts and enables you to create new project contracts in addition to transactions related to project contracts.

Estimate Projects - This page lists all estimate projects and allows for all action items associated with Estimate projects.

Posted Project Transactions - This page list all posted project transactions in one screen. It also enables adjustments, invoicing and creating credit notes. This also has a My Posted Project Transactions page which list only transactions for projects assigned to the user.

In addition to the four project based pages, there are several other pages that link to other modules. They are as follows:

Production Orders (Secondary list pages for Project Production Orders and My Project Production Orders)

Sales Orders (Secondary list page for Project Sales Orders and My Project Sales Orders)

Purchase Orders (Secondary list page for Project Purchase Orders) Purchase Requisitions (Secondary list page for Project Purchase Requisitions) Request for Quote (Secondary list page for Project Request for Quote) Customers Items

Importance of the feature : 5 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : These features are basically master and filtered views of

Projects, Project contracts and various other functionalities related to projects.

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Viewing the forms specific to requirement has become easy instead of going to main forms and applying filters

Project Role Centers Role Centers are a new concept in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 designed to provide a workbench for specific tasks assigned to a particular user role. These Role Centers can apply to both the Microsoft Dynamics AX client and the Enterprise Portal. For the Project Accounting module two roles have been created:

Project Manager Project Team Member

Importance of the feature : 7 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : User with specific role can perform his respective actions in

the Role centers. What’s still missing? :

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Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. Role center will be the home page for the users logging into AX. The user specific activities are seen in this Role center page.

Integration with Fixed Assets In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, functionality exists that allows for identification of the fixed asset being created or manufactured by a project, from the project module. This feature exists for Estimate type projects, and at the end of the project the fixed asset acquisition is posted. Many assets will have maintenance or upgrades performed over the life of the asset. It is convenient to quickly review, from the asset record, a summary of the projects that have done some work, maintenance or improvement, against the asset. Conversely, it is also convenient to be able to view, from the projects form, the asset to which the project relates. A new feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 allows for a project to associate with the asset(s) it affects. This enables views into affected assets from both the projects and fixed asset modules. The functionality also extends into the defined project hierarchy, and enable views across the main project and its subprojects. In this manner, phases of work may, for example, span a series of subprojects that are associated with their parent project and a specific fixed asset. Importance of the feature : 7 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : Fixed assets associated with Projects can now have

complete integration with Projects module. Information can be viewed from both modules. Activities done against a Fixed asset can now be linked to Projects and avail all the Projects features viz., Sub projects, Tasks etc.,

What’s still missing? : Do we see this being useful?

: Yes. With this feature users can have a complete and accurate history of the activities done on the Fixed assets which helps in future decisions on those activities.

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Technical Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is a promising release from the technical point of view. Several enhancements are done to make customization easy and more effective. Objective of this section is to describe various changes done from the technical side.

New Layers in Dynamics AX 2009 4 layers have been renamed in Dynamics AX 2009. DIS / DIP / LOS / LOP have become HFX / SL1 / SL2 / SL3 respectively. HFX is reserved for releasing hot fixes, and the 3 new solution layers (SL1/SL2/SL3) will be used to release Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions.

Importance of the feature : 5 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : The purpose of having 3 solution layers is to enable side-by-

side install of Industry Solutions. At deployment time any SL1 layer can be renamed to SL2, SL3, BUS or BUP

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through a regular file rename. The AOS will recognize the layer, and honor its position in the layer stack. This will enable installing up to 3 Industry Solutions on the same system (or up to 5 Industry Solutions if the BUS and BUP layers are vacant.)

Do we see this being useful?

: Layer renaming will give partner more flexibility to apply multiple Industry Solution vertical in a single deployment and manage them during upgrade to future version.

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Work flow A workflow represents a business process that defines how a document “flows” through the system by showing who must process and approve it. This lesson introduces the technical side of Workflow and discusses how to install and configure the components that are needed for workflow. The lessons and topics examine how to set up a Workflow with Tasks and Approvals, and finally how to develop a workflow in the Application Object Tree (AOT). Dynamics Ax 2009 uses (WWF) Windows Workflow Foundation to support workflow processes in AX. There are several custom work flow templates available for the various modules. However it’s also possible to create workflow template for a custom or for standard feature in AOT and can be used further. Developing a Workflow Dynamics Ax 2009 provides capability to create new workflow templates in AOT as per the business requirement. Workflow templates capture information about the following: • Workflow categories (used for grouping and filtering in the UI) • What business document the workflow will operate over • What workflow elements (Tasks and Approvals) are required in the workflow configuration • Which application event handlers will handle the events that are raised as the workflow executes Following nodes are included in AOT to support creation of workflow in Ax

Workflow Benefits There are several benefits of using the Workflow system in an organization. Here are a few key benefits: • Consistent processes. The Workflow system enables managers to define the approval process for specific documents, such as purchase requisitions and expense reports. By using the Workflow system, managers ensure that documents are processed and approved in a consistent and efficient manner. • Process visibility. The Workflow system allows managers to track the status and history of a specific workflow instance. This allows managers to analyze and determine if changes need to be made to the workflow to improve efficiency. • Centralized work list. Users can view a centralized work list to view the Workflow tasks and approvals assigned to them. This work list is available from the Role Center pages in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 client and Enterprise Portal. Importance of the feature : 8 What’s still missing? : Workflow could be an exciting feature for the users but it

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could turn up as a nightmare for the developers and partners. Design of the workflow seems to be very complex and having dependency on the WWF (Windows workflow foundation). The framework is developed outside of the X++ and using .NET business connector for communicating with Ax, hence increasing the burden of configuration of the .NET business connector, IIS server and Web Service hosted for the Work flow.

