Interview with Microsoft's Lachlan Cash on his new role, AX 2012 and more

While at Conv11 I had the chance to sit down with Microsoft's Lachlan Cash. You may recall Lachlan, as he is very active while at Convergence, helping with the keynotes, doing demo's, and also has been on my blog a few times before. (Interview with Microsoft's Lachlan Cash about Dynamics AX Technical Conference)

This time, I sat down with Lachlan to review a lot of different things, including is move from the Microsoft Dynamics AX Product Team, to becoming a AX Solution Architect working with Sri and Hal Howards R&D teams.

The following is the result of that interview.:



Q1: Lachlan, you recently moved from the AX Product team, to Hal Howards Dynamics Research group. Can you tell us a little bit about this new position, and your influence over AX in this new role?

Lachlan: "Making the move from the Product team, to Hal Howards group, and specifically Sri’s Solutions Architect team, put my focus more on the sales process, as well with implementations for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In this new role, I will focus on helping fill a need that has been identified with helping with sales support questions from a total Solutions Architecture point of view. This includes working with larger implementations of AX, and driving value helping the total solution for a customer scale.

One of the business values, from this new role, and how that influences AX in general will be around creating lessons learned, which in turn help with the partner channel around readiness efforts.

In my new role then, I focus on more of the execution side for helping deliver Microsoft Dynamics AX implementations, through our Partner Channel, and how the functional depth and use of AX fits into the overall total solution package for a given customer.

As part of this, the R&D team can also take what we learn through helping with customers scale and complete their total solution, and if you will – drive backwards through the R&D, and therefore product development to help shape a better and better ERP platform that is Microsoft Dynamics AX."

Q2: Now that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is in public beta, can you talk to the power of things, like the workflow engine & designer, and it’s impact on such ERP project task, like business process modeling?

Lachlan: "The goal with such items, as the workflow engine is to address the need to bridge the gap between development vs. business process modeling. To take and drive true BP workflows, down to the end user level.

With this in mind, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is really the first true step in this direction. We started the foundation for this concept in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, but really built upon on it AX 2012. Now that we host the Microsoft .Net Workflow engine, and Visual Studio Workflow designer, the gap between the developer world and business process modeling world has gotten a lot smaller.

Take for example, now with workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you can nest workflows, and have workflow logic that calls upon other workflows. This is truly an empowering step towards a business process modeling world, that leads to a more dynamic and agile ERP platform.

Looking at this from a long term view, the idea would be eventually to drive system configuration away from so much code and parameters, and to more domain specific design, and even language to complete the configuration of a Dynamics AX instance.

The underlying design theme, then is taking and setting up AX, so that this move to decouple modules and sequential code, into more business model concepts then enables in the future the ability to have this ‘lego block’ approach to deploying and even customizing Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Lets look at a real world example, of this decoupling that has already taking a positive affect in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. If you look at the new structure and design for the infinite financial dimensions, we have a great story here. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and before, some code and parameters had to be adjust in order to add a new financial dimension. Now in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, no code or parameters are needed. You model your financial dimensions as needed, and the work load is a business user, vs a technical need.

Another great example of this same decoupling, or abstraction that we are doing is the separation of the Inventory dimensions. Before Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, we had a very tightly created design around inventory dimensions that mixed item attributes along with storage and tracking information. Now we have split these, decoupled them, in a fashion to where the Item Attributes, live abstract from the tracking dimensions, which also both live in an abstract manor, separate from storage dimension.

As we move forward with the development of Microsoft Dynamics AX, more and more of this decoupling will take place, which will help empower and enable customers that choose it as their ERP platform."

Q3: Lachlan, with this new vision, for performing business process modeling via the workflow designer, how much ISV development and also AX 2012 out-of-the-box will be setup using this new approach?

Lachlan: "Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 represents the first step in this direction. With that, we are still not completely at the point in which true business modeling is mostly done with the workflow designer, and with domain specific components.

