Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 White Paper: Tracing Role Center KPIs

This week must be white paper week, because I have another post about a White Paper that was released just in Jan.

This one focusing in on Tracing Role Center KPIs. The direct link to this download can be found here.: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 White Paper: Tracing Role Center KPIs

Download Description.:
"The prominent place of key performance indicators (KPIs) on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Role Center pages has prompted questions about where the KPI data is drawn from. This document explains how to trace the data that is displayed in a KPI to its source in the Microsoft Dynamics AX online transaction processing (OLTP) database.

Microsoft Dynamics AX relies on Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services for its business intelligence processing. This white paper defines terms of importance for Analysis Services, and then provides a step-by-step example of how to trace the data for a KPI on a Role Center page."

I actually had access to this in beta form, when I was working last summer on tracing down KPI data actually. This is a VERY handy white paper, if you do anything with Role Centers, and plan to customize them for any client, or yourself.

This walk through works, and will give you the knowledge you need to trace down what a given KPI actually means on a Role Center, why it's showing a given number, and help trace down to the fields and tables used in the Dynamics AX Database itself, that the OLAP cubes pull from.

That's all for now, but I have some more great post coming. Including yet another white paper that was released just a few weeks ago. However this time, there were be several post off it. Also I will be getting back to WCF discussions soon, and have a wrap up post to bring that all together. See you next time!




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Pros and Cons of using SSRS for Dynamics AX 2009 Reporting

I wrote the following blog entry, in order to attempt to give an idea of what all reporting possibilities exist for getting at a company's data, inside Dyanamics AX 2009.

Dynamics AX 2009 - Reporting Possibilites

Since then I have also wrote the following, detailed technical how to blog entries about calling a custom SSRS report from X++ code, and passing in parameters, and also for getting at X++ source code, from within a SSRS report.

- Calling a Custom Dynamics AX 2009 SSRS report and passing parameters - From X++

- Dynamics AX 2009 - Calling X++ logic from SSRS and C#

Reporting in Dynamics AX 2009 is a heavy focus, as more and more companies are wanting to understand how to get the right data to the right people. That was the whole thinking behind creating role centers in Dynamics AX 2009. To target specific information worker profiles, and to give the ability for companies to target specific information workers in custom ways that fit to the company needs.

Since writing the above entries, I have had a full request now, to talk about the pro's and con's of using SSRS reports for getting at data that lives inside a Dynamics AX 2009 instance.

So looking at this, the pro's are quickly seen. The report can be delivered via a Role Center, inside Dynamics AX, and over the web. The processing of these reports can be scaled out to other servers, for performance needs. SSRS offers the ability to work quickly with SSAS / OLAP data, KPI's, etc. and add this to the report design. The creation of these reports happens in Visual Studio 2008, and therefore VS benefits exists. There exist an ad-hoc tool, that gives users a good reach into the data, though not all parts can be done via the Ad-Hoc right now.

There are more, but the above is the highlighted. And the final pro, I would add to this would be the fact that Microsoft is moving it's Dynamics product line to make use of SSRS as the reporting tool. So moving there now, prepares for the future road map of tomorrow.

Now, with all the great things about SSRS and Dynamics AX 2009, there are of course limits or con's.

One of the first things is, it's not the native report engine and designer inside Dynamics AX. Morphx reports are. So all the standard reports and reporting are done and have been done in X++ reports.

This is I would say, the biggest con about SSRS and Dynamics AX 2009. And because of this fact, and handful of other cons come with this fact.

Like for example, since this is the case, then you have to go through the .Net BC to get at X++ business logic / code from an SSRS report. Everyone would much prefer to have more native access to this.

The interaction with with reports from X++ code is different than standard reports, and requires more attention. There is lack of information about limits, issues, etc. because SSRS is not native.

The Query window that comes with most reports, which allows quick adding of filtering fields, etc. does not exists with SSRS reports. The developer of the report can add parameters to the report, still it's not as flexible as the Query Window that exists for X++ reports.

Now with that said, you can develop a class that makes use of a Query dialog, that captures filtering information, and if your good enough in X++ and think far enough in your SSRS report design, you can offer this ability. (if your interested in that, feel free to contact me for a quote.)

I think that is good enough for now. I will leave on this, SSRS should be a major focus to anyone wanting to do reporting in DAX 2009 and beyond. The limits / cons will continue to move away, as SSRS becomes more and more native to Dynamics AX.

Also, on PartnerSource, the Reporting & BI Courseware was just released eariler this month. So if you have access to PartnerSource I suggest you check this out.

Check back soon, and see you next time!




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Dynamics AX 2009 BI: Practical use with SSRS and looking at OLAP

We have looked at BI from the SQL Server Level (SQL BI - I, SQL BI - II), and dove into the technologies that make up BI for Dynamics AX. (Dynamics BI for the Masses) We have also looked into the future for BI, Microsoft Project Gemini. (Project Gemini)

Now that has taking place, lets take a turn into the practical. Lets look at what it takes to create an SSRS report inside Dynamics AX 2009. Let's also then take a dive into the AX Cubes that are out of the box, and other tools and links that are for pratical use with Dynamics AX 2009.

Lets look at what it takes to make up an SSRS report for use inside Dynamics AX 2009.

In order to create a custom SSRS report for use inside Dynamics AX, SSRS and all the infrastructure must already be in place. Also this assumes you have deployed Visual Studio 2008 to the machine for developing reports, and the Report Development Project Template for AX SSRS Reports.



once that is in place, Dynamics AX and Visual Studio 2008 will be used to create a custom SSRS report.

An SSRS report used within Dynamics AX is made up of:
- A Query AOT Node.
- A Visual Studio 2008 DAX Report Project.
- A Report created inside the VS 2008 Report Project.
- A Dataset inside the report definition, that references your AOT query.


There is actually a great setp-by-step guide for creating a custom SSRS report and deploying it to an instance of Dynamics AX for use and reference from within the AOT.

Here is that link: Saveen Reddy's Blog: Dynamics AX 2009: Creating a simple SSRS Report

So now we see what we have been talking about the past few weeks in action. We now see the pratical use of BI technologies in use with a Dynamics AX 2009 instance.

The next area we want to talk about, in terms of pratical BI for Dynamics AX is OLAP and OLAP cubes.

First let me reference the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - BI Cube Reference PDF File.

That file goes into great detail about the OLAP cubes that come part of the out of the box offerings for OLAP cubes with Dynamics AX install. I recommend highly that these be looked at, and understood. These can be the base for your own custom OLAP cubes, and could be modified to include your own custom dimensions and needs.

To go hand in hand with that reference PDF file, is the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - White paper for configuring the Default OLAP cubes.

That white paper will walk you through deploying the default cubes covered in the reference guide.

Once last thing to help you, is the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - Cube Advisor Tool. This was recently released and is used to help you determine the cubes you have installed and setup that you don't have a license for or it's Role Center, and therefore can be removed to release resources.

So now we have some practical uses, and information for making use of the BI offerings that eixsts from within a Dynamics AX 2009 instance. We will move forward in the future with this to include making use of Excel for readin in an OLAP cube into a pivot table, and drilling down to the transactions inside Dynamics AX instance that make up the cube dimension data.



Well that's it for now, check back soon as I have more great post coming out. See you then!




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