We have seen multiple instances in Ax 4.0 where .NET business connector is not stabilized and users/dev facing multiple errors like – Business connector not initialized, wrong setup, password change on the business connector etc

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Integration with more VCMS systems With Dynamics AX 2009 there is no longer an excuse for not using a source control system when developing in MorphX. The version control integration options in Dynamics AX 2009 both cater to larger development organizations by seamlessly integrating with Visual Source Safe and Team Foundation Server, and to smaller development teams who cannot afford the additional overhead of these larger system with a new, simple, yet powerful, version control system: MorphX VCS. All 3 flavors enable check-in/check-out/undo check-out/change history/change descriptions/quality bar enforcements etc. Dynamics AX 2009 support following version control system –

a) Source Depot b) Visual SourceSafe c) MorphX VCS d) Team foundation server

For small project Morphx VCS is quite appropriate and having most of the normal VCS features like , CheckIn / Checkout / History / Compare etc. The MorphX VCS is very easy to use and it lets the users check in/out single objects and projects, make comments on each check-in, all checked-out elements are marked with blue font-color (default) in the AOT. Checked-in elements are locked (and the locking now actually works). You can also add rules so that when trying to check-in code that does not follow best practice rules, has compiler warnings, compiler errors, or compiler TO-DO’s you will get an error.

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The way the basis for the MorphX VCS works is that it has a repository consisting of metadata regarding each element alongside an xpo-file. MorphX VCS History form

Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : Using a version control system can dramatically improve the

quality, predictability and productivity of your MorphX projects.

What’s still missing? : Version controlling is a nice feature all together but there is one GAP which is there. We can check in and check out the objects but once it comes to deployment there is no way to identify which version of object is deployed in test or which version of object is deployed in production environment. For this Microsoft should come up with some automated build procedure for the partners so that partner/developer are sure that which build is deployed on a particular deployment cycle and they should have procedure to go back to the version control system and identify the version of object which is there in the production or test.

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Integration with Visual Studio IDE to develop and deploy reports Integrating and Customizing Reports Reporting projects can be customized, upgraded, and patched using the built-in layering support in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Reporting projects are added to the AOD in a packaged format. The following illustration provides a brief overview of the process of integrating reports into Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In Microsoft Visual Studio, when you right-click a reporting project in Solution Explorer, the Save to AOD option displays on the context menu. When you select this option, all required project items are identified for the project itself, as well as any referenced reporting projects. These project items are validated, packaged, and then imported into the AOD in the layer that you are currently working in. After the import process is complete, a node for the packaged reporting project displays below the Report Libraries node in the AOT. One report library is created for each reporting project that is imported into Microsoft Dynamics AX. After you import your reports into Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can use the reports in the application. If at some point you need to customize a report in an existing report library, you can edit the corresponding reporting project and then import the changes back into Microsoft Dynamics AX. To customize a report, the reporting project for the current layer is unpackaged to the \My Documents\AX Reporting Projects folder, and then opened in Microsoft Visual Studio where customizations are made. Referenced reporting projects are also unpackaged and added to the solution in Microsoft Visual Studio. After you make customizations to a reporting project,

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you can import the project back into Microsoft Dynamics AX. The customizations are added to the layer that you are currently working in.

Managing Project and Assembly References You must be especially careful when adding references to another reporting project. It is recommended that you use project references rather than assembly references. A project reference is a reference to another reporting project within the same solution. An assembly reference is a reference to a model assembly (.Model.dll) that is created for a reporting project. When a reporting project is packaged and imported into Microsoft Dynamics AX, assembly references are ignored. Therefore, the assembly references will not be resolved when the reporting project is later unpackaged and edited in Microsoft Visual Studio. In contrast, project references are always able to be resolved since the referenced reporting projects are packaged and unpackaged along with the reporting project. You must also be careful when adding references to other managed code assemblies in a nested business logic project. You can reference an assembly that is in the global assembly cache (GAC) or in the bin directory for the report server. These references are able to be resolved. In addition, references to other business logic assemblies that are automatically created when you add a project reference are able to be resolved. For other scenarios, you need to be sure that the reference you make is able to be resolved after the project is packaged and then unpackaged to another location. You can always add an assembly to your reporting project as a project item and set the Build Action property to None. In this case, the assembly will not be ignored. Rather, it will be included along with all the other project items that get packaged and unpackaged.