For ISV’s, there exists however a new place in which they can deliver their vertical specific expertise through the creation of workflows, and business modeling elements in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. In doing so, they would be setting themselves for future releases of Microsoft Dynamics that will use this approach.

For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, out-of-the-box business process modeling workflows still reside mostly around the procurement, and procurement templates. However, these are great examples, and a lot more depth than what came out of the box in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. From these templates, a customer, or ISV can use, to help them create their own templates that govern other processes.

With regard to the out-of-the-box nature, for business process workflow templates, Microsoft’s focus is and will be around the horizontal needs, which include the five focused industry sectors that will be apart of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and beyond. This means, as I stated earlier, that there is a lot of room for ISV’s to bring their vertical expertise to the table with what now exists in the workflow elements."

Q4: Lachlan, as part of the Microsoft Convergence 2011 keynote, Kiril made the official announcement for Microsoft Dynamics ERP Online. As part of that announcement, it was officially released that Microsoft Dynamics AX version 7 will be built for the cloud first. For the Azure PaaS offering. Care to give a little insight on this?

Lachlan: "When looking at the cloud offering, what Microsoft Dynamics AX version 7, or vNext, will offer is around scale as well as flexibility. The idea that is driven us, is around that enabling flexibility and choice to our customers.

Some customers will want to be 100% cloud based, however what we are seeing mostly is customers that will want to live in a hybrid cloud mode. Where parts of their solution will exists in the cloud, while other parts will still exists on-premise.

The architectural changes you now see in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, with the decoupling, unified natural models, abstraction, the move to more .Net all help line up Microsoft Dynamics AX to help offer this eventual true choice for customers.

It is true, that Microsoft Dynamics AX version 7 is being built for the cloud first, however the same code base and offering can still run 100% on-premise, or in a hybrid mode, as well as the partner hosted model that we see geared up now for the Microsoft Dynamics AX cloud story.

The choice is what separates Microsoft Dynamics from the rest of the pack in this regard."

Well I would like to take the time and thank Lachlan for sitting down with me. It's always a pleasure!

As you can see, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 represent true generational shift in the ERP landscape. This includes Microsoft Dynamics Cloud ERP offering, and driving to Microsoft Dynamics AX 7, which will be built for the cloud first.

I agree with Lachlan, that, Microsoft Dynamics flexbility and being designed so the customer has a choice in how and what is running in the cloud and not, helps separate it from the rest of the pack! You can read more on my take for Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Vision here: A Guide to Microsft Dynamics Cloud ERP - Dynamics AX

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

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft's Cloud Positions, become ever so clear

So I could not help but try to come up with a title that played on clouds, with the word clear.

This is however somewhat of a true statement, as well as an intended pun. One of the things I talked heavy on at AXUG Summit this year, in Orlando was about Cloud Computing. In my executive track, I actually hardly mentioned Dynamics AX.

For reference, here are direct links to my Slide Decks for the two sessions on cloud computing I lead.:

• EXE02 - Cloud Computing Presentation


• TECH05 - Technical Side of Cloud Computing Presentation

So, with the EXE02 session, the whole goal and point was to paint a good picture of what cloud computing is today. That was actually the hardest one to come up with, because of filtering through all the marketing fluff / hype that exists around cloud computing.

I Did land however, on four real area's.: SaaS, IaaS, PaaS and PCS (Personal Cloud Services - a Mix bag of types)

It's nice to know that I was right in-line with how Microsoft see's the cloud as well. Read the following post from Mary Jo, over at ZDNet, found here: Microsoft plays the PaaS card to better position its cloud platform



Microsoft is really pushing the PaaS offerings from Azure and what makes Microsoft different from other cloud vendors. Also, the fact that, the 'All In' cloud is correct in that Microsoft is a cloud vendor that has offerings in all the area's. Including PCS, with LiveDrive, LiveMesh offerings.

Why does this matter? Well I have been talking about cloud computing for over 4 years now, and declared this year to be the year of the cloud. (2010: Year of the Cloud).

