Magazine Microsoft Dynamics AX2009

COLUMBUS IT magazineFocus on Dynamics AX 2009

How does Dynamics AXsupport the challengesin a modern competitivemarket?

Globalisation > page 4

Compliance > page 6

Productivity > page 8

Growth > page 10

w w w . c o l u m b u s i t . c o m

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Dynamics AX modules

General ledger

Accounts receivable and payable

Bank management

Fixed assets

Shared services support

Cost accounting

Intercompany accounting and

consolidation

Financial Management

Finite and infinite capacity and

materials planning

Job scheduling and sequencing

Resource management

Shop floor management

Work order management with

job costing

Product configuration

Quality management

Lean manufacturing

Manufacturing

Project finances and invoicing

Project cost control

Revenue recognition and work

in progress (WIP)

Integration with production

Consultant self-service portal

Project Accounting

Sales force and marketing

automation

Lead and opportunity

management

Telemarketing and telesales

Sales management

Customer self-service portal

Document management

Sales and Marketing

Demand forecasting

Intercompany trade

Inventory management

Distribution planning

Procurement management

Vendor self-service portal

Business-to-business trading

partner integration

Multi-site warehouse

management

Order handling with trade

agreements

Item and lot number reservation

and tracking

Order promising

RFID-enabled

Supply Chain Management

Service orders and contracts

Service calls and dispatching

Repair management

Service subscription

Service Management

Mobile Sales Assistant

Mobility

Enterprise Portal based on

SharePoint technology

Integrated united

communications

Collaborative Workspace

Compliance Center

Country-specific functionality

Audit trails and acces control

Embedded workflow capacities

Compliance Management

Standard ad-hoc and analytical

reports with Microsoft SQL Server

Reporting Services

RoleTailored, predefined, multi-

dimensional data cubes

Dashboard views of key

performance Indicators (KPIs)

Business Intelligence and Reporting

Organizational and workforce

management

Recruiting and selection

Employee development and

performance

Skills mapping

Expense management

Employee self-service portal

Human Resource Management

Dynamics AX 2009In this theme magazine, we will focus on the ERP solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, which was released in 2008/2009.

In the four articles, we will look at how Dynamics AX 2009 supports companies in the challenges they face in a modern competitive market:

GlobalisationCompanies in a global market have geographically fragmented supply chains, several distribution channels and production and stock locations. This also creates new challenges with regard to global reporting, requirements for compliance of local rules and willingness to adapt. > page 4

ComplianceThere are more and more laws, regulations, standards and practices which companies must comply with in order to manage in the competition. This places demands on the procedures and is often a heavy expense.> page 6

ProductivityImprovement on productivity is about the users not having to spend unnecessary time on searching for data or looking for functions; that new users can get going quickly; that the system’s potential is utilised and that no one stops using it because it is cumbersome.> page 9

GrowthGrowth and the ability to handle change go hand-in-hand. Modern IT systems must be built for change with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services and a high performance and scalability.> page 10

If you would like to know more about Microsoft Dynamics AX, please visit our website: www.columbusit.com/axmag

Enjoy reading!

Best regards,Columbus IT

Theme magazine

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New markets, political changes and tech-nological progress drive and continue to change the world’s economy and create opportunities and challenges for business leaders everywhere.

The global challengeThe economic distances in the world arereduced due to declining prices on trans-port and communication and new marketsare becoming mature and are being in-cluded in the global economy.

Whilst the technological development in recent decades has made many things easier, the complexity of doing business on a global scale has increased markedly.

Companies in a global market have geogra-phically fragmented supply chains, several distribution channels and production andstock locations. This also creates new challenges with regard to global reporting, requirements for compliance with local regulations and willingness to adapt.

One global solutionOne of the objectives with Dynamics AX 2009 is to make it easier for companies to compete on a global market.

For example, Dynamics AX 2009 supports:many physical sites for each companymany languages and various legal requirementsAsian and Arabic characters as well as right/left reading direction

local time zones centrally managed payment function across companiesmaster data with central product creationautomation of inter-company tradeautomation of payments and settlements between companiesa standardised file exchange model, e.g. via BizTalk International supply chainsDynamics AX 2009 has a new “multi-site”functionality, which is a new layer betweenthe company and the production location.

Dynamics AX can now manage a global oriented supply chain: local and central stock control, site-dependent purchasing, prices and procedures, automatic transfer orders, replenishment between sites, pro-duction across sites, etc.

Expanded language functionalityThe language is often a barrier when a company expands onto a new market. Dynamics AX 2009 has expanded the lan-guage functionality and supports 10 new countries. The solution’s user interface now adapts to both left and right reading direction and thus also supports Arabic.

Accounting across sitesOrganisations that comprise several companies can now create and manage payments via a central service in DynamicsAX 2009. This eliminates duplicates of supplier data and it streamlines the processes regarding payment proposals, settlement, editing of open transactions and inter-company accounting is incor-porated in a number of processes.

Local time zonesOrganisations that work in several time zones need control of the time. For example, if times in production plans are stamped with a common time zone, regardless of which country you are in, confusion and misunderstandings can easily arise.

