Heading to AXUG Summit!

Well I am heading to the AXUG Summit, down in Orlando today! Should be a great event, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone there. When I am not in session, or talking with customers, I will do my best to give the event some good coverage with my twitter account.:


(twitter.com/DynamicsERP)

I will also have some articles come out of the event as well, which of course will be placed right here.

Hope everyone has a good week!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

AXUG Summit next week!

The AXUG Summit 2010 is next week! This year it in wonderful Olrando, FL, at Seaworld. Of course, not a lot of time to check the sites, and shows there, and so many great sessions, training, customer events, etc. will be taking place.

With that, I asked a few of those that will be presenting at the AXUG summit to share a little about themselves, their sessions, and their thoughts on the AXUG summit and it's value.

First up we have John H. Smith, Software Engineer for Smith Technologies. Here is a little bio about John.:

"John H. Smith is a resident of Indiana holding a professional engineer license and proprietor of Smith Technologies. For the past 8 years, he has specialized in software engineering for Dynamics AX."

And the following are John's sessions while at AXUG Summit this year.:

• “AX Code Change Control Roundtable” in the development track, DEV04, double session, 10/20/10 8:00 am to 9:00 am and 10/20/10 9:30 am to 10:30 am. - "[John will] be leading this development track discussion on code management. We’ll be exploring what practices users are following when changing their code. Come prepared to pickup a few tidbits that you can make your own, or to offer up a few gems of your own. This session is not a presentation but an interactive exchange of ideas."


• “The AOT and AX – Understanding how the three letter word can help you out” in the development track, DEV03, 10/19/10 5:00pm to 6:00pm. - "[John will] be leading this development track round table diving into the application object tree and its relationship to AX development. As the backbone of AX development, it’s vitally import to understate the AOT. We’ll be sharing experiences working with the AOT. This session is not a presentation but an interactive exchange of ideas."

And here is what John, has to say about the AXUG Summit.:
"What a great place to come together, meet follow DAXers, and exchange knowledge."

Now moving forward, I have another person that will be presenting at AXUG Summit this year, who name is Kris Pavlovsky. Here is a little information about Kris:

"Kris is a Senior Dynamics AX Architect with DENTSPLY International. With 10 years of experience implementing large enterprise applications. Kris' favorite quote is “Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupery"

And the following are Kris' sessions while at AXUG Summit this year.:

• Managing AX in a Global Environment (RT) 10/19/2010 11:00am – 12:00pm - "This session represents a great opportunity to connect with other individuals facing the unique challenge of managing a global ERP implementation. We anticipate a nice blend of technical and non-technical content to surface. A roundtable session of this nature often lends itself to very collaborative discussion and sharing of valuable lessons learned.
  " Session Link


• Best Practices for Managing the AX Development Environment (PR) 10/19/2010 2:00pm - 3:00pm - "Often, this is the fastest hour of Summit for Technical people like myself. Some of the topics we plan to cover include: Managing Environments – Everything from the AOT to the AOD and in between is fair game. Managing Development – How make successful changes to the AX application. This session is geared for moderate to advanced technical individuals" Session Link


• Role Center Setup and Administration (HT) 10/20/2010 9:30am – 10:30am - " Role Centers are new feature of AX 2009 and provide the unique opportunity to push otherwise static data forward and enable your end users to be more productive. Out of the box Role Centers provide a lot of easy to use functionality which will be demonstrated. This session promises to cater to all areas of interest in Dynamics AX." Session Link


• Best Practices for Role Centers and Dynamics AX2009 (RT) 10/20/2010 8:00am – 9:00am - " If you have ever gone to personalize a Role Center and asked yourself, “What’s a Web Part anyway?” This is your session. This session will provide content for both technical and non-technical alike. Bring your questions!" Session Link


• AX Infrastructure Best Practices in an Enterprise Installation (RT) 10/21/2010 4:00pm – 5:00pm - "This session is a must for anyone tasked with maintaining a growing AX implementation. Every year the AXUG member base gains more knowledge on how to build, deploy and maintain large AX implementations whether local or over the WAN. This will be technically driven discussion." Session Link


• Understanding the Global Address Book (GAB) in AX2009 (PR/RT) 10/20/2010 2:00pm – 3:00pm - " GAB is another new feature introduced with AX 2009 allowing companies to share various types records across multiple Dynamics AX companies. This session will provide a lot of great information on how to implement and maintain GAB’s within Dynamics AX. This session will provide content for both technical and non-technical alike." Session Link

And here is what Kris, has to say about the AXUG Summit.:
"Acquiring “Real Life” answers to “Real Life” problems have continued to make Summit a must attend conference for me. Many of the people I have met at past Summits are now friends. Quite often, we will continue to work through tough problems uncovered during the sessions long after Summit has ended. This type of collaboration opportunity makes the trip worth it every time."

