Statement of Direction for Dynamics AX 2012 "R3"

Microsoft recently released their latest Statement of Direction for Dynamics AX 2012 R3. This new version of AX will be available by Q4 of 2013 and will come with a number of benefits and new capabilities. These include:

Warehouse Management
Advanced warehouse management capabilities will be introduced including embedded RFID, improved warehouse processing and rate, and route and load planning.

Introduction of Demand Planning
There will be new functionality to support SKU-level demand planning based on the Time Series algorithm of SSAS.

Retail
R3 has a strong focus on retail capabilities, with key areas including mobility, clientelling, ecommerce and social.

E-Procurement
Capabilities for purchasing within complex organizations will be enhanced, specifically in the management and control of the RFX (RFI, RFP & RFQ) processes.

Budget Planning
There will be improvements in budget planning capabilities with a focus on supporting the planning needs of complex organizations.


R3 will offer many new and improved capabilities that AX 2012 R2 does not offer. This new version will benefit large and complex organizations the most, especially those with Distribution and Omni-Channel Retail.

The next major version of AX will be released at the end of 2014 and will be called “Rainier.”


Read the full Statement of Direction here.

Questions? Ask one of our consultants.

Ideaca's Dynamics AX Tips & Tricks - Product and Production Lead Times

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video helps viewers understand how to see lead times on products and production in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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Comparing AX 2012 Reporting with Standard SSRS

I have been a Business Intelligence (BI) consultant for a couple of years, and I have worked with the whole suite of Microsoft BI products:  Reporting Services (SSRS), Integration Services (SSIS) and Analysis Services (SSAS).  Dynamics AX 2012; however, was an alien entity to me.  When I was asked to do reporting in Dynamics AX, I thought that since this is a Microsoft product that uses SSRS and a SQL Server database, this should be a pretty standard task based on my experience.  While I was correct from a front-end design point of view, actually getting the data to the report was quite a different task.

The first noticeable difference is the setup.  AX 2012 uses Visual Studio 2010 as opposed to Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) to setup its reports.  BIDS leverages Visual Studio 2008 to launch and run SSRS and you make all of your connections, data sets and parameters directly in the report designer.  Visual Studio 2010 uses a tree view to manage all your data sets and parameters.  These objects must be added, modified or refreshed in the tree to translate over to the report designer. Changes can be made in report designer like in BIDS but they will not translate back to the tree and the changes will not stick.  BIDS creates an RDL file that can be reopened and edited.  With Dynamics AX 2012, everything is stored in the AOT and brought to the local machine by using temporary folders.

Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips & Tricks - Security in AX 2012

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video discusses security in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips and Tricks - Workflow

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video discusses 4 new workflow features in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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A crossover into MS Dynamics AX

This article is a personal and subjective story on what to expect when switching from other ERP systems into AX. My specific experience is with some smaller scale project-centric ERP systems and might be different from experiences of other users/consultants.

After working with AX for a couple of months and after attending a boot camp training on AX in Fargo, ND I thought it was time to reflect on the overall differences between AX and other ERP systems that I have been working with over time.

First of all I have to state that all of the ERP systems I have been working with were smaller than AX, both in functionality, breadth and complexity so I will sometimes compare apples and oranges here but this is part of the experience as well.

Targeted markets

Dynamics AX is Microsoft’s ERP flagship and is positioned with the likes of SAP and Oracle. And that’s the market, Microsoft is targeting: medium to large size businesses with multiple locations, multiple legal entities, dealing with multiple currencies and governments.

This in itself differentiates AX from previous ERP that I worked with. Most of them claimed to be multi-company and multi-currency but they really were not. The software packages were initially written for a specific vertical for small to mid-sized businesses and they grew with the companies that initially bought it. So all the features feel like they were tagged onto the solution and never really as integral part of it. AX on the other hand was designed from the ground up to handle these environments and transactions. So I found it especially easy to handle these things in AX whereas in other ERP solutions you had to jump through several hoops to get it working for the client.

Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips and Tricks - Turning off unwanted functionality in AX 2012

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video helps users learn how to turn off unwanted functionality in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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The Resurrection of Canadian Manufacturing

The crash of the financial markets threatened to eliminate the importance of Canada's manufacturing sectors. With over 300,000 jobs having been lost as a result of the financial crisis, economists were reluctant to paint a rosy picture of the future of manufacturing in Canada. But according to the Financial Post, the manufacturing landscape in Canada is beginning to flourish, particularly for businesses whom had managed themselves well enough during the economic collapse.

Interestingly enough, businesses that were able to survive the crash did so without succumbing to off-shoring practices; rather, they innovated at home to continue to illustrate their strength as a business. In order for manufacturing firms to innovate and withstand some of the issues that arise with an ageing labour force, they will need to invest in proper on-boarding solutions and other technologies that not only encourage a younger workforce to thrive in their business, but also allow them and your business to continue to innovate and become best-in-class leaders in their field.

Click here for more details about how we can help your manufacturing firm become best-in-class leaders.
 

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