AX 2012 - Going Mobile!

Everyone is talking mobile these days. It's not new really, but if you think about the amount of devices that someone interacts with on a daily basis, it's easy to understand why mobile has such a huge focus. This includes having mobile ERP & BI needs for companies of all sizes. With this topic in mind, fellow blogger & peer Dilip wrote about the release of a new white paper.: Configure Dynamics AX 2012 Mobile Connector - Dilip's Blog.

Now, I do believe that Dilip will give us some great insight as he is able to play with what the new white paper talks about. You can download the white paper, from the following location.: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 White Paper: Configure Microsoft Dynamics AX Connector for Mobile Applications. I would like to highlight this a bit more myself, and so this is the point and goal of my post today. First lets look at the summary of this white paper.:

"This paper describes how to configure an environment that is running Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, so that users can connect the Microsoft Dynamics AX mobile phone application. The initial version of the Microsoft Dynamics AX mobile phone application enables mobile expense capture."

Now we can see that initial scope is to enable the mobile expense capture for travel & expense focused needs. It's clear that this is a framework and that Microsoft will continue to invest into this framework for enabling more mobility through this approach. That stated, there is a good bit that needs to be configured, and technical assets managed.



The above is a diagram that shows the specific elements involved in this framework. Further it shows the flows of message and authentication. This represents: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), Mobile phone application, Microsoft Windows Azure Service Bus and Access Control Service (ACS), Microsoft Dynamics AX Connector for Mobile Applications & Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

It's also important to understand the functional scope that is needed to be configured within Dynamics AX 2012 for this to be properly enabled and add value. It's listed out as.: Users, Expense Management and finally Human Resources. Now that is a possibly a wide & deep functional foot print, specifically when you mention the term human resources. This I believe is the most important part really to understand and what needs coverage. This is actually missing from the white paper. What specific configuration and modeling is completed within expense management & human resources to truly enable this. Further, I can image that workflow and other types of focus are needed as well.



Beyond this, the white paper has very detailed specifics on how to configure the needed technical aspects for enabling this expense capture mobile application. It is a great example of a hybrid cloud scenario that makes use of phone device end points, cloud assets and on-prim instance of Dynamics AX 2012. This is a great step in the right direction for seeing true value for such hybrid cloud scenario's with AX 2012 today, however there is plenty more to do in order to drive real value from such scenario's.

I would like to see the functional depth, the minimal functional depth, that is really required to achieve this setup. Having that paired with this very technical document, would help give and understanding to the functional & technical footprint needed, in order for a company to weight the true cost for the value this can bring.

That's all for this post, check back soon as we continue our Dynamics Journey including Convergence 2013 starting this coming Sunday! Till Next Time!
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Spotlight: To the Cloud with EDI via Data Masons

Today's, I wanted to do a spotlight post on EDI and specifically options for EDI in "the cloud." In looking to have more information on this topic, I always revert to blog sponsor and top ranked ISV Data Mason's. They are the true experts when it comes to EDI and Microsoft Dynamics AX and the defacto choice for EDI needs by Dynamics customers.

With that in mind I virtually sat down with Glenn McPeak - Principal of Data Mason's about their EDI solution, and vision for the cloud. The following is the result of that interview.:


Glenn McPeak - Principal of Data Mason's

1.) When we think about cloud solutions, scale & agility are two attributes that typically take focus in people's minds. Can Data Masons speak to the scale their EDI cloud solution offers customers?

"Interestingly, our largest volume EDI processing customer is cloud-based and has processed more than 5 million sales order lines in a single day into Microsoft Dynamics AX. This customer receives point-of-sales data from thousands of retail stores each day. The customer then has to transform those sales transactions into invoiced orders in order to relieve inventory that needs tracked at the store level so that they can control and plan inventory replenishments. Fortunately, the processing power of the cloud-based data center could be leveraged to handle the spikes in transaction volume that is inherent in EDI relationships. Replicating this processing power in an on-premise environment would have been prohibitively costly.

As far as agility is concerned, there are actually pros and cons that many cloud-based solutions bring to the table. In a multi-tenant environment, where many organizations share a single application instance, the ability to customize the solution can be quite restricted and there is no control over software updates and releases – the software updates and releases are executed at the timing of the solution provider – which is not necessarily beneficial to the customer. The advantage of the multi-tenant solution is that the cost of maintenance is lower for the software provider, which can be passed on to the customer.

Data Masons provides the best of both worlds – a cloud-based EDI solution that can be run in a multi-instance or a single-instance scenario. While the multi-tenant solution has slightly lower operating costs, either option is available based on the needs of our customers. We think it’s important for mission critical solutions to offer this level of control and flexibility for our customers."