This matters to AX Partners that are VAR's, ISV's, as well and even more too Customers. This matter's because one day Microsoft ERP will be developed for the cloud first, and what runs in the cloud or runs on premise will be of choice for a customer. To the information worker this does not matter, as long as it's secure, reliable, and able to get the information needed to get that workers day complete.

This means scale, beyond what you can think, and back to only what is needed. Having a plan now, and understanding what you can do with Dynamics AX 2009 and the cloud right now is the first step in seeing how the cloud can enable your company to scale beyond what it currently can imagine.

The second session I did, listed above on TECH05 is a dive into the Technical side of the Azure Cloud Platform, and also Architect level visio diagrams, at a high level, showing several ways cloud LOB applications can be integrated with AX 2009 today.

That's all for now, check back soon and till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Someone Agrees about the Dynamics AX Connector for SAP

Yesterday, I wrote about my take on the SAP moves for the bid on Sybase, and also the other moves going on, that basically points to SAP giving in on the mid market to the Leader: Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Link: Looking into SAP's bid for Sybase, and what this means for Dynamics AX

I also go on to point out that the Two Tier move by Microsoft with the Dynamics AX connector for SAP is a move into the SAP client base, with a focus on the Divisons and moving into the Larger Enterprise.

Lee Pender, of RCPMag.com, a couple of hours after posting what I did about all of this, he posted on his blog similar thought lines, in the following post.: Microsoft Seeks To Infiltrate SAP as Sapphire Begins

From the post.:
"[F]irms can implement the cheaper, simpler AX at satellite locations and let workers get used to it. And when it comes time for an SAP customer to reevaluate ERP, maybe Dynamics makes its way into the picture based on the performance and simplicity of AX in the sticks."

Now one section Lee says AX is not designed for Larger Enterprise, however Lee does not implement AX, and I believe his sources are incorrect in giving him this statement. Dynamics AX can be any companies full scale ERP package.

With that aside, it seems that Mr. Pender agrees with what I was saying, or at least is thinking along the same lines.

So here we go, Dynamics AX pushing deeper and deeper into the bread & butter of SAP's larger enterprise, where for some reason the norm for a long time was "If it's complicated and takes a legion of consultants to implement, then it must be right for larger enterprise."

And, as I stated yesterday, I believe Sybase move - while gaining some form a of mobile and cloud platform - actually is about trying to 'buy-a-stack', in order to focus in on shoring up against Microsoft threating the SAP core.

And now, lets look at the cloud offerings that come with Sybase. It's not a platform, in which Windows Azure, or even Google's AppEngine is. It's built on Amazon's EC2, which is really IaaS. Pure cloud services can't be built with this. Not the way pure cloud services can be developed on Azure and Google's AppEngine.

Therefore, though it is a move into the cloud, it's targeted more at the Infrastructe level, which turns into hosted versions of the following.:

• Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) mission-critical data management system


• SQL Anywhere embedded and mobile database


• Sybase IQ column-based analytics server


• Replication Server for data movement and synchronization

Interesting yes, but a true cloud offering? A cloud platform? No!

This is going to be something to watch for sure, and again I could be wrong in what all this means. Just reading the tea leaves, and connecting the dots, this post and the one from yesterday sum up about what I think this all really boils down too.

I will ask as Lee Pender did on his blog, what's your thoughts? Do you agree? Do you disagree? All comments are welcomed!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft's next wave of releases

Alright, so in this post, I plan on touching on a few points. The plan is to take us through Microsoft's next wave of product releases, and how that will enable and touch Dynamics AX.

First let's start with the following post.:
Microsoft updates its enterprise ABC (Active Directory, BizTalk and Communications Server) roadmaps



So in the above post Mary Jo covers Microsoft's roadmap for ABC, or Active Directory, BizTalk and Communcations Server. Why is this important for Dynamics AX? These technologies will be the foundation for future enabling technologies that allow true Hyrbid Clouds, custom, third party, and Microsoft based to exists for Microsoft Dynamics AX Customers.

Now lets move forward a little.
Microsoft Dynamics AX statement of direction



Notice the vNext release, and road map for Dynamics AX includes heavy Functional growth and Software+Services.

