Finishing up Jan. 2008

Well with Jan. 2008 about to close out, and all of us back full steam now, we have a lot coming up in the Dynamics AX world. Recently Microsoft did post that SQL Server 2008 will now be released in Q3 instead of Q2 of this year.

The goal of 'The Summer' (end of Q2 / start of Q3) for the release of Dynamics AX 5.0 is still on schedule, according to the Non-press releases of it Not being off track. [;-). This is a very exciting year, as I have already talked about. I am personally wanting to get more and more in deep with DAX 5.0, VS2008 (& .Net 3.0 / 3.5) as well as the latest that can be done with MOSS SharePoint 2007 and Office 2007 as being 'clients' for dynamics ax. I hope to share some of my insight in looking at these, as this will for sure be a big focus in the coming releases of DAX.

Still it's hard to believe that the first month of 2008 is nearly already over. Also for those counting down, convergence is nearly upon (March 11th-14th) which will be hosted in Orlando this year. Last I heard hotel room space is running out, and the early bird registration time frame has now passed us.

Well look for more exciting posts here, as this year unfolds and we get more and more into the current offerings, and the latest from the Dynamics AX world --- including posts, news, and articles from MSDynamicsWorld.com (Make sure to check out my column when your there.)!


Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

American of Martinsville builds a bright future with Microsoft Dynamics™ AX, Microsoft CRM, and Sunrise Technologies

Well Sunrise did a new press release today, about another Win for us. We are implenting Dynamics AX and CRM for 'American of Martinsville'.

The full Press release can be found here: Sunrise Press Release

And from the PR:
"“American of Martinsville is dedicated to investing in solutions that continuously improve our operational efficiency and excellence, said Noel Chitwood, President and CEO of AOM. “Our customers will benefit greatly from the increased transparency on their orders across our global manufacturing operations.”"

continued...:
"“Sunrise is delighted to add American of Martinsville to our growing list of Microsoft Dynamics AX customers in the furniture industry”, states John Pence, President of Sunrise Technologies. “The flexibility and rich supply chain functionality of Dynamics AX and Microsoft CRM provide an ideal solution for AOM,” adds Pence."

Congrats on another win Sunrisers! Check back soon!



Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

MSDynamicsWorld.com eZine Launched!

Well, this is the year of new starts of all kinds! I have another site related to the Dynamics platform that had their offical launch this week. The site is called MSDynamicsWorld.com. This site is all about news, articles, white papers, and product showcasing that are about the Dynamics platform.

This includes: AX, CRM, RMS, NAV, etc.

I am actually a featured columnist on this eZine and will be writing for them twice a month. A direct link to my column can be found here: AX Solution Outlook. (Also you may view my profile by clicking Here.)

I have a featured post already up on the site, which can be found here: An Advance Peek at Dynamics AX 5.0 —and the Emergence of Role Tailored User Experiences (UX)


From my article:
"...Dynamics AX 5.0 isn't due out until this summer, so there is a lot we don't know about it. But one thing we do know is that the UI will be getting a lot of changes.

What is key is that the UI changes won't be purely cosmetic in nature. No, the goal here will be to seek a more productive experience for the different user roles that will make demands of Dynamics AX.

The new User Experience (UX) will be known as "Role-Tailored" user interfaces..."
Read the rest

This site already has some great things on it, and I can see this really becoming the go to Dynamics Portal, or at least a top site for Dynamics related information. I recommend you visit the site, bookmark it, and check it out.

You can check out the first PR release located here: MSDynamicsWorld.com PR Release

Well I would like to thank: Adam Berezin, David Gumpert, and the rest of the MSDynamicsWorld.com crew for putting this site together, and wish them luck. I also plan on linking to the articles on post on my column there from this blog, so that you can see the latest that is going on!

Check back soon!



Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

MicrosoftDynamicsAddons.com

Well I was introduced lately to a brand new site called www.MicrosoftDynamicsAddons.com. This site is an independant listed directory of possible Add-on solutions, from ISV for the Dynmamics platform.

This includes AX, CRM, GP, NAV, SL & RMS. Already Sunrise has listed our solutions on this site, and actually we have a sponsored part in the AX > Distribution section. (also see our link on the site located: Here!