2.) Another focus for a lot of companies is making sure their data is secured. Can Data Masons speak to the security that helps govern within the application, as well as access points for the solution in general? Further how was security considered, when thinking about creating the "EDI for the Cloud" offering?

"Data Security is paramount to the types of transactional data that is the norm in an EDI processing environment. We employ AS2 communication and PCI compliant transaction handling (when appropriate) through our Value Added Network solution (VAN). Data Masons is thoroughly committed to the Microsoft Azure platform and our application follows all of the best practices set forth by Microsoft."

3.) The next major focus for customers, when they start to evaluate cloud solutions is the service level. What kind of service level agreements exists for the "EDI for the Cloud" offering?

"Service level agreements for cloud-based applications are more definable as the solution provider is responsible for application, data and infrastructure. As a result, cloud-based options are more appealing to organizations that want to limit the points of failure and have those failures rest on a single (or a few) set(s) of shoulders."

4.) In looking towards the future, what is Data Masons doing for investments towards their "EDI for the Cloud" offering?

"Our architecture and technology design enables our solution to be run on-premise or in the cloud using the same code set and data. If a customer decided to utilize Data Masons’ cloud-based offering and later bring it ‘on-premise’ there would be no loss of data or functionality. The same applies in reverse – an on-premise instance of our solution can be moved to the cloud in a multi-tenant or single instance scenario. "

Further the following are closing words from Glenn & Data Masons.:

"We look forward to sharing more information on this subject with the AX community in a few weeks at the AXUG Summit. If you’re making the trip to Seattle, email us and let us know if you would like to schedule some time to see a product demonstration or to just talk further about your own EDI-related projects. Or you can stop by expo booth #233 to see one of EDI experts.

We also invite you to join us during our ISV Partner Showcase, “EDI Trends: The Outlook on What EDI Should Deliver.” During this informative session, you’ll learn the latest trends in EDI that are driving customers to adopt an innovative technology model that eliminate common inconveniences and streamlines EDI integration and compliance requirements without AX platform customizations. Check the AXUG Summit agenda for times and locations."

I would like to thank Glenn and the team behind Data Masons for the taking the time to sit down and talk about EDI and what the cloud means for EDI customers. As stated, make sure and connect with them, and further schedule a time to speak while attending AXUG Summit! I know I will be there as well!

That's all for this post, but check back soon as more to come. Till Next Time!
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Spotlight: Apps for Office 2013 - future value add for Microsoft Dynamics AX Customers

I hope everyone is doing great this week! I wanted to take sometime today and start back a few spotlight series around the different products and technologies that help complete the total solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Microsoft by far, has the biggest single year product release than ever in it's history. There is so much potential to add value for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers, and that has to start with understanding how to target specific technologies and position them correctly within the frame and use of an AX investment for a customer.

With that, lets start with Office 2013, and the following resource.: Apps for Office & SharePoint: Developer Training

From the page.:
"Developer-focused how to training and walkthrough videos about Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 including changes and new features for search, social, ECM, WCM, and REST. Learn about apps for Office and SharePoint."



As you can see from the resource page, and the above image, there is a lot of great developer training introductions around a host of approaches and technologies based on an earlier preview version of Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, and Visual Studio.

Office without a doubt is a first class citizen client of Microsoft Dynamics AX today, and will continue to be so in the future. With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 alone, the native ability for Office 2010 to enable workloads and processes for users is amazing. Take what is coming with AX 2012 R2, and what we see with Office 2013 and you know this will only continue to be a focal point for truly enabling a system of engagement for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers.

I encourage you to take Office 2013 for a spin, and think about what kind of vertically focused, and value added solutions can be developed - that also increase the overall ROI for the Microsoft Dynamics AX customer base.

That's all for this post, but check back soon as we continue this focus, along with more on the cloud, BI and of course core Microsoft Dynamics AX topics. Till Next Time!
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Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012

I hope everyone is doing well today! I wanted to highlight a recently released, free eBook from Microsoft Press. A Direct link to download the eBook can be found here.: Microsoft Press- Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012.