Deploying Reports to a Report Server The deployment utility deploys reports to a report server. The deployment utility is installed when you install the reporting extensions (it is not available if you only install the reporting tools). The deployment utility can be launched from within Microsoft Dynamics AX, or it can run as a stand-alone application. The deployment utility runs on the report server and connects to Microsoft Dynamics AX using .NET Business Connector. During deployment, report libraries are unpacked, built, and then deployed to the report server. One version of a report is deployed for each culture that is supported by the Microsoft Dynamics AX installation. Standard .NET Framework localization techniques are used to localize the reports in a reporting project. Localized text is added to resource files (.resx files) which are built into satellite assemblies. You can deploy reports from Microsoft Visual Studio. However, when you deploy reports from Microsoft Visual Studio, the reports are deployed for the neutral language only, and the reports are deployed to the local report server. Reports often rely on code that is defined in business logic assemblies. During deployment, business logic assemblies, as well as satellite assemblies containing translated resources, are built and deployed to the report server. After the assemblies have been deployed to the report server, the security policy file for the report server is updated to allow.NET Business Connector secure access to the business logic assemblies.

Displaying Reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX After you have imported your reports into Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can create output menu items for the reports so that they can be displayed within the application. Reports can display

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from menus and forms in the Microsoft Dynamics AX client and in Enterprise Portal Web parts. As long as a report library is in the AOT, you can define menu items for the reports. The reports do not need to be deployed to the report server until the reports need to be viewed. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 6 What’s good about this? : Developers who were having tough time developing

complex report in Ax. Visual studio report designer is easy to use and having lots of new features and exciting features for the reporting compared to Ax reporting. It’s opening a new area in Ax where .NET developer can be used to develop exciting report for the Ax. Integration of Visual studio to Ax and using SQL reporting services are using .NET business connector for the communication between Ax and Visual studio IDE and reporting services. We have seen multiple instances in Ax 4.0 where .NET business connector is not stabilized and users/dev facing multiple errors like – Business connector not initialized, wrong setup, password change on the business connector etc.

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Development Tools Enhancements Following development tools have been added / enhanced in Dynamics AX 2009.

Task Recorder Role Centers Code Upgrade Tool Enhancements Cross Company Support Date Time Support X++ SQL Server Query Enhancements

Task Recorder The Task Recorder allows users to record their actions in Microsoft Dynamics AX, for example open a form, enter a value, or click a button and subsequently generate a document, presentation, or process diagram that describes those actions. The documents that can be generated are training-oriented documentation in Microsoft Office® Word®, presentation content in Microsoft Office® PowerPoint®, or process-oriented documentation in Microsoft Office® Visio®. For Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office PowerPoint documents, a template can be used for the document generation. The template can, for example, include company information and a logo. Possible uses of the documents are: • Analyzing customer best practices • Documenting business processes • Creating control document • Documenting the use of customized solutions. • Documenting processes for customers’ employees. • Documenting bugs.

Using the Task Recorder The following is an overview of the steps to record and document a process in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009: 1. Open Task Recorder 2. Start recording. 3. Go through the sequence of actions in Microsoft Dynamics AX that are to be recorded. For example, this may be how Microsoft Dynamics AX is used to handle the sales order process, from the initial creation of the sales order and until the order has been invoiced. 4. Stop recording and save the recorded actions. 5. Generate a document, presentation, or process diagram based on the Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 6 What’s still missing? : For standard transactions like Sales order and Purchase

order it makes fairly detailed document while for custom

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transactions it doesn’t capture all details. Contents are fairly less than what are there in Standard one.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this tool will be very useful for users by generating user manual, which will describe step by step navigation and procedures needs to be followed to perform task faster for users.

Scenario Simon, the Systems Implementer, has been asked to document how Microsoft Dynamics AX is used to handle the sales order process, from the initial creation of the sales order until the order has been invoiced. Documenting a business process using the Task Recorder is accomplished by recoding a task and subsequently transforming the recording into a document.

Record a Task To document how the sales order process is handled, Simon has to go through the individual steps in the task while recording. 1. Open the Task Recorder toolbar from the Tools > Start recording. 2. Create the sales order by opening the Create an electronic ICL declaration form and creating the sales order header and one sales order line. 3. Print the picking list by opening the Picking list form, and then print the sales order picking list. 4. Print the packing slip by opening the Packing slip form and printing. 5. Open the Invoice form and print. 6. Click the Stop recording button on the Task Recorder toolbar. 7. Click Yes to save the recording and provide task name and a description.

Generate Documents from the Recorded Script After recording the sales order process, Simon now wants to generate a PowerPoint document presenting an overview of the process. 1. Open the Task Recorder toolbar from the Tools menu and click the Recorded tasks button. 2. Select the relevant task from the list of recorded tasks. 3. Click the Generate document... button. 4. Select the appropriate Microsoft Office PowerPoint template from the Generate document form. 5. Click OK. 6. Microsoft Office PowerPoint will open and a presentation is generated. 7. Save the presentation in an appropriate location. Simon also wants to create a process overview. In the Recorded tasks dialog, he selects the same script, but in Document generator form, he chooses the Microsoft Office Visio format instead. When he clicks the OK button, Visio opens and a process overview is generated. Finally, Simon wants to create a detailed document with instructions. In the Recorded tasks dialog, he selects the same script, but in the Document generator form chooses the Microsoft Office Word format. When he clicks the OK button, Word opens and a document is generated.