Looks like both John and Kris are going to be busy, and covering / leading some great sessions! I hope to get the chance to visit as least one of them.

That leads me to finally what I will be presenting at AXUG summit. I will be leading three different sessions, which are.:

• EXE02 - Cloud Computing - What is It and is my Company Ready to Move into the Cloud - "Wondering what cloud computing is? Is your company considering moving some IT applications out to the cloud in a hosted environment. If so, please join this presentation where an overview of cloud computing will be covered."


• TECH05 - The Technical Side of Cloud Computing - "So you understand the cloud, but are wondering exactly what can be done to integrate the cloud with Dynamics AX. In this presentation session, geared towards the technical folks, learn what technical tools are available and how they can be deployed with AX to extend your Dynamics AX installation into the cloud."


• Sunrise Partner Showcase - AX on the iPad - " Innovative ways to extend your AX investment with the iOS platform."

All in all, this is going to be a great summit! If you still have not registered, there is still time. This is the yearly event I always recommend customers to attend. With so much knowledge focused around existing customers and install base of AX your surely to walk away with how to improve, extend and get the most out of your Dynamics AX investment.

This is also a great event for those just starting, or thinking to start down the road of a Dynamics AX ERP investment. Plenty of ways to connect and learn!

That's all for now. I will be covering the event while I am there with my twitter account Twitter: DynamicsERP.

Check back soon as more to come!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft Dynamics Community Site 2.0 released

I wanted to take the time and point out that the much awaited Microsoft Dynamics Community Site, verion 2.0 has been released.

By now, hopefully, most of you have noticed the new site and what all features it has. I actually covered this, in a beta preview of the changes, and this new 2.0 version, in a blog post this past summer, which you can find here.: Microsoft Dynamics Community site set for major improvements

Also, over at MSDynamicsWorld.com, there was a great article last week covering this as well.: Community 2.0: In Final Shift from Newsgroups, Microsoft Dynamics Community Site Adds Customer Service, Upgrades Search, New Layout

I think this is a great move, and really will help continue foster growth in the Dynamics Community / Ecosystem.

The Offical Microsoft Dynamics Community portal, is a great resource, that has all kinds of ways to learn, share, understand and get help with all the different Dynamics ERP and CRM products.

I would also like to thankn the Dynamics Community Site for spotlighting my new guest column that I will be starting soon. My plan is to write once a month on that column. Below is a description of what I will be targeting.:

"Microsoft Partner and Senior Technical Architect Brandon George's column is focused primarily on the high-level architect, CIO and CEO roles within Microsoft Dynamics Partner and Customer organizations. Brandon reviews topics ranging from Microsoft Dynamics AX, general trends in technology, and how it can help solve business domain issues today and tomorrow."

That's all for now, but check back as we approach AXUG Summit next week! I hope to see some of you there, and if not, I will make sure to have some good coverage, and follow up articles about the summit.

Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Interview with John Pence on the AXUG Summit

Recently, I had the chance to virtually sit down with John Pence, President of Sunrise Technologes, Inc. (www.sunriseconsult.com) to talk about the upcoming AXUG summit.



The following is the result of that interview.:



1. John, with AXUG Summit 2010 just around the corner, what can of value does this conference bring to the Dynamics AX community?

"I think this is a big year for Dynamics AX and the user group. With the release of AX 6.0 due late next Spring AXUG Summit is a great chance to network with peers & Microsoft about their plans for the new release, what type of improvements have others seen in previous upgrades, and in general what’s working out there. I think the Town Hall session will be huge this year."

