Beyond Dynamics AX with Business Intelligence

I hope everyone is having a blessed day, and you find yourself productive in our Dynamics filled world. May is once again here, and that means we tilt ever so closer towards our solar systems star - in the northern hemisphere that is. That also means planning for summer time vacation, baseball / softball, as well as an assortment of water related activities. The march towards summer begins, and that means the world around us continues to come alive.

With spring in full force, I thought it was time to talk about the needed topic of beyond Dynamics AX with Business Intelligence. Lets face it, more and more projects are being sold & implemented well, that has Microsoft Dynamics AX only acting as an operational ERP element. It's one spoke in the total solution for larger companies. When you have this reality, Dynamics AX is no longer the single data mart from which analytic's & insights are derived from.



As we see from the above image, when Dynamics AX is the data mart in which such BI artifacts solely are crafted around, then you have a very compelling story in which a companies total reporting needs can be told by. This is Sunrise's standard offering for business intelligence needs. That is: Office+SharePoint+SQL Server.

Are focus is expanded however, when the needs of the customer expand. To help facilitate the understanding of when and where this might be the case, let's start by listing a high level set of topics, that in turn will be used to guide into greater business insights for customers. Further, how each of these topics would drive to a more complete or total BI story that is crafted for a customer. All the while, keeping in mind that the tool is the last thing you focus on for a real BI project.

• Dynamics AX is a spoke, not the hub - Here we have a total solution scenario, where Dynamics AX is an operational ERP element in a customers total solution. This means 2:n possible line-of-business applications that complete an end-to-end solution for a customer. When this is the case, items like real data warehouses, ETL, Master Data Management across the systems, and more must come into the picture. This further means that what tools are best for achieving the ultimate end goal might need to be extended beyond the Office+SharePoint+SQL Server.
• Security & Exposure beyond the Dynamics AX walls - Here we have a need for an organization that has reporting requirements. These reporting requirements however dictate that there are business insights needed for employees that will not have, nor should not have access to Dynamics AX at all. When this is true, again, then we have directive for something that extends beyond the walled garden of Dynamics AX.
• Mobile BI across a multitude of platforms - There is a very compelling story that can be told with the BI stack of Office+SharePoint+SQL Server. Mobile is very much apart of this, specifically with the release of Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013. However when you want a mobile BI platform, that needs to reach beyond the Microsoft world, in a more native way, then extending beyond the BI stack that comes with Dynamics AX is needed.
• Abstraction - This last point is more focused around that true executive information system, or dashboard. With the continued improvements being made for Dynamics AX, and those improvements driving more technology and model churn, the need for abstracting away the C & B level executives from such churn is a valid one. Having something that extends beyond the Dynamics AX BI stack, can help abstract out the executive's and their analytical needs. Reality is, these might change some, but not at the rate in which technology, and further Dynamics AX is changing.

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The above, by far is not a final list but something that hopefully has you thinking in terms of a more complete BI solution. There is hardly ever any truth in we bought (insert product name) now we have BI! Real business intelligence for customers is always about the data first, then reporting need second, and finally the product or products that help delivery on said need last. Take into consideration any of the above points, and you have a more larger requirement - where selecting specific tools first could halt the needed progression that is demanded by the organization.

Over the next several weeks, I will continue to expand upon each of the above topics, and others in how I feel these are best addressed. This includes both the stack that comes with Dynamics AX, and beyond that for a total solution offering.



That's all for this post, I hope you have enjoyed it and your excited to hear more. One final note, I would like to say that I'm honored to have been listed once again this year in the DynamicsWorld Top 100 list. Top 25 again this year! Honestly the amount of work that some of the people put into the ecosystem, that I can be included with amazes me. This community as a whole has grown leaps and bounds over the past 3 years. I can't say enough of how honored I am to be included as part of it. Til Next Time!


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Why all the fuss around BI? - Data Ownership

I wanted to write today, and address a question that I think needs to be well understood. That is, Why all the fuss around BI? I mean, what is the big deal about business intelligence anyway? To start, there is a real need, for true business & enterprise intelligence that empowers users in their jobs. This goes from the Day-to-Day roles, through middle management & all the way to C-level executives.