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Role Centers Microsoft Dynamics AX has now included customizable home pages called Role Centers. Role Centers display specific data, reports, alerts, and common tasks associated with a user's role in the organization. Users can access Role Centers from the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or from an Enterprise Portal Web site. A user profile is a set of default information for a specific role in an organization, such as Chief Financial Officer or Accounting Manager. The user profiles determine the content that is displayed on Role Center pages. When a user is assigned to a profile, it specifies which Role Center the user sees when he or she opens the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or an Enterprise Portal Web page.

Role Centers Installation Role Centers are deployed using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 setup.

To Install Role Centers and Enterprise Portal: 1. Insert the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 DVD into the drive. If the Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup Wizard does not launch automatically, double-click Setup.exe in the root directory of the DVD. If installing from a network location, share the installation files and connect to the shared location from the computer where the program will be installed. 2. On the Select maintenance mode screen, select Add or modify components and click Next. 3. Select Role Centers and Enterprise Portal, and then click Next 4. Complete the installation wizard.

Role Centers Deployment Complete the following procedures to deploy Role Centers on the Enterprise Portal Web server. After completing the following procedures, users can view Role Centers in either Enterprise Portal or the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.

Give Users Access to the SharePoint Site After Role Centers and Enterprise Portal installation, the administrator will give users access to the Role Centers SharePoint site. If a user does not have access to the site, the user will receive an access error when attempting to view the Role Center page on either the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or in Enterprise Portal. 1. Open the Role Centers site in a Web browser. The default URL is http://server_name/sites/DynamicsAx. 2. On the Site Settings page, under Users and Permissions, click People and groups. 3. On the toolbar, click New > Add Users or New > New Group to add users or create a new group on the current site. 4. Assign users to SharePoint groups whenever possible to help minimize the amount of time spent administering individual user accounts. 5. It is possible to add all the members of an Active Directory group by entering the domain and group name as a new user. All authenticated users may be added by clicking the Add all authenticated users link on the Add Users page. 6. Grant each user or group permission on the site. To determine the desired user permissions, speak with the user's manager or group manager.

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Import User Profiles A user profile is a set of default information for a specific role in an organization. User profiles determine the content that is displayed on Role Center pages. Besides the standard profiles included in Microsoft Dynamics AX, administrators can create user profiles specific to their organization. The file used for importing user profiles is in XML format. The simplest way to create a user profile import file is to export an existing user profile and use it as a template, making any necessary changes. Multiple user profiles can be included in a single import file. Once the import file is complete, the Administrator can use the Import button on the User profiles form to import the user profiles into Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Assign Users to Profiles To specify which Role Centers the users see when they open the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or Enterprise Portal, the Administrator must assign the user to a user profile. 1. Open the User profiles form 2. Highlight the Profile ID 3. Click the Add User button 4. Select the User ID from the drop-down list 5. Select All companies or Select companies 6. Click on OK After assigning users to a profile, those users must restart the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or refresh their Web browsers to view their Role Centers. Importance of the feature : 5 Completeness of the feature : 7 What’s good about this? : The good feature about role center is that this will be user

specific and can be accessible through either Ax client or Share point.

Do we see this being useful?

: Role centers will work as a kind of favorites for Users for most common tasks, reports on Ax client as well as on Share point. This will give Users flexibility to one step ahead to use system even if Ax is not available and can perform tasks through share point. So integration of role centers with share point would be very useful for users.

Code upgrade tool enhancement Enhancements have been made to the Code Upgrade Tool to improve productivity during code upgrade by enabling access to conflicting customizations.

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Upgrade Project The upgrade checklist has a step to detect upgrade conflicts. The code upgrade tool detects conflicts and produces projects with all conflicting elements. Enhancements have been made in the following areas: • Auto resolve simple conflicts for Properties on elements • Detect conflicts node by node. That way, it is less problematic for the developer to find conflicts • Detect more conflicts types • Rerun option • Visual indicators • Progress tracking. The developer can mark conflicts as resolved when they have been fixed.

Compare Tool The compare tool shows changes between two versions of an element. Enhancements have been made in the following areas: • Information about the original (three-way compare) • Better handling of renamed nodes • Simplified access: Shortcut key + Moved to first level context menu

Estimation Report When an upgrade project has been created, you can run the Estimate report to provide an overview of the amount of time the upgrade will take. The estimate will be performed on default values for fixing different types of conflicts. These values can be changed to fit your skills and give a more reliable time estimate. You have the option to set time for fixing the following conflicts so the Estimate report has values for calculation: • Code • Property • Autoresolved property • Ordering • Overlayering • Deletion You can also set additional estimates for:

RecId and TableId relation missing Field uses ‘recId’ and ‘tableId’ Type extends ‘recId’ and ‘tableId’ Record level security Parameter validation Use of dangerous API Reference to unsigned .NET assembly Validation of Display or Edit method

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Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Code upgrade tool itself is very good tool to upgrade the

application from Old version to New Version. By adding functionality like enabling access to conflicting customizations, this is more detailed way of upgrading the application at each node. Visual indicators will help developers to understand the conflicts better. Estimation report will help in estimating approximate time required to do upgrade.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this would be a very useful tool when major upgradion takes place like from AX 3.0 to AX 4.0 or AX 3.0 to AX 2009 and will give more flexibility to developer.