2. John looking at this from an attendee point of view, what are some sessions you are interested in and why?

"I always look forward to the Town Hall session. The interaction between a room full of knowledgeable Dynamics AX users, and the equally knowledgeable Microsoft executives, is always a great learning experience. In addition I am going to be attending as many of the BI sessions as I can. That is an area where many of the newer Microsoft technologies are converging and providing a lot of value to our AX clients."

3. Looking at this from a Partners point of view, what are some of the highlights and take aways you have from attending AXUG summits from years past?

"First and foremost, it provides an opportunity to network with our existing customer base. Every year we get great feedback on how things are going, what can be improved upon, and interesting best practice tips. Also important is networking with the Microsoft resources that are at the Summit."

4. Being a partner that will showcase this year during the AXUG summit, what will Sunirse be talking about?

"I am thrilled you brought this up. We are focusing on an important new technology, the iPad, and how it can compliment Dynamics AX in a really exciting way. I believe the iPad is an outstanding Mobile Application platform that is being adopted at light speed in the business world. Sunrise will be demoing how Dynamics AX can run on an iPad via a RDP connection, and a native iPad application directly interacting with a Dynamics AX instance."

John's closing statement.:

"I feel that every year AXUG Summit really delivers a tremendous value to its attendees. The networking opportunities with peers and Microsoft executives is always worth the price of the conference. The breakout sessions are almost always useful and based on real world experience, and the Town Hall session is not to be missed."



I would like to take the time to thank John for his thoughts. I know I am really looking forward to this years AXUG summit. I will be on-hand myself, and am scheduled to help with the above mentioned iPad demo, along with two other sessions on the Cloud.

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

AXUG Summit 2010 - coming in October

The AXUG Summit 2010 has been set, and things are really ramping up to make this a very great event. All kinds of sessions are already planned, and last years feedback is for sure being used to help make this one of the must attend AX related events of the year.

A direct link to AXUG Summit 2010, can be found here.: AXUG Summit 2010

In preps for the upcoming Summit 2010, I plan on doing a series of post until the summit, that will build up to the summit kick off. From there, I will be attending the Summit myself this year, and will be doing coverage while I am there.

From this, I wanted to get things started, and hope to peak everyone's interest in this most value event. With that, I virtually sat down with Andy Hafer, which leads the Dynamics Community teams responsible for AXUG. Andy had this to say about the upcoming event.:

"This year’s AXUG Summit is shaping up to be the best one yet! In the six years that I’ve been involved in the User Group, I have never seen such energy and excitement around this conference. From my observations, it appears that most companies are starting to see the economic slump in their rearview mirror and are now seriously re-tooling for the distinctively new way of doing business post-recession. I’ve had countless conversations with individuals who are having to become proficient on jobs that others used to do in their company and they are leveraging AXUG to help them gain that education.

The Summit has gained a reputation for being the most cost-effective and efficient means of Dynamics AX training out there. Since AXUG brought a bit of the Summit-experience to Convergence through hosting most of the Interactive Discussions in Atlanta in April, it appears that an entirely new audience was introduced to the value of the User Community. We’ve already had to go back to the Orlando Renaissance Hotel for more space once and now the team is discussing how to handle a “sold-out” situation.

It seems that the “perfect storm” scenario is upon us and the AXUG User Community is going to be the ones to benefit. With three days of knowledge sharing and break-out sessions plus two more days of formal training and education, attendees will have over 200 sessions to take advantage of. There is no doubt that a massive increase in AX competency will transform the community in Orlando the week of October 18th."

I agree with Andy there does seem to be a perfect storm brewing, and the summit is the accumlating storms coming to rain knowledge on all those who attend.

Ok, so to much analogy --- I know. Point is, there is a lot going on at AXUG Summit, and if you have AX, if your investing into it at any level, as a customer AXUG Summit is the place you should attend.

Just to give you an idea of some of the topics of interest.:

• Sneak Peak at AX 6.0


• Role Center Setup and Administration


• SSRS Reporting


• Setting up Workflow


• Mastering Master Planning


• Introduction to Management Reporter


• Executive BI Roundtable

These are just some highlights. Well I hope I have your attention, and your ready to sign up for AXUG. Look here, as I continue to highlight the upcoming Summit, along with some interviews and key point of views around AXUG, the summit, and what value it brings to customers!

Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"