The information for this new site actually came to me from the site owner, Robert Anderson. For the public launching of this site, I took some time and interviewed Robert, here is that interview:

1.) What inspired you to start this new site?
As a former Dynamics consultant myself (since 1995!), and worked with GP, NAV and AX in my career, there were so many times when a customer would have a business need, and I thought to myself; I know what product / version the customer is on, I know what they need, and I want to know what add-ons are out there. Not only that, I want to know which are the good ones, and which I should steer away from. In addition, I have had both Dynamics Customers and Prospects say flat out; where can I find a directory of add-ons for my Dynamics product??? So naturally I built a site which anyone; salespeople, consultants, customers, prospective customers, could quickly and easily get to the relevant answers they are looking for.

2.) What is the main objective with your new site?
Last month we were just focusing on getting addon developers to sign-up on the site, which we have had great success – over 200 in that first month! Now that we have the content, we are focusing on generating awareness and traffic. Right now we need some community involvement - I encourage everyone to look at the site and rate and comment on the addons in there!

In the future, we may expand the site to have additional Microsoft products, for example SQL and Exchange.

3.) Who have been the early users / adopters of this site?
Since we have only really focused on the addon developers up until this point, it has mainly been from that end. However we find that the more established addon developers have been fast to sign up as they see the benefit of being listed in the site (it’s free to sign up! :> ) and not being left behind. Once it starts generating traffic, it will give the quality addon developers a great source of qualified leads.

4.) What kind of editing plans to do you have, for say controling unfair comments / rankings that might take place on a site like this?
The site has some great features in it: for example, when someone lists an addon or writes a comment / review of an addon, it goes into a “holding area’ where one of our staff reviews it before it’s published on the site. While we won’t censor bad comments, if there is spam or something similar we will of course not put that up. Also, users can “rank” the addons – while you don’t have to login to rank a site, it only allows that IP address one ranking for each addon in a certain time frame, so people can’t artificially affect rankings.

Another great feature is how search engine friendly the site is. For example, if someone lists a credit card processing addon for Dynamics AX, it will have all the keywords automatically in the URL and look something like: http://www.MicrosoftDynamicsAddons.com/dynamicsax-axapta/credit_card.html
Since we stayed away from Java and wrote it all in a dynamics HTML engine, everything is spiderable by the search engine bots and very keyword friendly.

Well thanks Robert for the interview, and using this blog to help spread the word about your helpful site. Already there is over 200 listings, and the site is just a month old. I encourage you all to review the products, suggest the site, rank the products, and start to use this site. It's can be a very useful tool to Consultants & Clients alike.

Check back soon!

Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

DAXGuy explains Reporitng in DAX

Well DAXGuy, over at http://daxguy.blogspot.com did a most wonderful job of really going through a lot of details for all the different possible way reports can be created, used, and cross many different aspects of the reporting model in Dynamics AX.

Here is the link: Reporting & BI in AX - DAXguy

He even went into the PerformancePoint Server side. Granted this is not a very technical deep review of each, but a wonderful overall review of near every possible way to create a report for / with Dynamics AX!

Thanks for doing this DAXGuy! Keep those good posts coming!

Also Check Back soon!


Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

Microsoft Dynamics™ Mobile 2008 - Pre-release of Framework

[Partnersource Required]

Link: Microsoft Dynamics™ Mobile 2008 - Pre-release of Framework

I just saw that on PartnerSource Microsoft has release the Dynamics™ Mobile 2008 Framework, for pre-release. I took a little time to look through this what this was all about.
But first below is a description of what this is about:

"Mobile Development Tools - Framework Components is set of tools and components for developing and implementing mobile business applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6.0 devices that connect to business solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV. The two main components are:

-A Software Development Kit (SDK) that is an add-in to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and allows programmers to create scalable mobile applications using C# and XML.

-A run-time infrastructure so mobile devices can connect to and exchange data with the business solution using any of several network types, such as WiFi or GPRS. The architecture builds on.NET Framework 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server technologies."