This is the key. The next release, or wave of Microsoft products will enable more and more solutions to actually be true Hyrbid clouds. This means customers of AX now, and in the future will need this, request this, want to understand this... as part of their solution design.

The Cloud, something I have been talking about for years now, is here. The next wave is just the very first part of this. Microsoft Dynamics AX is the business platform, that the rest of the platform makes use of to offer a total, single, hyrbid platform for customers world wide.

For partners, check out the following PartnerSource resource.:
Microsoft Dynamics & the Wave ”14” Launch – Helping our Customers Become Dynamic Businesses

"
The “Dynamic Business” is Microsoft’s vision of companies who are able to continuously evolve and transform themselves to face changes and challenges in their business environment. Some of these challenges will be economic, others may be organizational, or require changes to the ways companies operate, or interact within a wider value chain. Such challenges will require companies to use software to optimize their people, their processes, and their ecosystem.



Microsoft Dynamics’® goal is to help our customers become dynamic businesses through empowering their people to be more productive, simplifying their business processes so they can be more agile, and through enabling seamless connections with their ecosystem. Achieving this goal requires more than just a Dynamics business application - it also requires a business productivity infrastructure that works hand-in-hand with the business application, and provides many of the capabilities on which the business application relies."

And...
"The latest version of Microsoft’s business productivity infrastructure - and the two key components of the Wave “14” Launch - are Microsoft Office® 2010 and SharePoint® Server 2010. Both are currently in public beta, and are planned for release in the first half of 2010, at which time all Microsoft Dynamics® ERP and Microsoft Dynamics® CRM products will be certified to run on them."

So everything, more than ever, is has a tie into the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP offering. And Microsoft Dynamics AX, can more than ever, make use of the rest of the Microsoft platform. From the Desktop to the Cloud. Threee screen and a cloud!

For customers, this means more flexibility, more options, and a more Dynamic business for sure.

For Partners, we must learn, know and be experts in understanding what is best for a given customers needs. That other options exists, other than on-premise software.

Finally, check out Microsoft's vision for Dynamics ERP and Software+Services.:
Software-plus-Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP

"Microsoft Corp. announced a collection of online services that can be attached to its Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, including a new Sites Service built on the Windows Azure platform, a new Commerce Service, and an expansion of its Payment Service.

In addition, the company revealed that its Microsoft Dynamics ERP hosting business has more than doubled in the past year, demonstrating strong uptake by partners to deliver Microsoft Dynamics ERP via on-demand and subscription-based hosting models as well as complementary services.

“Our customers increasingly appreciate the option of moving certain applications and services into the cloud while maintaining an on-premise option for their ERP solution,” said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP. “Providing this choice and flexibility is a competitive advantage for us and our partners around the world.”"

So, the cloud is merging with the Dynamics ERP. Dynamics AX, can take advantage now, of what the Microsoft Cloud Platform has to offer. And not just with the offerings from Microsoft itself. But offerings from third party vendors, and also custom services as well.

This has to be, in any stratgey, and planning for any customer that is using, or considering to use Microsoft, and Microsoft Dynamics AX.

If you have questions about Dynamics AX, Microsoft, and the Microsoft Cloud Platform, feel free to ask here by either emailing me or leaving a comment. Also check back soon, as I have more great post coming!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

DAX ROI and Azure Dynamics ERP Services

Well as I posted first thing this morning, getting back into the swing of things. In doing so, I have a double post here to get the week off right.

As the title says, the first part of this post is about Dynamics AX ROI, or Return On Investment.

This is why companies implement Dynamics AX over SAP, Oracle, Epicor, etc. It's because of the ROI, and benefits that come from being a part of the Microsoft platform and software stacks.

I saw on twitter a post to a link, to Nucleus Research's post ROI study. Click here for that direct link.

This study covers the spectrum of Microsoft Dynamics Line, and of course that includes Microsoft Dynamics AX. The direct link to the specific Microsoft Dynamics AX published paper can be found here.: The Real ROI of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In this paper, I found some very interesting information, and specifically out of the customers that agreed to participate, 75% of them have already seen great ROI, while the others are on their way to doing so shortly.