Like I stated in my big fat book review post, this time of year brings a lot of reading and studying. If I'm honest, you never really stop reading or studying, but we are in a release cycle of technology for Microsoft that is causing such a statement to really be true. With that in mind, I've started reading the above mentioned free eBook that gives a great introduction for Windows Server 2012. From the blog.:

"Chapter 1 The business need for Windows Server 2012
The rationale behind cloud computing Making the transition
Technical requirements for successful cloud computing
Four ways Windows Server 2012 delivers value for cloud computing Foundation for building your private cloud

Chapter 2 Foundation for building your private cloud
A complete virtualization platform
Increase scalability and performance Business continuity for virtualized workloads


Chapter 3 Highly available, easy-to-manage multi-server platform
Continuous availability
Cost efficiency
Management efficiency

Chapter 4 Deploy web applications on premises and in the cloud
Scalable and elastic web platform
Support for open standards

Chapter 5 Enabling the modern workstyle
Access virtually anywhere, from any device
Full Windows experience
Enhanced security and compliance"

This is a very important topic to understand, for a lot of different reason's that are highlighted in the above chapter notes. Windows Server 2012 will be a foundation piece or layer, that true Hybrid Clouds will be enabled via. Further, Microsoft is focused on HTML5 and hence the nod to "Support for open stanards" (See page's 185 & 199)



What is the impact of this for Microsoft Dynamics AX? As we continue to push forward into a true Hybrid world, and details around 'AX 7' come into light, we will see the technology in Windows Server 2012, leveraged that will truly allow for elastic scalablity, and in my "crystal ball" - workload specific scaling for Microsoft Dynamics AX Processes. I've not focused much on the cloud, as of late - however with technologies like Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, SQL Server 2012 and now Windows Server 2012 - the cloud will continue to be ever present in the minds of Architects & developers for AX, and will be expected as an "Always On" utility.

That's all for this highlight, I do think it's very relevant for the Microsoft Dynamics Community at large. Further, check back tomorrow as I continue my series of post on Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP Design & Development. Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 and the value of Microsoft's Visual Studio LightSwitch

Recently, I posted an article on my column, for the Microsoft Dynamics Community site, in which I focused in on the Any Device ERP concept. The push towards this concept, enabling true mobile ERP, as I stated in the article, will actually help drive adoption of the Microsoft Windows 8 powered devices.



Also, including in this post, I highlighted and pointed to the use of Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch. I'm really stoked about this product, and the more and more I look at it, the more value I see it can bring to companies. The value, in which I'm referring to here is all about giving companies the ability to simply, and in a fast nature, create Line-Of-Business Applications quickly and easily. This means faster Time-to-Value for such solutions, that are needed by companies, which can extend from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.



We see, with AX 2012, a push for it being the central hub of business logic, operations, data and delivery of business intelligence. With this, we also see the move for exposing data, API's and business logic internal and external of AX 2012, via Services. Because of this, companies can use LightSwitch, and it's ability to quickly and easily create apps that extend AX for a company, and help create a more total solution.

This is done, via AX services, be that Document Services, or Custom Services and Service Operations. Taking this design approach then, of exposing Data and Business logic from AX via services, these services then themselves can be consumed within a LightSwitch Application. A great resource for walking through this, by example can be seen at the following location: MSDN: LightSwitch - Consuming Web Services

From the post: "The aim of this document is to show developers how you can easily configure LightSwitch to consume Web Services. This walk-through assumes you have a background knowledge of creating basic applications with LightSwitch."



Having this example, we can now extend AX 2012, with LightSwitch for internally hosted Line-Of-Business (LOB) applications, on IIS, and even quickly scale and create applications that are deployed to Microsoft's Cloud Offering, Azure. In order to enable the scaling to the cloud, we do need to deploy the AX 2012 Services, via IIS, so that they can be consumed externally by the outside world. Doing this, means then, that quickly and easily we can create a Hybrid cloud story, for AX customers, and quickly bring the value to a customer that the cloud brings with scale, agility, and exposing AX business logic and data for consumption through such LightSwitch created apps.

For those customers, that have invested in AX, working with LightSwitch from Visual Studio 2010, will seem familiar, in how it's ability to work with Entity Data Framework, ease of creating and working with services, as well as the Tree Style design of forms, and buttons, that feels similar to AX and how it's forms and UI elements are designed.



So, if your a Microsoft Dynamics AX Customer, I highly recommend looking into either having your Partner, or your staff work with Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch, and how it can be used to extend your AX investment, quickly, efficiently and fast. That's always the goal, and keep in mind Simple is King of value, and let me tell you LightSwitch is one heck of a product that truly simplifies the creation of Line-Of-Business (LOB) applications. It's all about Time-to-Value, and that is why LightSwitch is a tool that should be considered, for completing your companies / customers total solution.

These applications, can then be made a part of the AX story, either hosted externally in the cloud, or internally. After creating and deploying a LightSwitch App, it can be incorporated directly into the user experience, via links hosted within Role Center Pages, to the LightSwitch App UI, or hosted within the AX 2012 Rich Client Forms and UI.