To many people however, equate business intelligence to a tool-set, when in reality business intelligence is all about putting your data to work for you! The tool-set is not as important, is understanding the data model, understanding the business, and creating things like learning loops based on lag & lead data that can help drive companies through to their corporate strategy.



There are two big problems that customers face today with most ERP implementations, and relating to business intelligence. First, perceived overload of data. Second, the right tool for the right representation of data in order to glean intelligence from. With that said, there are a number of other specific issues & myths that cloud the path to true business insight - all which should be addressed when thinking about creating a BI story for a company. Ultimately however, these two questions seem to pop-up whenever thinking in terms of BI, from big data, to the personal self-service landscape.

These issues exist for companies small and large, and further what adds dimensions - excuse the pun - to these issues are how companies & their culture perceive BI. So in order to help address some of this, we need to understand a few fundamentals.

1. Data Ownership & Stewardship

If you don't think this topic is the most important to grasp, then your not understanding the goal of business intelligence. It's important for those users who need business insights, to understand who really own's said data, and who are stewards of that data. To many times, customers believe that IT owns the data, which is not reality at all. In fact your IT department, at most classify's as stewards of data. IT is not a cost center, blocking you from your data needs. Instead your IT department is meant to empower you, the user, with secure access to one version of the truth, for your reporting needs.

Users are the true owners of data, with different levels of responsibilities for that ownership. Further some users are data stewards, just like your IT, but with different roles and focus. This must be clearly understood, to help start down the path of addressing the perceive overload of data issue I mention above. The way to address this, is having users feel like they do own their data. This is, of course from the processes that create it, but also from the power in reporting on it. Giving them true Personal BI tools, that allow them access to help form the questions that lead to business insights.

Other myths, and issues that help lead to this confusion - and over worked, stretched IT budgets on report creation and never ending change request is that BI is a separate tool, than that of your ERP system. With out-dated ERP design's this use to be the case, however now exists only as a myth for those customers of Microsoft Dynamics AX.



With Microsoft Dynamics AX, and the stack that it lives on, full BI capabilities exist from the Personal, on to Team and straight through to Organizational BI needs. To help get people talking the same vocabulary, and language, we have the BI Semantic Model or BISM, that helps put some semantics in how we reference and talk about BI artifacts.

Going back to the point now, we have the ability to give users the power to fully grasp their roles as owners of their data - and understand the point of IT and IS departments as being the stewards of the systems, and data that lives within them. Having this clearly understood, means that Users can be turned into fans and a System of Engagement can start to form. Ultimately helping address one of the major issues we see with all this BI fuss, that of perceived data overload. It starts with owning the data, and therefore owning the processes that feed such data. Further, this means understanding the impacts of things like Master Data Management concepts for correct modeling of global data attributes, organization wide.

In order for users to own, and becomes fan's of their data, solid functional modeling & design must exist during the implementation process. Finally, understanding that real business insights, that create things like learning loops, starts with data ownership.

That's all for now, but check back soon as I continue this series and we can turn this BI fuss, into value added business & enterprise insights. Next we will continue our focus, with looking into wading through the onslaught of choices, and help end with classification of BI artifacts for those Usersfans of your organization or customers! Till Next Time!

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AX 2012 - Data Migration Framework - Recap

I hope everyone is off to a great start for this new work week. To help kicks things off this afternoon, I wanted to create a recap post focused around the recently released Data Migration Framework for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.



I covered the release of this new framework, released via InformationSource, from Microsoft. The following list the post in which contains my full coverage of this topic, to date.:

• AX 2012 - Data Migration Framework (Beta) Released
• AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Step-by-step setup
• AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Usability to date

From the above I dove into the specifics around the release, a step-by-step setup as well as a usability report on the framework. There were some great questions, and issues that people ran into - which were captured as part of these series of post.

