Webcast of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 & Personal BI

Well I hope everyone is doing well this fine Tuesday. We are very close to the summer equinox and that means the longest day of the year! I love summer time, it's full of fun times, water activities as well as opining for the beach!

With that, I wanted to post a link to the recent webcast I lead via MSDynamicsWorld.com. The link to the web cast can be accessed from the following resource.: The Power of Personal BI with Dynamics AX 2012: PowerPivot and Power View



Now there is for sure one point that I need to clarify from this webcast. Specifically the question was asked around what version's of SharePoint & SQL Server are needed in order to enable specific aspects of what we reviewed during the webcast. When looking at this from a Microsoft Office Excel 2013 perspective, then the topic of SharePoint & SQL Server version for that matter in what was shown, is not relevant. Meaning, it does not affect what you can do with Excel 2013 in context to what was covered.



However when we look at enabling PowerView from SharePoint, launched within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 then we need to better understand what versions of software do impact what functionality. Thus we have the above pictured diagram from Microsoft. It shows that indeed we do need more than standard versions of MOSS & SQL Server for different levels of functionality, including that last part of the webcast around PowerView & SharePoint.

I hope that this is helpful to people. During the session we have a lot of great questions, and feedback. Keep in mind, this is not edited but is a full capture of the entire webcast itself. Finally, I encourage you to send me any questions around this and just think about how Personal BI can help craft a reporting story for your company! If you would like to know more, you can contact us here.: Sunrise Contact Page.

Well that is all for now. I know that I'm behind a bit in getting some of the previously targeted topics posted. It's a sign of the current times, with being busy. It's good to be busy, and so there will be plenty to cover soon. Til 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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From Power View to Cube and back again - A Recap Friday

Well what have we here now? Another Friday has settled upon us. Man what busy week this has been, filled with all kinds of great things. I wanted to take the time, and just post a recap of sorts from this & last weeks post. The goal and focus of these past weeks have been around truly using the BI Semantic Model within the context of Dynamics AX 2012 R2.



Without a doubt for each of the topics covered, there is plenty of room for extended reach & depth of knowledge. We can easily spend hours, upon hours within Power View design concepts and more. Further, we could opine and expound on the many depths that exist within the realm of SSAS cubes. Topics as deep as Tuples, and the underlying structures that contain our aggregated measures & dimension attributes. However, while there might be some value for certain people in such a deep journey of understanding for each of the fore mentioned topics, the point would be lost of what the goal really is.



That goal my friends is the enablement of quick consumption of data assets. This is the real goal of any business intelligence story that is to be crafted for a company. Owning the data, and turning that data into a real asset that goes to work for companies. With this goal in mind then, the following is a recap of the recent post, with the goal of quickly getting you up & running with Power View. Further, showing you how *any* cube can be the target for such personal BI artifacts.

• AX 2012 R2 and PowerView - Part I
• AX 2012 R2 and PowerView - Part II Extending
• The Cube behind the Power View - Part I - Perspective
• The Cube behind the Power View - Part II - Create, Deploy & Process

Now having each of these reviewed, you should see how simple it really is to empower yourself and your company or clients to truly start embracing the full BI Semantic Model. When Microsoft Dynamics AX is your system of record, and acting as your main data mart, then you have a great BI offering built right into the product. This is what we refer to as Tier 1 BI for Dynamics AX customers. Meaning that nothing but the stack of Office+SharePoint+SQL Server (OSS) is used to craft a BI story for a company. It's very feasible, and does not take a deep understanding of the empowering underlying technologies to get started.

Well that's all I wanted to gab about today with you. The end result is less focus around what tool really, and more about the data. To much focus at times is placed in the ecosystem currently around specific tools, and myths of 'removing IT' from the equation. The goal is putting your data to work for you, and then the tool comes into focus for the specific BI artifacts that are needed to get the job done.



I would like to add an interesting note here. This is actually my first full blog post, from my new Surface Pro 128 GB version. I'm typing this from the 'real keyboard' cover type as well as having the use of the Surface mouse and stylus for completion of task. I must say I'm very impressed and really looking to push this to the limits. Til Next Time!
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AX 2012 R2 and PowerView - Part II Extending

What a great day to be alive! I know for a lot of people, including myself, today has special meaning. It's about faith, and remembering that we are finite and need our Creators grace & mercy. So I must first hope that everyone has a blessed good Friday, and you find yourselves doing well. Further, today I wanted to continue the series I started yesterday around Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 & PowerView.

For those that are just reading this post, you can go to Part I of this series located here.: AX 2012 R2 and PowerView - Part I. Having the knowledge gained from that post, we can now continue with extending PowerView for AX 2012 R2 with our own custom cube!.



We start this journey by focusing on where the PowerView data connections and artifacts are stored within Enterprise Portal. You can see this location in the above screen shot from the demo image I'm using as my target. This is located in.: 'http://[site]/sites/DynamicsAX/Power View Reports/'.