Bringing this full circle and to have a little forward looking exercise here, I personally believe LightSwitch, which currently delivers it's UI via SilverLight, will quickly be updated, once Windows 8 comes out. I believe, that Microsoft will enable you the ability to choose your target UI, be that SilverLight, or XAML+HTML5+JavaScript. The idea, is that LightSwitch will still create the UI for you, and enable fast and easy creation of Apps, that target even the Metro Style UI of Windows 8, and therefore having company specific Win8 Metro Style Apps, that work directly with & extend a companies AX 2012 ERP investment.



The following links, are useful resources that are used throughout this blog post. I would strongly encourage spending time researching and learning from these resources, and others to see how Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch can help you drive the most value out of your AX 2012 investment.:

• Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch Home Page
• Guidelines for Creating WCF RIA Services for LightSwitch
• Walkthrough of a Real-World LightSwitch App used at Microsoft
• LightSwitch Metro Theme Extension Sample

Well that's all for now, I hope everyone has a great productive week. Check back soon as I have a lot of good post coming out, all around AX, the Ecosystem, Spotlights, Interviews and more! Till Next time!


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MSDW Decisions Fall 2011 - AX Day Live!

Well welcome to Monday everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend, have some coffee, and are ready to tackle a new week. If your not aware of this already, there is a great virtual event taking place, live, right now, focused on Microsoft Dynamics AX. I'm speaking of course, about the MSDW Decisions Fall 2011 Event.



If you have not already signed up, please go do so now. It's free, and a great way to connect, and get that expo like feeling, with some great information, as well as sessions. Don't forget to attend my session today: Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud: Today & Tomorrow. It's at 11:30 AM - 12:00. I will be on there live, as well as ready for any questions you might have afterwards.

There are a lot of other great sessions today, and plenty of people to meet with, with a nice list of ISV's, and other Microsoft partners that you can connect with while in the expo hall.

Final note, the official hashtag for this event is #MSDWDecisions so make sure and use that hashtag when tweet's are flying out in the wild!

That's all for now, check back soon as a whole lot more to come. So much to cover, and so little time. What an exciting time to be involved in the Dynamics Ecosystem.

Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft Dynamics AX In the Cloud: Today & Tomorrow

Well I hope everyone is enjoying the switch into the Holiday season. I know I'm excited to get some family time, and hope each of you will get that same time with your loved ones as well.



Today, I wanted to focus on Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud: Today & Tomorrow.. This has been a topic I have focused a lot of time and effort on in the past few years, and something that really has come to a point of reality for Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is no longer just theory and what will be. This is something real, today, and something that you need to be thinking about.

With that, MSDynamicsWorld.com is hosting it's bi-annual virtual conferences, Decisions Fall 2011 in which I'm honored they have ask I speak at. For my part, and to the title of this post, I have recorded a session on Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud: Today & Tomorrow. If you have not registed for this great, free! virtual conference, please visit the following site now, and make sure to attend the AX Day on Dec 5th.



You can connect with my session details at the following: MSDW: Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud: Today & Tomorrow - By J. Brandon George. From the highlights:
"[Brandon George] will lead a session covering the concepts, technology, architecture and benefits of the partner-hosted Microsoft Dynamics AX cloud offering. He will also dive a little bit into the future with what AX v7.0, and what the cloud options will look like for future releases."

If you look at all the sessions for AX day, for this great event, the Cloud is a hot topic. There are two other sessions along with mine, that will focus on AX in the Cloud, as well as Microsoft Dynamics ERP and the cloud. I will recommend, that you attend as many sessions as possible. Also, I will be online during the session, and be apart of the live Chat Q&A. So please, join us, and bring your thinking caps, and ask those hard questions! Any and all are welcomed!

Alright, well that's it for right now. Check back soon, as I dive into the performance improvements for AX 2012, talk turkey around my continued focus on workflows and thier use for empowering business process modeling, and many other great topics.

Till next time!

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Microsoft Dynamics AX in the cloud - Today and Tomorrow

With the release of Microsofts Dynamics AX 2012, one of the more interesting topics that is whirling around, centers on AX in the cloud. One of my most earliest blog post, about this topic comes to us way back in 2007 with, ERP Live? "Software plus Services"?

It's always interesting to revisit past writings, that opine about the future. That take a stab at what might be, and compare to what is. This same interest drives me to talk about what my thoughts were then for AX 6.0 / 7.0, and what we might see with ERP, or AX in the Cloud.