The following are some critical points, that need to be made in relation to the above series of post.:

• AX 2012 R2 & MDS Support - A question was posed to me about integrating Master Data Services with this framework. Though it's technically possible, Microsoft has made it clear that the upcoming release of AX 2012 R2 will have native support for MDS.
• SSIS 2008 Installed on AOS - We learned through the community testing that SSIS 2008 is required. Further this requirement is for having this installed on the AOS that will execute the code.
• SQL Server 2012 No Supported - Further around SQL Server technology, it was stated that SQL Server 2012 has not been targeted or tested for use with DMF.
• Microsoft is listening! - Microsoft is paying attention to anyone trying to successfully use this new framework. Please make sure to use InformationSource to submit any suggestions, or official feedback around the DMF.

Further, the following is a recent post from Munib that covers the topic Creating a custom entity for migration. Resource link.: Create a custom entity mapping using the Data Migration Framework [AX 2012]

It's a high level coverage of the topic, but still valuable to have, in order to help complete the current picture, understanding and use of the Data Migration Framework.

As previously stated, I will circle back around on this topic as we have new information, news or releases that relate. Further, I invite anyone to a leave a comment here on any other resources you find useful for this topic and I will review / include them. That's all for today! Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Usability to date

I hope everyone is having a great week thus far! Being head strong into summer and WPC12 behind us all, it’s time to take the biggest year in Microsoft Product history and unleash an unprecedented amount of value on the world. Microsoft Dynamics AX customers will benefit from all the great products, from SQL Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 2012. Let us also not forget about the value proposition that Windows 8 will bring for Phone, Tablet, PC and more!

With that said, today I wanted to wrap up my review of the recently released Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. I started this coverage early this week, with the following two post covering the release and step-by-step setup.:

• AX 2012 - Data Migration Framework (Beta) Released
• AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Step-by-step setup

With this now understood, I spent some time looking into the current usability of this beta release for the Data Migration Framework.



Lets point out again, that this is the beta release and therefore there will be bugs, issues and it’s not a complete offering. With that, when we start to look at the use of this framework, we must start with the types of sources we can work from. We do this from the Data Migration Framework > Setup > Source Data Formats.



I want to point out that as you open the form, we can see there is a Type field. In looking at this closer however we can’t change this from the type of File. You can see this type in the above referenced screen shot. Further inspection of this form, and it’s table DMFDataSource and we see that the field type does not allow edit. This is shown in the screen shot below.



In looking at the Base Enumeration that this field represents, being that of DMFSourceType, we do find out that there are two other types.



These types are of Ax and ODBC. We can see that there are plans then for allowing both ODBC source types, as well as enabling AX-to-AX, source-to-target usage of this framework. Just not yet! Again this is a beta, which I would think will be getting a refresh pretty soon to enable these other type source types.

Moving along, since this is file based on source types for the Data Migration Framework, out-of-the-box usage for the framework is limited. It’s powerful, and has a lot of great possible value, specifically when the AX and ODBC types are fully added. Further the framework does work well with the file sources, as I’ve tested and imported products via. If your source data is in flat files, or you can export to flat files, then you can start getting a lot of use from the framework now.



Just to show that Microsoft does plan on really helping to enable this framework to have a multitude of sources, you can see proof in the naming of .Net assemblies that come as part of the install. Specifically the below screen shot of the ‘Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.DMF.SSISHelper’ .Net assembly reference.



In looking for how this is currently used in the X++ code that is delivered along with the install of the model file, we find the ‘DMFGenerateSSISPackage’ class. As you can see from the below screen shots however, this is only targeted for file based sources, for now.







With all of this stated, if you have more complex data import needs, or your already well under way with the concept of using services to import data for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 there still is value is the data migration framework for your needs.



If we take the above screen shot, we can see the installed DMFProductEntity table. This is the staging table for products. This table, along with other staging tables, can be targets of such services or import targets for more complex importing scope.



Finally on this topic around value, there is a ‘Create a custom entity for migration’ wizard that can be called to target any out-of-the-box entities or custom ones that you may have. This is shown in the screen shot above. Further the screen shot below shows the Wizard in action with what table should be the target of a custom migration entity.