Cross company support This feature allows data from multiple companies to be displayed or edited with a single form. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 allows developers to make specific forms cross company and support the end user in working with cross company data. To build a simple cross company form without any involved application logic, a developer sets the Form Datasource CrossCompanyAutoQuery property to Yes. This sets the form's auto query AllowCrossCompany property to Yes during form startup. The developer then needs to add the Company field to the grid and tab pages showing cross company data. The form's title and status bar show the company the form was opened in. Having a specific field for the Company lets the user know the company for the record. The typical form is now ready for use with cross company data. A cross-company query returns data for several companies in a single run. A query does not have to be limited to returning data for the current session company. A cross-company query operates over all companies that you have read permissions for, or over a subset of companies that you specify. How to Create a Cross-Company Query: 1. In X++, use the crossCompany keyword on the X++ select statement. 2. Set the allowCrossCompany property method to true on an instance of the Query class. 3. In the AOT, set the AllowCrossCompany property to Yes on a node under Query.

crossCompany Keyword on the X++ Select Statement Create a cross-company query by using the crossCompany keyword on the X++ select statement. You have the option of adding a container variable of company identifiers immediately after the crossCompany keyword (separated by a colon). The container restricts the selected rows to those with a dataAreaId that match a value in the container. The following code example populates a table buffer with all the BankAccountTable rows that have a dataAreaId of either cm1 or cm2. This example assumes that the user has authority to access data for these two companies. The first two dataAreaId values that are found will be printed.

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static void JobDemoCrossCompany(Args _args) { BankAccountTable tabBAT; // saveDataPerCompany == true. container conCompanies = [ 'cm1', 'cm2' ]; str sCompanyPrevious =" "; int iCountCompanies = 0; ; while select crossCompany : conCompanies * from tabBAT order by dataAreaId { if ( sCompanyPrevious != tabBAT .dataAreaId ) { print( tabBAT .dataAreaId + " = tabBAT .dataAreaId" ); iCountCompanies++; if ( iCountCompanies >= 2 ) { break; } sCompanyPrevious = tabBAT .dataAreaId; } } pause; return; }

Company Range Methods in AOT Reports Override methods on the AOT report node to control the details of crosscompany behavior. For example, you can override the report's init method with the following X++ code. public void init() { super(); this .query() .allowCrossCompany( true ); this .query() .addCompanyRange( "dat" ); this .query() .addCompanyRange( "dmo" ); } Importance of the feature : 7 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : This feature gives flexibility to view data across multiple

companies from same instance.

What’s still missing? : Still improvement can be made the way data will be shown to users across multiple companies. On UI filtration of data across multiple companies based on data area id can be

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done and User can perform tasks with same data right there.

Do we see this being useful?

: This will be very useful feature for those who are operating in multiple companies. To view data across multiple companies and perform tasks with these data without changing the company will give user full flexibility to do task better and faster.

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DateTime Date Type One Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Object Server (AOS) installation can meet the business needs of a company that has operations across multiple time zones including adjustments for Daylight Savings Time (DST). All date/time values are stored in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When a date/time value is retrieved and displayed on a form, the date/time is shown in the user's preferred time zone. If the date/time value is edited and stored again, the value is converted from local time to UTC for storage.

Benefits of using DateTime A DateTime data type is being added to the X++ language in support of applications features for storing and retrieving data from various time zones. This new type will be a combination of the existing Date and Time types and will be assignable from Date, Time, and str types. The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 application is able to display the date time fields in the appropriate time zone, depending on either the client settings or on the time zone of the location. The time zone used will not depend on the AOS server time zone; the administrator can associate specific time zones with his or her Microsoft Dynamics AX companies and the application will use these time zones for all business processing. static void Job1(Args _args) { UTCTimestamp myDateTime1; ; myDateTime1 = 2007-10-20T14:31:55; print myDateTime1; pause; } In the United States time zone, the print myDateTime1 will look like this: 10/20/2007 02:31:55 pm In the Danish time zone, the print myDateTime1 will give this result: 20/10/2007 14:31:55 pm Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : There will not be any conflict between different time zones

while saving transactions like Sales orders and Purchase orders, as now date and time will be stored in Universal time zone and when ever user will access these transactions he/she will find it as per his/her time zone.

What’s still missing? : Now AX 2009 will have three different data types for same purpose instead only one unique data type DateTime should be there which can be used to store either date or time or both.

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Do we see this being useful?

: This feature will be extremely useful for Companies operating in multiple time zones. AX 4.0 was conflicting date and time for transactions when used across different time zones. With this feature date and time will be handled very intelligently and will not be any conflicts across different time zones.