With all of this said, I've posted a really decent guide, back in April of this year, that really still holds true today. It covers the basics of what is AX in the cloud, and what are some of the things we know will be AX in the cloud for tomorrow. You can read that post here.: A Guide to Microsft Dynamics Cloud ERP - Dynamics AX.

From my 2007 post, ERP Live? "Software plus Services"?
"As most everyone should have seen at Convergence this year [2007], a big part of Microsoft's furutre plan is CRM and ERP Live."

Well this was a dead on prediction. CRM Online is a huge focus for Microsoft, and Dynamics ERP Online is just getting started.

From the post:
"Well if we look at the future, as laid out by the Microsoft Crystal Ball [aka: Road Maps] we will see how all of these convergence of technologies, etc. are being shaped towards the future of the information worker. Let's start with the future front end, for a given information worker. In the not to distant future, most information workers will complete their job on a SharePoint Portal Mashup page, made up of web parts and weblets. These web parts will draw from Dynamics AX, CRM, and other places, and make use of Word Documents, an Excel spreadsheets as web parts."

Here again, we see this as the truth. Microsoft, with AX 2012, is Blurring the lines between Office, AX and SharePoint. The vision that Microsoft laid out, in which I talked to in AX 2012, has become a reality, here with AX 2012.

From the post:
"his means the same underlying technologies, that will provide role based user interfaces, will exists for role based, or better process based work flows of data and executed business logic. See with the S+S mashup, the entire cloud is not one single giant service, but rather services interconnecting multiple softwares, to offer up a single sign on, and single user interface"

Single user interface has not happened yet, but I fully expected that in AX 7.0. However, if you take what I said then, with the role based focus, better process work flows, and a hybrid cloud experience, then here again we see the vision that Microsoft was putting together then, is coming true.

From the post:
"There will be for some time, and even after the Live versions, customers / companies that host their own clouds that make up their solution, and that they control."

This is also very true. There will be companies, that when even AX 8 comes to exists, will not have much of their solution living in the cloud, than what is required. This is from the sheer fact of reality, and how some companies work. Scale it the gain, and showing that scale to larger corporations can sometimes be lost in the technical how to, and how come. Bottom line, Choice is key, when it comes to AX in the cloud, and that will remain for many, many years to come.

From the post:
"[Most I see will be a hybrid of half / half.] That means that after Dynamics AX 6.0 or 7.0 [Same version for CRM] that will we start to really see the different flavors of Dynamics, ie: AX, GP, SL, etc., come together in this ERP / CRM Live vision and become one product, with different levels of implementation for operation, functionality, and size."

I still hold to this belief. That beyond AX 7.0, is where we see the lines merge between AX, GP, NAV & SL. I'm not saying that the other products that are not AX, don't exists in so form. What I believe will happen is Microsoft with Dynamics ERP, and depending on the size, and desired flavor, what is delivered in the Dynamics ERP offering, will be a blended beast of breed from the family of Dynamics ERP offerings that exist today. If I'm right or wrong, time will tell.

From the post:
"To Not go on to much about this, what I would like to wrap up here with is that ERP and CRM Live are the future of the products we Dynamics AX and CRM professionals support and focus on. This means that we must start to shape our current skill sets to the following:

- SharePoint
- AJAX, RIA, SiverLight [And still Flash]
- Office and it's full compliment of products
- Web services
- .Net 3.0, 4.0 and beyond"

Now I was dead on about these technologies, and what we as Dynamics Professionals need to understand now. What I did not mention, and can replace some of the SilverLight and Flash, is HTML5 UI. However beyond that point, all of the technologies that I talked about four and a half years ago, are exactly the skills needed to be successful with an AX 2012 (v 6.0) implementation today.

Obvious there are a lot other skills that will make one a success, but for sure the above listed technical disciplines are needed.

The bottom line for this entry post, is that the paradigm that is cloud computing is here, and here to stay. It will forever change how we look at computing resources, and how we solve business domain issues. You can either embrace this fact, or shun from it, and become something of a relic.

On-Prim will continue to play a vital role in the successful implementation of the total solution that makes up an AX project. However, the doors are open, and within a few short years, in some form or fashion, every single AX project will have some form of cloud computing involved with it's implementation. Dont believe me, look to RapidStart Services. If your implementing AX within the next 4 years, You will use this service, or you will not be implementing AX. This service alone, makes every AX project, impacted by the technology that represents cloud computing. To that end, every AX project from AX 2012, going forward, will have some facet of it, relating, depending, extending, and adding value through what we call cloud computing, as of today.

That's all for now, but check back soon, as a whole lot more to come. Till next time!



"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"