Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is not just the next release of a great product. It is, in fact, a generational shift in business software, delivering new levels of capability, unmatched agility, and a compelling and empowering user experience. At the same time, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 sets a new standard for simplicity. This paper does not pretend to capture every detail of the product, but instead highlights the key innovations that make Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 powerful, agile, and simple. Many enterprise resource management (ERP) systems have never moved beyond managing the administrative dimension of your business, tracking general ledger, payroll, and HR, while the real operation of the business is managed elsewhere. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is different, covering both the administrative and operational requirements. To do this, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers rich, prebuilt, industry- operational functionality out of the box, with proven functionality for manufacturing (process, discrete, and lean), distribution, retail, public sector, and service industries. By delivering this capability, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 gives you more value faster, and establishes a strong platform for independent software vendors (ISVs) to more efficiently deliver the specialized vertical functionality unique to verticals within those industries. Stronger base functionality and a broad portfolio of specialized vertical solutions means a better fit for the needs of your business, more value, and more rapid time to value.
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Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is not just the next release of a great product. It is, in
fact, a generational shift in business software, delivering new levels of capability,
unmatched agility, and a compelling and empowering user experience. At the same
time, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 sets a new standard for simplicity. This paper does
not pretend to capture every detail of the product, but instead highlights the key
innovations that make Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 powerful, agile, and simple.
Many enterprise resource management (ERP) systems have never moved beyond
managing the administrative dimension of your business, tracking general ledger,
payroll, and HR, while the real operation of the business is managed elsewhere.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is different, covering both the administrative and
operational requirements. To do this, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers rich,
prebuilt, industry-operational functionality out of the box, with proven
functionality for manufacturing (process, discrete, and lean), distribution, retail,
public sector, and service industries. By delivering this capability, Microsoft Dynamics
AX 2012 gives you more value faster, and establishes a strong platform for
independent software vendors (ISVs) to more efficiently deliver the specialized
vertical functionality unique to verticals within those industries. Stronger base
functionality and a broad portfolio of specialized vertical solutions means a better fit
for the needs of your business, more value, and more rapid time to value.
For example, for the public sector Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 incorporates fund
accounting as required by public sector entities. Historically this critical capability
needed to be addressed as customization or as part of the workload delivered by an
ERP ISV focused on specific public sector vectors. Delivering this level of functionality
out of the box, as part of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 industry capabilities,
empowers public sector customers and dramatically simplifies the work of ISVs
building for verticals in that industry. However beyond public sector, many private
sector companies look for increased accounting control and are adopting fund
accounting techniques. Because these capabilities are part of Microsoft Dynamics AX
2012 and not the addition of an ISV focused on public sector, they are available to
private sector customers as well. The ability to combine capabilities from multiple
industries for one customer is increasingly important—manufacturers often manage
their own distribution and sometimes operate their own direct retail operation, and
large numbers of customers in all industries have segments of their business that
operate with the project structure of service industries. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
industry capabilities make the power of this functionality available to all customers.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a truly global solution, designed to scale with
your business. Simple enough to deploy for a single business unit in a single country,
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will support the unique requirements for business
systems in 36 countries—all from a single-instance deployment of the software.
Multiple currencies, multiple time zones, multiple languages, and compliance with
multiple banking and reporting standards and legislative codes give you the global
coverage that you require. And a layered architecture and installable language packs
provide the flexibility for future growth to other markets, including options for agile,
partner-led localization.
Business software is powerful if it empowers users—increasing their productivity
and providing strong insights that help them make better decisions. This is the heart
of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, centered on the latest generation of its Microsoft
Dynamics RoleTailored user experience.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides a role-tailored user home page with configurable
dashboards
The base of the RoleTailored user experience is familiarity—users comfortable
with the Windows® operating system and Microsoft® Office are immediately at
home in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The Microsoft Outlook® messaging and
collaboration client–styled navigation is enhanced with navigation concepts from
Windows 7, the contextual access to relevant functionality from the FluentTM
user interface pioneered in Microsoft Office 2010, and the use of Search
metaphors to find information throughout Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
The familiar experience extends even further to drive productivity—for analysts
working with data from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, interoperability with
Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet software and PowerPivot brings that data into
those tools that analysts expect, with a native, natural experience enabling rapid,
effective access to business system data.