X++ SQL Enhancements Microsoft Dynamics AX X++ language supports various data access constructs to search, manipulate data, and build queries for SQL Server or Oracle database. Data search or manipulation can be performed on a row-by-row or set-based approach from X++. Though Microsoft Dynamics AX supports almost all of the SQL constructs today, many of these constructs have gaps in how they are implemented at the AOS data access layer. These gaps present problems for application programmers, causing them to create various work-around techniques that may impact the system performance and general productivity.

UPDATE_RECORDSET The UPDATE_RECORDSET construct allows users to update multiple rows in a single trip to the database server. This allows certain tasks to be significantly accelerated by utilizing the power of the SQL Server. Upgrade scripts and various batch processes are the beneficiaries of this feature enhancement.

INSERT_RECORDSET INSERT_RECORDSET now provides support for configuration key checks.

Order by and Group by Currently, the order by and group by possibilities in X++ for either select statements or the Query framework are limited by the sequence of tables used in the statements. If tables T1 and T2 are joined, order by will come from T1 first and then T2. The fields in the order by cannot be mixed from T1 and T2 and cannot be reversed like, for example, ‘order by T1.F1, T2.F1, T1.F2’ or ‘order by T2.F1, T1.F1’. With this improvement in place, users may be able to consolidate different “flavors” of the same report into a single one. An example of this is Inventory management reports, where one can select order by item group and another version to order by inventory dimensions.

Row Count Support row count after update_recordset and delete_from constructs. This feature introduces a new instance method that will return the row count impacted on a table when update_recordset or delete_from is issued. This allows the application programmers in various Microsoft Dynamics AX modules to do an update, assuming record(s) exists on a table, and not issue a “select” to see if a record exists.

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Duplicate Key The ability to catch duplicate key exception. The exception framework in X++ allows only the UpdateConflict exception introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 to be caught inside a transaction (ttsbegin..ttscommit). In a highly concurrent implementation, Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 postings in inventory and ledger modules tend to encounter another conflict type generated as part of an insert operation. These postings are required to proceed with an update if the record exists instead of rolling back the operation. Providing the “DuplicateKey” exception will allow the application programmers to achieve the same or ignore the error if the application logic allows it. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Now for developers there is no need to manipulate

processes as readily SQL statements like row count, group by, order by, duplicate key etc. with improved features are available. Insert_Recordset and Update_Recordset with improved functionality will definitely help in improving performance and db trip.

Do we see this being useful?

: Now AX 2009 has flexibility to use SQL statements right there in AX which will definitely help Developers to improve processes in terms of performance and getting result faster and better.

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Enterprise Portal

Features - .NET Business Connector Proxy Configuration – Automate the process of

configuring the .NET framework at the time of installing the enterprise portal in Ax2009.

Automation of IIS Configuration – Setup automates the configuration of IIS at the time of installing the EP.

Role Centers and User Interface – Significant enhancement in Roles Centers and in build roles have been attached with EP.

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.NET Business Connector Proxy Configuration In Ax 2009, Setup automates the process of configuring the proxy in various locations on the EP server. In Ax4.0, we need to install the proxy account on different location at the time of configure the EP. In Ax 2009, Setup prompts for the proxy credentials when we install EP, and then configure the proxy credentials in the following locations:

Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Windows user groups

IIS

Microsoft SQL Server

Importance of the feature : 7

Completeness of the feature

: 8

What’s good about this? : This feature reduces the complexity of installation and configuration of EP. In Ax 4.0, we need to setup the proxy account in many different places and if we miss one of the places it can affect the installation of EP.

What’s still missing? : Net business connector is a third party application. And as per the current .Net business connector configuration it is somewhat complex. For better performance, it should be integrate with AX 2009 as an internal feature. If it would be integrate with AX 2009 as internal that it would be more suitable.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the perspective of installing the EP. It reduces the probability of error and the complexity at the time installation.

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Automation of IIS Configuration In Ax 2009, setup automates the process of configuring security, ASP.NET, and application pools in IIS. In spite of Ax 4.0, we need to go separately on each and every places defined in the document for installing the EP and configure the IIS. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : This feature reduces the complexity of installation and

configuration of EP. In Ax 4.0, we need to setup and configure the IIS by going to different places and if we miss one of the places it can affect the installation of EP.

What’s still missing? : IIS is the external part as in Ax 2009 but If it would be integrate with AX 2009 as internal that it would be more suitable because it can reduce the complexity in this case.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the perspective of installing the EP. It reduces the probability of error and the complexity at the time installation.

Role Centers and user Interface In Ax 4.0, we didn’t have the customized home page but in AX 2009 and the EP framework include customizable home pages called Role Centers. Role Centers display reports and other business intelligence information, transaction data, links, and common tasks associated with a user’s role in the company. Role Centers are available in both EP and Ax 2009 client.

Below are the enhancements have been made to the EP user interface:

More interactive and responsive through the use of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AGAX) in the Web pages.

