Roll on Role Centers & the AX 2012 R2 Content Wagon Arrives

Today I wanted to bring focus to a few topics that need some spotlight. First off, is the Roll on Role Centers focus, for the title of this post. Specifically, MSDynamicsWorld.com recently posted a piece specifically on how to make Role Centers work for your business.: 5 Ways to Make Microsoft Dynamics AX Role Centers Work for Your Business



From the post.:
"'The improvements in AX 2012 should help partners [guide more customers to use role centers], but there is a mindset [with some partners] that BI is still not the focus, that AX implementations are still all about the transactional aspects of the solution,' according to Brandon George, a Microsoft MVP

'Too many implementations never bring Role Centers into full focus," says George. "Understanding the goal, and purpose - creating a System of Engagement, is a new generational shift for ERP and SCM software. That is the ultimate goal and point of Role Centers. Like all such shifts, it takes thinking about this from the start, proper gap analysis, design, development, and finally execution.'"

Jason and the team at MSDynamicsWorld.com quoted me well, and without a doubt I do believe thoroughly in this focus of creating Systems of Engagement for Microsoft Dynamics AX clients. Further I do believe that even those clients that are fresh on an AX 2009 implementation, has so much to gain from Role Centers, and this focus around engagement of their user base, by role.

I admit I'm thrilled to see more people take up the banner, for the term System of Engagement, and further explaining what that really means. How this should be the focus for what we do within the ecosystem. The ultimate end result actually, that continues to add value. The idea, is we can help enable customers to turn their data into a value stream for them. Creating learning loops with lead & lag data elements, that helps take information, and drive strategic planning for a company. Helping them meet, and exceed their goals!

The next spot light, and something that I'm really glad to see, is Microsoft continuing stepping up the documentation and information effort around Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. A great summary post by Becky, from the support team highlights some great sources on TechNet & MSDN.: Preliminary Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 content now on TechNet and MSDN!

Further adding to this, is the release of the recent tech conference on AX 2012 R2 video and other content to InformationSource.

Again, it's refreshing to see Microsoft have content at the forefront of the planning. This only helps further build the body of knowledge around Microsoft Dynamics AX, that the ecosystem so desires. Having valid, good content from Microsoft, makes it possible for the pundits of the Dynamics Product line to have cornerstone points and themes in which to work from - spreading in our own voice the value we perceive in each topic we dare tackle.

That's all for this update, check back soon as I have some really interesting topics to talk on. Windows Surface RT use case with Dynamics AX, BigData, BI and more! Till Next Time!
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Microsoft Dynamics Help & Resources Spotlight

While at AXUG Summit this year, one of the more interesting fact that I realized was the lack of knowledge about resources like InformationSource. Further I meet with the Dynamics Content team, including Mark & Margo from Microsoft. In visiting with them a very handy guide was presented, and I understand now Margo presented at the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Technical Conference that is taking place right now.

I wanted to make sure and get this information about, and to help with this the content team put together a great white paper that helps guide one through the resources that are available. You can access the great white paper from the following location.: Help and Resources Datasheet for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012



We can see that the sites published and coming together from the content team, are split into different phase's, and use's. How each is meant to enable the total spectrum of needed content, how-to's, help and more.

Being a long standing contributor to the body knowledge that is represented in the Dynamics Ecosystem,it's a night & day difference from Microsoft on valid, valuable content. When I first started writing about Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta) there was not a lot out there. Now we have a very dynamic, excuse the pun, set of resources that truly help us enable value added, and timely answers to those burning project questions.

Make sure to check out each site, noting their purpose and expected level of content. If you have never, for example visited InformationSource, add it to your to do list for today! Well that's all I have for this post, check back soon as we continue to focus on BI - creating Systems of Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics AX, AX 2012 R2 and more! Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 - SysOperationFramework Documentation Refresh

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. I know I got plenty of Sun, and like always never is long enough. I wanted to start of this weeks blogging focus around, a refresh for the formally known as Business Operations Framework (BOF) - SysOperationsFramework. This makes sense on the name change, because honestly this was only know as BOF in terms of documentation and blogs. If you ever worked with the BOF, you worked with SysOperationsFramework.



With this move, the Microsoft content team has released some updates for us. This includes updates to the home for SysOperationsFramework on MSDN, located here.: SysOperation Framework Overview [AX 2012]. Further there is the recently updated whitepaper on this topics as well, which can be found at the following location.: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 White Paper: Introduction to the SysOperation Framework.

You have seen me in the past, focus a lot on Services in AX 2012, as the focus for all things integration related - inbound & outbound. The SysOperationsFramework is a part of this focus, per it's core design and focus. Further, understanding what all context the SysOperationsFramework impacts, includes items like: FormLetter Framework, Replaces all RunBaseBatch & RunBase, and enables a new focus on possible asynchronous processing options.

Some of the highlights, from the updates resources are.:
"The SysOperation framework enables application logic to be written in a way that supports running interactively or via the batch server in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This white paper illustrates how the SysOperation framework can be used to build operations that can run asynchronously and make use of the full processing power available on the server. Four code samples are presented and explained to illustrate the comparison between the SysOperation and the RunBaseBatch framework, and to demonstrate the use of the SysOperation framework in building asynchrouous and scalable operations."

That's all for this post, many thanks to Robin and the AX Content team for sending me a heads up on this important-to-note resource updates for SysOperatinsFramework. I suggest following the AX Content team, on twitter from the following handle.: @AXContent. I hope everyone has a productive short week, and keep an eye here this week for some great post. Till Next Time!
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