Workflow automation, built on the .NET Workflow Foundation, brings user tasks
to a central task pane, including tasks assigned to an individual, their role, or a
specific functional queue. Tasks and input queues of documents are combined in
the RoleTailored user experience of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to help users
quickly prioritize the work they should be doing. The system is not just there to
record transactions when users finish their work; it is helping them follow
consistent processes and focus on their most important tasks.
The value of a business system is not about putting transactions in; instead it is
about turning those transactions into information—into business intelligence
(BI)—to help users make faster, better decisions. To do this, business
intelligence must be an embedded part of the application, not a separate tool that
requires users to take extra steps and switch contexts. Rich, embedded BI is at
the core of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with:
o More than 30 Role Centers shipped out of the box, to provide the right BI
for each user’s job role
o 11 SQL Analytics Server Cubes behind those Role Centers
o Key performance indicators tailored to each process and role based on
those cubes
o Over 800 out-of-the-box reports, all delivered through SQL® Server
Reporting Services
o Rich interoperability with Microsoft Excel to surface report output and
enable analysis
o Standards-based data interoperability with PowerPivot for ad hoc slicing
and dicing
o InfoParts providing in-context BI fully embedded throughout the
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 user experience
And of course these are all developed using tools that enable extensibility to rapidly
add the unique requirements of ISV vertical solutions and individual business
customers.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 further innovates to capture business intelligence about
workflow and process together with transactional information to enable rich
analytics about process effectiveness, with a focus on empowering business process
optimization. Strong administrative ERP functionality, combined with industry-
operational functionality, a scalable global system, and a familiar, empowering user
experience with embedded BI to keep information in context, define Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012 as a truly powerful business application.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Workflow Management uses a graphical editor with drag
and drop capability to build and manage declarative workflows
Fundamental elements of the unified, natural models in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
include:
Flexible business organization modeling, allowing you to capture the physical
locations of your business, legal entity structure, and business reporting
structure.
People, with separate modeling of the person, their reporting hierarchy, and
their role.
Declarative representation of business workflow, policies, and dollar limits—and
the ability to specialize that policy for different parts of the organization model,
without writing code. For example, as a business analyst you have the ability to
grant different purchase order approval rules to different legal entities within a
graphical workflow editor, with no coding required.
Unlimited financial dimensions, allowing categorization and analysis of
transactions across multiple axes.
Date effectivity for data and models at the framework level, with additional
security control on future effective information, to streamline the definition of .to
be. organizational structures, hierarchies, processes, and policies, and to enable
before-and-after reporting across organizational changes.
Support for multiple hierarchies—for example, one based on HR reporting and
another based on legal entity, with the ability to designate one hierarchy for one
approval process and another for a different process—all without writing code.
These same capabilities that drive the agility of the core of Microsoft Dynamics AX
2012 have been implemented so that they can also be leveraged by ISVs building
solutions that extend the core product. The result: richer solutions and consistent
customer experiences spanning core product and partner extensions.
Natural models simplify system administration as well. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
manages security based on roles and tasks—users are mapped to roles and given
access to the tasks that they are responsible for. The system knows which low-level
technical assets are required to complete those tasks—administration happens at the
level that the business naturally thinks about their people, roles, and responsibilities.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is simpler to set up and simpler to change because the
software reflects the real world in a natural way.
Beyond the horizontal system, the investment in unified, natural models extends even
further into the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 industry capabilities. For example, the
system supports traditional discrete, process, and lean manufacturing modes.
Historically most applications supported only one of these models. Companies, on the
other hand, are often not purely one mode or another. A process manufacturing
company often has some operations that are discrete, and in some cases, a single
company may blend all three modes. This impedance mismatch between software
and the real world forced users to either work with multiple applications or create
awkward workarounds to use an application to represent a process that is outside its
capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 breaks through this limitation—in a single
instance it is possible to model production processes of each type. The software is
able to represent the manufacturer’s real world with high fidelity, simplifying
operation and improving results.
The model-driven layered architecture (MDLA) in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 makes
company-differentiating changes easy to execute and allows these changes to be made
without writing code
Enabling these unified, natural models, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 architecturally
provides a model-driven layered architecture (MDLA) that makes company-
differentiating changes easy to execute. As more and more of the system is defined
through models, unique requirements can be addressed declaratively without writing
code. For example, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables list pages—an important
vehicle for accessing system data—to be defined completely declaratively, with a
single model covering delivery of those pages on both client and portal experiences.