Individual pages are refreshed when you click a link. Action can now be done on select list items. You can see list previews, and lists can be

sorted, filtered, and grouped. Also, the list views can be changed. Accessing all Enterprise portal pages is now consistent. EP page layouts are dependent on Windows SharePoint Services. Multiple companies can be accessed through EP.

Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This feature shows the role and the user interface in an

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easier manner. Now in Ax 2009,default roles have been attached with each user, so the efforts for the customization have been reduced. Another point of consideration is to access the data from multiple companies.

What’s still missing? : More options for user Role centers should be given as integration for the Ax 2009. Some more roles can be added by MS as default role for users.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the perspective of user interface. It reduces the efforts for customization.

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Application Integration Framework

Features -

CRUD – Create, Read, Update, Delete operations are supported. Programming Model Changes – Ax 2009 now supports the ability to expose business

logic implemented in X++ as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services. Consume Web Services – Ax 2009 provides the ability to consume Web services from

within X++. Performance - AIF now supports the ability to scale up message processing when using

the AIF adapters by adding AOSs.

CRUD AIF now supports the ability to update and delete data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 through document exchange. Two new actions enable the ability to update or delete a single record or multiple records. The Axd Wizard is now the AIF Document Service Wizard and enables developers to create custom documents that support updating and deleting data. The ability to update and delete data through AIF enables companies to fully integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 in their business processes. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This shows the two new features of Update and Delete for

the AIF functionality. So now with the help of this we can update and delete the orders.

What’s still missing? : As per the current scenario most of the functionality has been covered.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the AIF functionality. Now with the help of AIF we can also update and delete the record which was missing in Ax 4.0.

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Programming Model Changes The document services can be customized by adding your own methods. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 now supports the ability to expose business logic implemented in X++ as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services. All services can be published though AIF asynchronous adapters or through WCF. Documents are now exposed as services making them more flexible and customizable. Service operations can now be consumed from external AIF clients as well as directly from X++ code. In addition, AIF has been updated to enable developers to expose X++ business logic as WCF services. ASMX Web services have been replaced with WCF services enabling new such as message encryption. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : The good thing about this is that now Ax 2009 can call the

services from out of AX with the help of WCF. This is new feature.

What’s still missing? : New more web services can be added to expose the business logic.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the AIF functionality. Now we don’t need to put extra efforts to call the web services in AX.

Consume Web Services Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 provides the ability to consume Web services from within X++. Creating a service reference to an external Web service generates a .NET service proxy that enables the service to be available through IntelliSense within X++. The external Web service can be consumed by Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 using the .NET service proxy through Common Language Runtime (CLR) interoperability. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This is really good feature that now in AX 2009, external

Web services can also be called. New services (WCF) has been introduced in AX 2009.

What’s still missing? : More web services can be introduced by MS to consume the external web services which can expose different functionalities in AX 2009.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the AIF functionality. Now we don’t need to put extra efforts to call the web services in AX.

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Performance AIF now supports the ability to scale up message processing when using the AIF adapters by adding AOSs. You can now define whether messages are processed sequentially or in parallel. If parallelism is implemented, messages can be processed in any order by multiple AOSs. After implementing parallel message processing, specific messages can still be designated for sequential processing. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 10 What’s good about this? : This is really good that in AX 2009 MS has improved the

performance in regard of message processing. What’s still missing? : We are still missing the some points of performance. By

improving some other points, AX 2009 can be improved. Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the performance enhancement feature.

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Reverse Engineering Tool

Features

Support new model Type In Ax 4.0, there were 2 model type, the data model and the object model. Now in Ax 2009, there is one more additional model type named ERX ER model type which was not in Ax 4.0. Now there is one more type of file .erx which was not in Ax 4.0.

New ERX ER Data Model

Importance of the feature : 7 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : The new file type has been added. This is the enhancement

from Ax 4.0.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the enhancement perspective.

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E- Signature Support MS Dynamics AX 2009 does not provide a complete system for the capture and processing of electronic signature. But it does provide a kernel event and an editable event method. These can be the foundation for an electronic signature subsystem to be developed by partners. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : This is a good feature that MS has enhanced the

functionality of E- signature Support.

What’s still missing? : We are still missing the full functionality of E- Signature support. It does not completely capture and process the electronic signature.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, this is useful as per the enhancement perspective.

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Deployment Improvements

Overview: Improvements related to deployment in Dynamics AX 2009 include features specifically to help implementers and administrator to install, upgrade, and maintain Dynamics AX. Following improvements have been done in Dynamics AX 2009 related to deployment

1. Localized Installer 2. Side by Side installation 3. Improved Service and Maintenance 4. Upgrade 5. New Time Zone Management 6. Batch Jobs

Description: Localized Installer

In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, setup features were available only in United States English. Now, with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 setup can now be run in some or all the languages offered within the Microsoft Dynamics AX application. Suppose if your computer locale is set to use Spanish then when you install Dynamics AX 2009, it will take Spanish as the default language and when you start Dynamics AX 2009, and it will run in Spanish. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : It will help customers to install AX 2009 in their computer

locale language which was not possible in earlier versions. Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, it will be very useful to customers who do not have U.S. English as their computer locale language.