Also from that paper.:
"Companies looking to
maximize returns from Microsoft Dynamics AX and other ERP deployments today should:

• Get IT and business together to define needs and requirements up front and get user buy-in.

• Evaluate products both on real functional requirements and ROI– and build milestones for both into your deployment plans.

• Keep customization limited to ensure you’ll be able to upgrade and adapt in the future without significant rework."

The above is the conluding points of advice. The paper is well worth the read, and just another independant source talking about what make Microsoft Dynamics AX so great.

Now for the second point of this post, Azure Dynamics ERP Services. We have been talking about the cloud on this blog for over two years, knowing that it was coming. PDC just took place and one of the things learned there was a new set of Dynamics ERP Services that will live in the Azure Cloud Platform. Making use, no doubt, of the AppFabric so that is truly lives in the Cloud and not on a hosting VM image, that lives in the cloud.

These cloud services can be found at the following direct link.: Online services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP

The two main services are.:

- Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP
Now you can have a total retail solution. By combining Microsoft Dynamics ERP software with Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP you can accept credit and debit transactions as you ring up sales right in your ERP software. No credit card terminal needed. With Microsoft Dynamics ERP, you can accept credit card payments in real-time. Payment Services is fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) to ensure the security of your credit transactions.

- Connect for Microsoft Dynamics ERP
Connect for Microsoft Dynamics ERP helps you access the resources you need to maximize the effectiveness of your Microsoft Dynamics solution, and increase profitability. With Connect, your employees can access community-driven knowledge, best practices, training, and updates tailored to their specific role directly from their Microsoft Dynamics ERP application.

Both of these are wonderful moves in the right direction. And I know a lot of our retail clients, and possible clients are looking for that PCI DSS compliance. So this is great to see.

Over at MSDynamicsWorld.com, a great article about this actually has been posted by Linda Rosencrance. Microsoft Calls On Azure for New Dynamics ERP Services

From the article.:
"Microsoft said it can best serve its customers by offering a flexible deployment model so they can implement their ERP systems in the environments that are best for them. Microsoft said currently over 150 partners worldwide offer customers this hybrid option.

The online services that can be attached to its Microsoft Dynamics ERP platform including a new Azure-based service called Sites, new Commerce Services, and an expansion of its Payment Service, according to the company."

And...
"The significance of this announcement is about Microsoft Dynamics taking another step into the world of cloud computing, and being one of the early vendors to talk about a hybrid environment of on-premise and cloud and how those scenarios might work and providing the technical support to allow them to work," said Jim Shepherd, an analyst with Boston-based AMR Research Inc. "And there hasn't been a real connection yet between Azure as a public cloud service from Microsoft and the Dynamics product line. So this is the first time we're really seeing the Dynamics business leverage the Azure offering."

There we have it, the first real production level offering of the Azure Cloud Platform with a Hybrid on-premise+cloud approach. This will be the norm for businesses with the cloud, and this is only the very tip of the iceberg.

Well that's all for now, check back later!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

A Possible Dynamics AX Solution - with the Cloud

Alright,

As I talked about in my recent post, More Focus on the Cloud, I want to start showing how Dynamics AX 2009 and beyond can be used with the cloud, cloud services, cloud based applications and platforms.

To kick this off, I want to talk about a possibility that can be done today. So lets invent a company, called CompanyA. They already have Dynamics AX 2009 in place, and some integrations with Dynamics AX with other applications.

They are wanting though, to have a field service application for their field service agents. These agents are located all over the world, and sometimes are contract employees. They have a desired to have the Field Service mobile application to work directly with their instance of Dynamics AX. They want to be able to keep track of work done, by who, hours, operations performed, charges to the clients, ticket information, etc.

They don't want to open their network to the world, and don't really have a lot of internal staff to support hosting a web presence internally. They want to off load the hosting somewhere else.