Beyond pages, models are used to define data, process, and policy—enabling business
users to directly express their requirements, reduce complex coding, and simplify
upgrades. Layered models enable customer-specific requirements to build on top of
vertical, local, and base system capabilities in an ordered structure. The combination
drives overall system agility—speeding the process of fitting the software to the
business at implementation, and more importantly, enabling rapid system evolution
in the face of changing business conditions and requirements.
System deployment represents another critical dimension where businesses demand
agility—growth, or even consolidation, will change a business’s needs. Evolving
technology may change the most effective way to meet those needs. Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012 enables flexible deployment alternatives that support your
business today and tomorrow. Microsoft Dynamics is committed to enabling
deployment choice—that includes on-premise deployment and partner private cloud
hosting today, and a roadmap to Microsoft cloud capability in the future—all with a
single application solution. Deployment of a model at a specific moment in time
should not lock a customer into an application that should be the heart of their
business for a very long time; customers can choose Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
because it is the right solution for their business.
SIMPLE
As business applications evolve, the natural tendency is for complexity to increase.
Instead Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 makes an intentional commitment to simplicity
—focusing specifically on explicitly engineering to simplify every aspect of the
system, from installation through deployment, implementation, customization, user
experience, and upgrade.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 web portal provides an easy to use and familiar user
experience based on Microsoft SharePoint® for employees, salespersons, vendors and
customers
For users, simplicity begins with a familiar interface that makes the
application simple to learn and intuitive to use, and continues with explicit
work to streamline every step in high-velocity transaction processes like order
entry.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 also brings the power of software to more users in
the business, adding rich functionality for supplier relationship management
(SRM) and a rich set of employee self-service functionality for HR data,
procurement, and travel expense management.
Through interoperation with Microsoft collaboration technologies from
Microsoft SharePoint, Windows® AzureTM, and Microsoft Lync TM, Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012 brings collaboration directly into context through the
application, making it simpler to connect employees, customers, suppliers,
and partners.
For system administration, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 automates application
lifecycle management, making the system simpler to deploy, manage, and
upgrade for customers, implementers, and ISVs. For example, in Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012 every step of the product installation process was examined,
and the entire process was overhauled to remove steps, eliminate opportunities
for error, and streamline the interaction between IT and application roles,
dramatically shortening and simplifying the process.
Simplicity drives adoption and ensures that customers truly get the benefit of the
system’s power and agility.
MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX 2012—A BUSINESS SOLUTION FROM MICROSOFT
The anchor point for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is that it is a business solution from
Microsoft. That heritage brings with it an obligation and a commitment to bring the
full breadth and depth of Microsoft research, development, and innovation
investment to business customers in a unified solution. This commitment manifests in
four key pillars for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 customers and partners:
First Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is delivered on a platform of familiar, high-
value, low-total cost of ownership (TCO) technology. Whether IT is managed
directly by the customer or by their partner, Microsoft technology means access
to a broad universe of people and resources that already understand the
technology platform.
Next the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 solution delivers pervasive
interoperability with Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and Lync, whether on-
premises or in the cloud, to bring users the familiar, productive experiences they
expect—empowered with access to Microsoft Dynamics AX data and
functionality. For example, BI accessed naturally through Microsoft Excel,
documents stored in SharePoint visualized in business context through Microsoft
Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics data available for seamless inclusion in
Microsoft Word documents, and presence and click-to-communicate capability
delivered through Lync interoperability.
In addition, Microsoft is committed to bringing the latest innovations across
social, mobile, visualization, machine learning, and natural user experiences to
business users, in context, today and tomorrow.
Perhaps most importantly, the commitment to bring Microsoft technology to
business users is not a one-time event at a single point in time—it is a
commitment to continuously renew that technology from generation to
generation. Renewable technology, delivered through an upgradable application
—power and productivity on-premises today, with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
evolving to include the cloud tomorrow with the next major Microsoft Dynamics
AX release.
Sales and Marketing (CRM)
Sales and marketing in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers powerful, integrated
customer, sales, and marketing management capabilities that can help your people
build and strengthen customer relationships and increase sales.
Module Description
Role Centers Marketing executive, sales manager, super sales rep, dedicated sales
rep, account manager, marketing manager, and marketing staffer.
Sales force automation Forecast and plan sales.
Trade agreements (customer)
Manage price and multifaceted discount policies in all currencies. The price revision
process can be governed by workflows to ensure compliance with internal policies.