The new time zone functionality in Dynamics AX 2009 means that each location only sees data in its own time zone setting. Time information is saved with information about the time zone and all information in date and time fields are shown in the user’s preferred time zone.

Globalisation

Globalisation brings fragmented supply chains, several distribution channelsand production and stock locations

Compliance with local regulationsRequirements for the compliance of re-gulations can vary from area to area andit can be difficult to keep track of require-ments that must be complied with.

Dynamics AX 2009 contains a new Compli-ance Centre where you can manage com-pliance of local regulations and standards.

Global planning and reportingOrganisations that work globally need transparency in planning processes andperformance indicators across depart-ments, sites and countries in order to be able to make qualified decisions.

The integration between Dynamics AX 2009 and Business Intelligence tools pro-vides a complete tool for Performance Management. All processes for budget and forecast are managed as an inte-grated part of the solution and the individual user can monitor objective fulfilment,

contribute to planning and analyse information.

More informationVisit www.columbusit.com/axmag and read more about globalisationin Microsoft’s white paper:Connectivity in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

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Sara starts her workday

On the jobwith Sara, CFO

Sara prepares for a meeting with the

CEO about last month’s sales figures

at a subsidiary. She opens a sales form

from her Role Center, drills down into the

details, and quickly exports the data into

an Excel spreadsheet.

An urgent phone call

Sara responds to a European regulator who

wants transactional audit histories for

four subsidiaries. She quickly locates the

Audit Trail report in the Compliance Center

and sends out her response.

Compliance

Compliance with standards is not just a necessary evil; it is also a business opportunity.

Today, companies focus more on the compliance with standards.

New laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well as greater focus on compliance with existing legislation have created new challenges for business leaders.

Compliance is about observing laws, regulations and standards or following a practice. The standards can originate from external and internal sources and can be mandatory or voluntary.

Compliance is not just an accounting question. Today it includes all aspects of the business: finance, requirements from trade partners, environmental requirements, etc.

Challenge or business opportunityThe challenge is to balance between thecontradictory goals of observing certain standards while at the same time retaining the company’s flexibility and adaptability and also to keep expenses at a minimum.

The costs for complying with standards are often a big challenge for small and medium-sized companies.

Compliance is not just a necessary evil; it is also a business opportunity. It requires the gathering of information with preci-sion, and fast, effective analysis and presentation.

It requires procedures, which are integrated in the company’s way of operating the business and it gives the company better control of business processes and streamlines the mana-gement of customers.

New toolsDynamics AX 2009 provides cost-effective tools to manage compliance. The new functions include: Workflow, Compliance Centre, configurable notifications as well as role centres.

The cost for compliance can be reduced with Dynamics AX 2009’s architecture because the solution is closely integrated with Active Directory, SharePoint, SQL Server, Office and Windows Workflow Foundation. Functions such as Single Sign-on and Windows Authentication improve security and the processing of sensitive data.

Compliance CentreThe new Compliance Centre in Dynamics AX 2009 simplifies compliance and keeps business information safe via tools to manage and control electronic content. The internal tools support company management based on

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Monitoring performance

Between meetings, Sara checks her Role

Center and sees one of her KPIs—“days

outstanding invoices”—is red and exceeds

the norm. She sets up a meeting with

Phyllis, her accounting manager, to

discuss the matter.

One last important issue

Sara sees an alert to approve a purchase

order (PO) over the authorized limit.

From her Role Center, she reviews and

approves the PO.

data from business processes, internal documentation, auditing information and reporting, which provides a graphic overview of the verification effectiveness and document status.

Workflow automationWorkflow automation is essential for compliance. With audits and enquiries, documentation of a chain of events is a heavy workload and workflow automation can assist by ensuring consistent and documented processes in the entire organisation.

Workflow is a new function in Dynamics AX 2009. You can set up individual

workflows with visible processes so managers can track the status and history of a specific event. Who did what and when? The solution also contains delegation of tasks, so tasks in the workflow processes can be assigned if there is absence, etc.

For example, Dynamics AX 2009 uses the workflow functionality in a completely new module for the handling of purchase requisitions as well as in new functionality for the management of expense vouchers.

Overview and notificationThe new role centres in Dynamics AX 2009 provide the user with specific role

information and make it possible to react faster to tasks regarding compliance.

The notifications in Dynamics AX 2009 can be configured for the individual company and thus ensures that the correct user is notified of deviations and the necessary actions.

More informationVisit www.columbusit.com/axmag and read more about compliance in Microsofts white paper: Transform the Challenge of Compliance into Bottom Line Benefits.

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Vince starts early

On the jobwith Vince, Operations Manager

Vince opens his Role Center and views a

graph tracking product defects. He notices

an increase for the third week in a row. He

quickly sets up a meeting with Ricardo, his

quality control manager, to discuss the

issue.

An unexpected change

Kevin from sales calls about an

unexpected order increase from a key

customer. From his Role Center, Vince

opens the production planning Gantt

chart so he can discuss how to get the job

done with his production team.