Also they want to be able to push the data out in the cloud from AX for the field service agents to pick up when they can connect. Finally, they want to pull data from the cloud datasource, to get updates from the field service agents.

So with that said, lets look at this.:


This daigram shows Dynamics AX instance on the top part, with it's core business logic. Then you have AIF and the AIF generated .Net Services. These services live at the service layer, where some SSIS packages and custom .Net Services are used to perform some data extraction and loading for reporting into a datawarehouse possibly.

You have the Services layer acting as the bridge between the Dynamics AX On Premise solution, to the SQL Azure based Field Service Database.

With this option, which by the way can be done right now with the CTP version of SQL Azure, a very secure connection to the outside world, with limited and controlled interactions between Dynamics AX and the SQL Azure database takes place.

Next we have the Field Service Agents, that have a mobile based solution designed to connect to the SQL Azure database, when it can connect to the internet, to download specific information for that field service agent and to also upload updates from the field service agent.

So with this possible solution design, we can address the needs to the client, by making use of SQL Azure Cloud based database. And I point out again, this can be done right now with Dynamics AX 2009 and SQL Azure CTP.

Now to take some steps further, lets look at a diagram from MSDN.:


This image shows how a windows or web client, on-premise can be used and make use of the Windows Azure platform for SQL Azure and Application code that lives in the cloud.

That's all for now. More on this topic to come. If you have questions, issues, interests about seeing more of this. Drop me a comment on this post.

Till next time!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

More Focus on the Cloud

Alright,

So a topic that I have not talked about in a few months is really about to come into focus. Specifically in 2010. What I am talking about is Cloud Computing, and focused on the Cloud Platforms.

That's right I used the plural, because there are many now to choose from. However, the two that I will focus on for my postings are Windows Azure Cloud Platform, and then Google's AppEngine Cloud Platform.



Sometimes it will be a vs. and sometimes it will be different approaches. Because believe me, there are some major differences. For example SQL Azure is a true relational database. I have setup a SQL Azure database, then use SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) to connect to it, and create tables, etc. Then use SSIS to initially fill the tables or work with that data. It's that simple with creating your relational data with SQL Azure.




However with Google's AppEngine it's a different ball game as POJO's, Plain Old Java Objects are stored via JDO, or Java Data Objects, into a not so relational datastore.

So this is a totally different mind set in thinking.

Now, to point why this will be important for 2010, and beyond. First all of the previous news and interest up to this point, but now check out the following three links.:

- RCPMAG: Making a Cloud Play
Check this statement out from that post.:
"What are kids doing in college today? They don't have Windows servers sitting in their dorm rooms to build really cool applications -- but they do have access to the Google App Engine. What's going to happen in three to five years when those kids start coming into the workforce? You're going to come in with a proposal for $100,000 of infrastructure costs, and there's going to be some kid fresh out of college saying, 'I think I can do that for nothing.' You have to understand the tradeoffs. There might be a reason to spend $100,000 -- there might not be."

That is a big, and true statement. Think about what happened when all of us College kids had Microsoft to play with? Or Java even, how did that change the world? This is going to be a similar aspect.

Now the following, point to interest and also Microsoft expanding it's Office Web Applications testing.:

-ZDNet: Survey: cloud interest grows triple-fold; cost may not be main factor
-Microsoft expanding Office Web Apps test program

Both Microsoft Windows Azure Platform and Google.com AppEngine are in beta still but very soon will be in full swing. And I have been playing with both, and you can do a lot already with these two. Again though it's a totally different mindset sometimes when you look at how you design a service, application, etc.

So I am using this post to talk about the focus on the Cloud, and these two options for working with Dynamics AX instances, and having real world, pratical applications living in the cloud, parts living in the cloud, services living in the cloud, and interacting with Dynamic AX instances on different levels.

The Hybrid Cloud will be the most domaint, and will be like that for the next 5-8 years, as trust builds and certain low level aspects of the computing pardiam are worked out.

See you soon, as we will go cloud hopping! Yes cheezy closing tag... oh well!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"