The generic currency agreement allows prices to be set up in a single currency and
automatically converted to the customer’s currency.
Sales agreement Manage agreements based on monetary or volume commitments.
Organizations are able to set up agreements with specific terms and conditions and
monitor the status.
Marketing automation Develop, conduct, follow up on, and analyze marketing
campaigns for any defined group of customers and prospects.
Lead and opportunity management
Manage leads and opportunities including the ability to create, review, update, and
manage information about leads. Associate employees, responsibilities, and
campaign data with stored information.
Sales management Set, monitor, and manage sales performance of sales personnel,
sales units, and sales companies.
Sales and marketing reporting
Gain insight in sales and marketing performance with predefined KPIs in the sales
and customer relationship management (CRM) cubes.
MICROSOFT® BUSINESS SOLUTIONSDYNAMICS AX® ENTERPRISE PORTAL
Microsoft Business SolutionsDynamics Ax Enterprise Portal empowers
organization’s business community, through Internet connectivity, opening new paths
to efficient e-business.
The Microsoft Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal is a Web solution that enables
organizations business community to work directly with its Dynamics Ax Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system via personalized websites using the Internet. By
connecting the organization’s entire business community in new and exciting ways, it
removes traditional boundaries and sharpens e-Business edge.
Everyone who plays a role in organization’s business is a member of its business
community. That includes employees, customers, vendors and other business partners.
The days of playing phone tag with suppliers, sales and warehouse staff struggling with
mismatched stock information and a human resource department burdened with
employee hour and holiday registration are over.
Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal automates these processes.
Key Features
Anytime, anywhere access to data
One stop connectivity
Intuitive Web layout for walk-up usage
Improve communication and collaboration throughout your business community
High ROI – deploy Intranet, Extranet, and Web solution as needed without hassle
No need to buy third party software
Reduce the cost of distributing and sharing information
Every user can choose from 31 languages and local currencies
Collaboration
Using the Internet you interact with the people who have the information you need; or
need the information you have. The aim is to optimize workflow with anytime,
anywhere access to accurate data. With Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal, your business
never closes. It is open 24/7.
The basis for successful collaboration using the Internet is ease of use and Dynamics Ax
Enterprise Portal delivers. Organization’s business partners connect instantly using
only the Internet and immediately feel comfortable due to the intuitive Web layout. Only
the information and services they need are presented. Users can view relevant
information and reports, publish documents such as customer orders, register project
hours and participate in discussion forums. You decide which information you want to
share and with whom you want to share it. All of the access rights are assigned on an
individual basis. For example, information on a customer-specific product will only be
available to that customer.
New connectivity, new energy
With Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal, organization’s business is connected in ways that
were simply not possible before. By delivering cost-effective connectivity and making
the most of what the Internet has to offer, it enables novice users and external contacts
who previously worked outside your ERP system, to connect and work directly with the
ERP data. Information such as drawings and orders can be exchanged and published
within your parent company and among subsidiaries. No additional software or
hardware is required. No longer will the production staff go searching through emails
trying to locate the latest document drawing. The latest version is published on the
Internet and accessible to everyone involved.
Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal serves as the single point of entry so that there is no
flipping back and forth from various programs, the Intranet, Extranet and the ERP
system. Once signed on to the network, you do not have to worry about remembering a
username and password. You are automatically authenticated and given direct access to
the relevant information. By sharing data and putting it to work, your business
community plays a more active role in business. They are empowered to work more
effectively on an individual basis due to the high level of personalization of the websites.
At the same time, the energy of the online network and visibility of responsibilities
makes for better collaboration.
Automation
Speed and efficiency are cornerstones to improving collaboration. For example, when a
customer on the other side of the world enters a purchase order on their customer
website, that information is registered immediately in Dynamics Ax – eliminating your
need to enter it manually. The purchase order is published instantly on the personal
websites of anyone who needs to know about the transaction. They can then take the
necessary actions whether they are a member of the production staff checking
availability and placing a new order with a sub-supplier or an accountant issuing a new
balance statement.
Overall, you have better planning possibilities and the overall efficiency of your
business increases. Because you have greater flexibility, Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal
makes it easier to find new trading partners and to meet the changing needs of existing
partners - regardless of the industry they are in, the programs they use, or the
standards they require.