With everything said, it’s a great start to helping fill a need. As I mentioned before we have been using this approach for over 2+ years now on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 projects. What this helps with is enabling a true framework, that is repeatable and everyone can build from. Like all things in AX, you can customize this, and for your custom entities you most likely will.

Well that’s all for this post, and my current coverage of the newly release Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. I will come back to this topic, at a later date when Microsoft has updates that are worth sharing around this topic. Further, starting tomorrow I will get back to my regularly scheduled topics around the Cloud, BI, EP Development – and our theme of Creating a System of Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 – Data Migration Framework: Step-by-step setup

Recently I wrote about the release on InformationSource, of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework. In that post, I mentioned that I would continue to cover this release, including walking through the process of setup, configuration and use. In this post I plan to start that coverage as promised, with a step-by-step setup of the Data Migration Framework.



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The idea with this post, is to walk you through the screens, points of interest, through the full compile and finally to the point of configuration. At that point, we will continue later with a new post on the configuration and use of the Data Migration Framework.

Now that we understand the purpose, and scope of this post, lets get started. First off, of course you need to download the Data Migration Framework from InformationSource. After having downloaded the Data Migration Framework, the next step is to extract the contents of the Zip file.

At this point you will want to launch the Setup for the Data Migration Framework.



Moving from here a decision must be made on what is to be installed.



Since I’m making the choice to install both Server and Client on a development instance of AX 2012 I will leave both checked. It’s worth to note the message contained within the first dialog box, around the fact that the server part must be installed on an AOS.

Moving along we must select the path in which the setup will install the application files to.



After this, you should reach the final screen, indicating that the setup program has completed it’s task.



When clicking on the finish button, the installation log file opens up for you. It’s worth scanning through to see if there are any errors.



Now that we have completed the install, we need to double check that we have the Data Migration Framework bits ready for our use. Do this by browsing to the location in which you had chosen previously. In doing so, you should see a folder with similar contents as shown below.



Now that we have verified that install completed successfully, lets move towards a point in the install documentation on TechNet.



Specifically there is a warning, that states: “Because the staging environment is highly normalized and may require significant processing bandwidth, we recommend that you increase the Maximum buffer size setting for your environment while you migrate data. Use the Server configuration utility to set the value.” Lets take the advice of Microsoft and do just that.

This means you need to launch the server configuration utility, go to the database tuning tab, and change the buffer size from 24, to say 48.







You will notice that in making such a change Microsoft warns of doing so. Since we are doing this on purpose, we can ignore this warning. However it’s valid to point out that after your done with the data migration framework, it’s best to change this setting back to 24. Further, you might find that 48 is still not big enough and you will need to increase further.

After doing this, and clicking apply you should take the option of allowing the configuration utility to restart the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 AOS instance.



Now we have to move to importing the model file that came as part of the install bits for this offering. We perform this install either by using the PowerShell command console, or the AXUtil application. I’ve made the choice of using the AXUtil application.



Finally after a successful install of the model file, to your target instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you should launch AX. In doing so, it will detect a new model as been installed, and ask how you wish proceed. For this, we want to make the choice of ‘Compile and synchronize’ and then click ok.



After the successful completion of the full compile and synchronization of the database, next action to take is a full CIL compile. This should take roughly 15 +/- minutes to complete. After completing this step, your instance of AX 2012 has the newly released Data Migration Framework deployed and setup. You should see the something similar to the following when done.



Now that we have the Data Migration Framework deployed and setup, the next steps goes towards configuration. This is where creating entity maps, and understanding source through to target needs great focus, clarity and I can stress enough human workflow.

Well that’s all for this post. I hope you find it useful and helpful in speeding up your adoption and use of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Migration Framework. Keep in mind that this is still in beta, and there will be issues. So keep a watch on InformationSource and further this blog for updates. Till Next Time!


Visit Hillstar Business Intelligence (www.HillstarBI.com) in order to truly unlock your data trapped in your Microsoft Dynamics investment. With our value driven business intelligence strategy Hillstar help you transform into a data informed company.


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