This is actually taking a step further for the development side of Mobile Development, than what was released last year. Microsoft Dynamics team is really seeing the serious nature and need for Dynamics AX data, and business processes to take place on the Microsoft Mobile Platform.

Now keep in mind this has a limited usage License, and is not meant for production. What this signals though is the ability to further create Mobile applications, that make use of X++ logic, and DAX data model more natively, and easily from the Mobile Platform.

I can point out one huge improvement that comes along with this release, and that is the credentials management. Before a user would have to possibly supply the same user credentials, over and over again. Making for a very poor user experince. Now a single user credential can now be associated with multiple end points, making it possible for a single login. Since user experince is everything, this is a huge improvement, and one worth checking into.

From here, I plan on writing a few post where I walk through a few examples using this. So keep you eyes on this blog, and check back soon!




Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

Convergence 2008

Well the Dynamics AX Convergence 2008 is coming up soon. March 11th-14th, in Orlando, FL.

I will not be able to attend, as I am super busy this time of year. Maybe one day I can attend though. :-) Still it's nice to be busy with work. Either way, I encoruage everyone that can go, take some time out and attend. There is a lot of great social networking that can take place, that will make your trip worth while.

Check out this link that tells you all about the different sessions that will be going on: Convergence Sessions

Also Sunrise Technologies, Inc., the VAR I am a part of, will be there as well, so you can stop by and talk with them. I did want to write, as I saw it posted on the AXUG site, that the hotel rooms are running out already, so you better hurry up and sign up, to secure your room.

Things I would look for are some key highlights on DAX 5.0, as well as talks of CRM Live, and possibly ERP Live. Also VS2008 and SQL Server 2008 talks will be going on as well, along with highlights about Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server!

Check back soon, as I start back my normal posting, and also kick off soon the MSDynamicsWorld.com posts!

Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

Search, and the SharePoint OS

Alright well I came across Marry Jo's Posting over at ZDNet: ZDnet Post

She talks about MS buying Fast Search, for 1.23 Billion. This deal, along with the new tauting of 'SharePoint Online', a hosted version of SharePoint for clients with >= 5000 seats means I agree with Mary, in that SharePoint being the next big OS from MS, has search as a big reason.

So let's think about all the peices of the puzzle we have now: The Cloud, Hosted SharePoint and soon CRM / ERP Live.

This means a very true Hybrid approach for companies, in which some peices of the solution will be hosted, and some will be on site. (ie: MRP, Sensitive data, etc.) that will be offered up in a mashed up, Software+Services approach.

Man this is a very exciting year, and we are just now getting started. So what I just talked about above, is impact for some years out. What about Dynamics AX 5.0? It's set to be released this coming summer, and by that time the purchase of Fast Search will be complete. So what could be done with Microsoft's Search Server and Fast Search, with Dynamics AX 5.0?

* Office as the front end! *

I believe that this will lend to having more and more Office as the Front end applications with the Office 2007 System, and Dynamics AX 5.0. Why? Search and SharePoint! (Also throw in there PerformancePoint Server) More details to come as I continue to post about why I think this lends itself for Office being the front end, more than ever with the release of Dynamics AX 5.0.

Check back soon as I continue post, and we continue to discover and opine about the future!

Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com

MSDynamicsWorld.com, bringing in the new year!

Well welcome to the year 2008! What a year 2007 was. For sure a lot of great things for Dynamics AX as for projects / implementation and the year that saw SP2 for DAX 4.0. Also some great things took place for the coming year.

With the coming year in mind, let me speak a bit about something new I am doing. I have just been informed that I will be posting on MSDynamicsWorld.com starting Very soon. My first article will be up with the launch of the site, and I will be posting there twice a month, on different topics.

These post will be linked back, after 3 days, from this blog to the MSDynamicsWorld.com post itself. I am really looking forward to this, as this seems to be turning into a calibrative effort between a bunch of different Dynamics AX players, plus CRM, GP, SL, NAV, etc.
Of course my post will be focused on Dynamics AX! :-)

Well again welcome to the new year. I look forward to post a lot this year on the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008, DAX 5.0, and using .Net 3.0 / 3.5 with VS2008 and Dynamics AX.

Check back soon!

Find a job at: www.DynamicsAXJobs.com