Employee Homepage at Dynamics Ax E-Portal
Content management
When information is moving fast over the Internet and with a lot of people involved, it is
important to have a system that can manage it. Dynamics Ax E-Portal ensures that all of
the content published and exchanged is centralized by a set of rules, processes and
workflows so that it conforms to a standardized infrastructure. Everyone creating,
editing, managing and publishing the content automatically works within the
framework. Content management ensures that there is consistency in information
creation, which everyone who needs access to specific information has the same version
and that documents do not get lost in the maze of emails, file folders, and databases.
External content and services
Dynamics Ax uses Microsoft Web Parts technology, which means that any Web parts
deployed under Microsoft Web Parts technology can be embedded in Dynamics Ax E-
Portal. That can include access to programs such as Microsoft Outlook including the
personal calendar, general news, stock and weather information as well as information
from other ERP systems. It is also possible to integrate with other third party back-end
systems because the framework supports the use of ActiveX controls, COM and XML
throughout Dynamics Ax.
Multilanguage and multi-currency support
Everyone logging on to Dynamics Ax E-Portal has the ability to choose from 31
languages and local currencies. Employees around the globe can work comfortably in
one system while customers and vendors can view item information, monitor shipping
status and make requests in their native language. Also, users can choose to view
reports and forecasts in a national currency as well as a secondary currency such as the
euro.
Walk-up usage
The consistent and easy to navigate layout throughout Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal
translates to little or no training. The interface and navigation follow all common Web
browser standards – menu bar, click functionality, GUI interface – which means that
users are able to navigate the portal as soon as they log on. Searches are performed in
the same manner as the Internet, all hyperlinks are underlined and blue and users can
bookmark pages of the Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal just like any other Internet page.
Guidance all the way
When logged on to Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal, you are guided through work
processes in a step-by-step tunnel process. It is conceived as a tunnel process because it
is virtually impossible to go in the wrong direction. The tunnel process ensures that
tasks are simple and that users are less likely to make errors. For example, customers
are guided through the process of creating a sales order. The necessary information
appears as each step is completed and the user moves on – from the first “Create a sales
order” click through to “Pick items” and “See total.” The user does not need to wonder if
the system has all of the information because it asks all the questions and the user
simply types in the answers. The order is complete once the “Finish” button is clicked
on. Detailed online help is available on every page.
Immediate connectivity
Dynamics Ax Enterprise Portal websites are fast and easy to implement. There is no
need for web programming, HTML or Active Server Pages (ASP) knowledge to set up or
maintain a website. Nor is their need for external web development tools, or an
expensive upgrade. Everything needed to create a website is available the moment the
license key is entered into the Dynamics Ax installation.
Security/ Discretion assured
Security is ensured with assigned access rights and the Record Level Security
throughout Dynamics Ax. Everyone has an individual login ID, login name and
password. No one can access someone else’s website or information due to the role
level security. For further security settings, you can refer to the SSL (Secure Socket
Layer) on the websites.
Built for connectivity
Dynamics Ax is built around the premise that the Internet is a natural part of the
development environment, and thereby your ERP system. That is why you are able to
reach out to your business community quickly and without an expensive upgrade or
extra tools. The extent you want to reach out is up to you. The three-tier architecture
provides scalability and accommodates a large number of simultaneous users and
transactions, as well as the ability to expand geographically. With Dynamics Ax, you are
also prepared for emerging technologies, such as mobile solutions and PDA, as their role
in collaboration increases.
Project Management
Project Accounting in AX 2012 has undergone some enhancements to improve the
experience of managing and working with a project. From collaboration tools, to project
budgeting and change control, to the enhanced use of Enterprise Portal, to multiple
funding and grants applied across projects, the solid functionality has been greatly
improved.
The following is a brief overview of some of these enhancements.
Beginning Balances for a Project
When implementing AX 2012, easily input existing beginning balances against
created Projects. This eliminates any effect on the general ledger.
Project Budgeting
New functionality to for overall project budgeting.
Can be copied from
o a forecast
o a previous project (actuals)
o Budget can be allocated over a period of time.
o Available at the activity level. (WBS)
o Budgets and their revisions can now be tracked through budget revisions.
o Advantages / Disadvantages between Forecasting & Budgeting
Project Contract IDs
Can be automatically assigned.
Can be created during project creation without the need to create the contract
prior to project creation.
Sales Order / Purchase Order Associations
A sales order or purchase order originating from ANY module can be associated
with a project. In prior versions, the order had to originate from a project / sub-