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Thinking ahead

Vince needs to carefully monitor a new

product. He sets up several alerts to notify

him by e-mail of any delay to the ship-

ments of product components.

The end of the day

Vince sees an alert in his Role Center to

approve an expense report submitted

by Tony, his production manager. From

his Role Center, Vince opens the report,

reviews the details, and gives his

approval.

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Improvement on productivity is an es-sential point in Dynamics AX 2009. Sur-veys show that our working week only effectively begins on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. We actually spend 30% of our time looking for programmes and data. Moreover, we use only 40-60% of the functionality in the systems.

Usability brings productivityThe answer is user friendliness and this brings productivity. Therefore, the title of Microsoft’s strategy is: “People Ready”. Using a general term, we also call it Role Tailored IT. The goal is that the users are not only able to use the solution, but also want to use it.

With Dynamics AX 2009’s new role centres, self-service Business Intelligence and workflows, employees are guided through each process and utilise the systems better – and in so doing become more efficient.

Role centreThe role tailored concept is the biggest news we have heard in many years and will fundamentally change ERP as a concept.

Role centres are personified portals that show specific data, reports, notifications, documents, key figures and tasks, which regard the user’s role in the organisation. Thus, it is the user’s role that determines the content of the role centre.

The basic idea behind the role centres is closely connected to workflows. Just as role centres ensure that the user interface

is adapted to the individual employee’s role, the workflows controls that tasks and request for approvals goes to the right employees in the right sequence. The software ensures that the employees remember every step in the process in relation to the individual’s role.

As standard, Dynamics AX 2009 contains more than 30 role centres and the users can adjust their personal role centre to contain what they want to see.

Self-service BIDynamics AX 2009 makes Business Intelligence available to everyone in the organisation and provides transparency across departments, real-time access to information and strong reporting tools. This provides better insight and a better basis for decision.

As standard, 10 SQL Analysis Server cubes are delivered with Dynamics AX 2009 regarding e.g. finance, sales, procurement and stock. This makes it easier for the users to analyse data in Excel themselves or to show key figures in their role centre. The user can also export data from list pages directly to Excel.

The integration with Business Intelligence tools provides a complete enterprise-level tool for Business Intelligence and Performance Management. Dynamics AX 2009 is also fully integrated with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and contains more than 120 pre-defined reports.

Improvements in the user interfaceThe design of the user interface has been developed so it matches Office 2007 in both appearance and functionality and this provides easier operation. For example, there are List pages (overview tabs), breadcrumb bars, Action Pane menus (known from Office 2007), transport buttons, address bar, command bar, navigation pages, etc.

More integrationDynamics AX 2009 is more closely integrated with Office than ever before and close integration with SharePoint and Unified Communications improves the productivity by the employees being able to cooperate more effectively. For example, Unified Communications share contact information with Dynamics AX 2009 so you can quickly see who is present and available as well as share documents and information easily.

More informationVisit www.columbusit.com/axmag and read more about productivityin Microsofts white paper: Empower Your People with Self-Service Business Intelligence.

Role centres will fundamentally

change ERP as a concept.

Productivity

Managing growth requires the ability to adapt and react quickly to changes. Relations with business partners become more dynamic and volatile due to shorter product life cycles and changing needs of the customers.

Growth and change go hand-in-hand and Dynamics AX 2009 is designed to handle frequent changes and growth, e.g. via Real-World SOA, web services and high performance and scalability.

Real-World SOAService-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is about creating a standardised design that provides an integrated IT infrastructure that can quickly adjust to changed business needs without replacing the entire IT infrastructure.

SOA projects, which are designed for quick and frequent adjustments to business goals, are called a “Real World” approach to SOA.

SOA capabilities are not just built into the core of Dynamics AX 2009, but also in the infrastructure, such as SQL Server, BizTalk Server, .NET Framework, Windows Server and Office SharePoint Server.

Web servicesCompanies must be quick to build rela-tions with cooperation partners and it’s no good if it takes a long time to set up IT integration.

Web service is a pre-defined standard for integration and it reduces time used and the costs of IT integration.

Dynamics AX 2009 is supplied with 80 complete business documents that can be exchanged with business partners via web services. For example, purchase order, delivery note, request for quote, etc.

Performance and scalabilityIn the development of Dynamics AX 2009, significant focus was placed on performance and scalability. A benchmark test of Dynamics AX 2009 operating on SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server

2008 shows a significant improvement in performance and via database com-pression in SQL Server 2008, the size of the database is reduced by 60-80%.

In the test, Dynamics AX 2009 processed 322,000 lines per hour from 2,250 simul-taneous users and 40 batch clients without creating locking problems.

The user experience was a sub-second response time for ordinary functions such as line updating and less than 2-3 seconds for the most intensive updating functions.

Visit www.columbusit.com/axmag and read more about growth.

Growth

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Modern IT must be designed for change with SOA, web services, high performance and scalability.

More informationOn our website you can read more about the topics in this theme magazine: Globalisation, Compliance, Productivity and Growth.

We have also collected some relevant data sheet and white papers from Microsoft about Dynamics AX 2009.

You can find it all at: www.columbusit.com/axmag

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