Side-by-Side Installation

In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, it was possible to install more than one application on a computer; however, each application installation had to be in a separate root directory. Starting with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, installers can supply an application instance name and the installer will allow for both applications reside in the same folder. Importance of the feature : 8 Completeness of the feature : 7 What’s good about this? : It will help for consultants who work on many accounts and

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needs to have all AX versions on single computer. Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, it is very useful to customers who have single development computer and have 3.0 as well as 4.0 on the same machine. We can have AX 2009 on the same computer as well.

Improved Service and Maintenance

In AX 2009, all components, other than AOS reside in single component installer .msi so most of the patch components can reside in .msp file which will help customers to apply the patch easier than earlier version. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : Installation is easy for customers using just .msp file for

patches. Earlier versions used to have many files and installation required running patch file many times.

What’s still missing? : To have just single file including AOS as well. Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, it is very useful and will reduce the total cost of ownership to customers

Multiple-Version Upgrades

AX 2009 is the first version which can be upgraded from multiple AX versions. It is a great help to customers who are still running AX 3.0 and can directly upgrade the system to AX 2009. Upgrading AX 3.0 to AX 2009 is similar to upgrade from AX 3.0 to AX 4.0. Following are the steps to upgrade from AX 3.0 to AX 2009.

Prepare data for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

Perform left justify on Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 data

Perform 64bit conversion for RecId

Perform Unicode conversion

Move Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 data to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 database

Install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and complete the upgrade checklist

The data upgrade process for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 has been modified to take advantage of the updated batch framework. A set of batch jobs are run on an Application Object Server (AOS) instance. Dependencies can be monitored between upgrade jobs by using the batch dependencies interface.

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After the upgrade process starts, no active clients are required. By using the new test run functionality, the data upgrade process can complete with failures so that Implementers can find all error points in a single pass. New batch framework provides the following improvements out of the box:

Ability to run upgrade jobs on AOS

Ability to run upgrade jobs on multiple servers

No need for active clients open after upgrade is started

Parallelization achieved through number of batch threads

Centralized logging for better supportability and reporting

Constraint based dependency tree, used to continue on error/failure

Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : Customers can upgrade the system to AX 2009 from AX 3.0

as well which is a great help to customers. Now upgrade uses new batch job framework and batch jobs run on AOS and no need to keep client open during upgrade. Use of multiple AOS, better logging, no need to keep clients open during upgrade, better parallelism makes it good.

Do we see this being useful?

: This is very useful for customers who are still on AX 3.0 and they can upgrade the system directly to AX 2009. Upgrade to AX 2009 uses new batch job framework which makes the upgrade easier and faster.

New Time Zone Management

Dynamics AX 2009 supports multiple time zones which were not supported by earlier versions. AX 2009 does not need to setup AOS for each time zone. Time zone preferences are set at the user level, and information in date and time fields is displayed in the user's preferred time zone. This is helpful for any customer who has Microsoft Dynamics AX users in multiple time zones. All system Date and Time fields have been merged into DateTime fields that store values in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 converts all DateTime data to UTC before saving it to the database. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 users can select a preferred time zone in which they want to view the DateTime data and the system will automatically convert the data into the user's preferred time zone when displaying it. For Customers moving from an earlier version to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the system date and time fields will be automatically merged and converted to UTC during the upgrade process.

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The Customer is asked to select a time zone to use as the source time zone for the data during the upgrade process. This time zone is then used to convert the stored data into UTC. Importance of the Feature: 9 Completeness of the Feature: 9 What’s good about this: Customers who have their business in multiple time zones, this is a great help to those customers and no need to have AOS for each time zone. What’s still missing? Do we see this being useful: Yes, it is very useful for customers and reduces the cost to have separate AOS for each time zone. Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 9 What’s good about this? : Customers who have their business in multiple time zones,

this is a great help to those customers and no need to have AOS for each time zone.

Do we see this being useful?

: Yes, it is very useful for customers and reduces the cost to have separate AOS for each time zone.

Batch Jobs

In dynamics AX 2009, batch jobs can be set to run on AOS at specific times without a client. All running batch jobs can be managed from a single form. Set Up an AOS Instance as a Batch Server

1. Follow the path Administration > Setup > Server config.

2. On the Overview tab, verify that the Enable Batch check box ismarked.

3. Define the time that the AOS instance is available for batch processing

4. Set the Number of batch sessions to 10.

5. Set the Exclusion Start Time to 22:00.

6. Set the Exclusion End Time to 18:00.

7. Close the form.

Importance of the feature : 9 Completeness of the feature : 8 What’s good about this? : Client is not needed to keep batch jobs running.

Do we see this being useful?

: It is useful as batch jobs can be set to run on AOS and it will make batch jobs faster and also client is not needed to keep running. Also, all the running batch jobs can be managed from a single form.

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Appendix

1. What’s new in DYNAMICS AX 2009 document https://share.ignify.com/ignify/Shared%20Documents/AX50_ENUS_WN_APP.pdf

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