Having the location open, we can then target creating a new data source that we will want PowerView to consume. As we can see in the above image, we target a new data source by simply adding one to the document library. Further what's important to not, as seen in the below image, is the connection type and the connection string.



You will not that we have a connection type that is very specific to enabling PowerView artifact creation. This type is called.: Microsoft BI Semantic Model for Power View. Further the connection string is very important as well. This happens to be pointing to a custom SSAS Cube Database and further a custom SSAS cube.



These where both created from the BI Project wizard within Dynamics AX 2012 R2, from a perspective representing the Measures & Dimensions desired. The following is an example connection string that is valid, that you can easily adjust for your own needs.

Provider=MSOLAP.5;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=True;Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=sunSalesAnalysis initial;Cube=Sales Analysis

Now having this in place, we can test our connection and save the new data source for PowerView usage. This is the default library where the PowerView managed code looks for data sources to make use of. Going back to the information in the first post on this topic, that means that when an action menu item passing in a data source name as the parameter, it is in reference to the data sources living in this specific document library on Enterprise Portal.



Having done a successful save of the data source, you should see something very similar to the above screen shot. This means that we are ready to move back into Dynamics AX 2012 R2 for completing our extending of PowerView. Like all things in Dynamics AX, this extension should remain within an AOT project.



What we see in the above screen shot is that project, including having highlighted the custom action menu item that will launch our PowerView design process. You will notice that I'm targeting the name given to the data source that lives in the document library on EP. That is the parameter value that will launch PowerView to target the specific custom cube.



Having created the menu item, and launching it, we see in the above image a field list from the custom cube I created from the above mentioned perspective.



This literally took under two hours to complete, from cube to launching into the design space. To further bring home the point that this is a separate cube database, and cube, please reference the below image.



You can see that I have a new cube catalog, or database as well as a custom cube called Sales Analysis. Further you can see in the above image the dimension structure in which we can slice our measure via. Again, this was 100% generated from a perspective within the AOT. Having completed this, we can now create compelling visualizations with PowerView based on the custom cube.



Further having completing such visualizations, saving these to the 'Power View Reports' document library we can surface these and execute them as web parts, or full screen mode.



The above knowledge, mixed with the first post of this series, should enable you to start easily taking full advantage of Power View, well beyond the out-of-the-box cubes. Having these powerful visualizations that allow power users to help complete a BI story for a customer is the icing on-top of the BI cake represented by the Microsoft Stack. This will truly help you to engage your user base and help you down the continue journey of Creating a System of Engagement!

That's all I have for this post. Feel free to comment or leave me any questions you might have. Further, I will back into the cube creation process behind this in a new post, so that there is a complete story from end-to-end for you. Keep in mind, this would work for *any* cube. This does not have to be just the Dynamics AX cubes. Further you can start to see how this can be placed throughout the Dynamics AX forms and user experience. Til Next Time!
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RF-SMART Leading the way in Role Based Dynamics User Experiences

One of the things I like to do with my blog from time-to-time, is a spot light or feature post. With that, I virtually sat down with RF-SMART’S own Sherry Paul to pick her brain a bit. My goal with talking with Sherry was to find out, what RF-SMART was doing, to help enable Role Based user experiences for Dynamics AX customers. The following is the result of that interview.


Sherry Paul, Business Solutions Advisor – RF-SMART

1.) How does RF-SMART help create a role based, system of engagement for Dynamics AX Customers?

"RF-SMART provides the ability to setup roles for workers so they can clearly see their daily tasks on mobile devices. The worker can clearly determine which tasks need to be performed and in which order. These roles can be setup narrowly for specific business processes or roles can be defined more broadly to be use by managers in the warehouse and manufacturing plant."

2.) What are some of the unique workflows that RF-SMART helps enable "RF-SMART customers mobilize their workers to do important tasks such as receiving incoming goods, inventory management, recording progress for production order operation and completing product which can be paperless picked with RF-SMART.



RF-SMART provides dashboards, designed with modern tablets and smartphones in mind. The dashboards allow managers, regardless of where they are, to take action on current picking activity in their warehouse.



With the RF-SMART Production Activity billboard, plant production can be monitored at a glance while being displayed on a large monitor, potentially hanging on a wall in the production area."



3.) For these workflow's, what kind of ROI, with time saving, and efficient processes do customer's see when making the choice of RF-SMART?

"When choosing RF-SMART, customers will have increased visibility and tighter control, measurable gains and easy ownership. Having visibility into their inventory levels, picking, people/activity, deliveries and much more, this therefore enables them to reduce physical inventory counts, labor costs and provides them with superior operational and financial performance. Some examples of our customer successes’ include:

• Automated process for receiving and transfers has reduced CMC’s manual inventory movement processes by 97 percent - saving CMC 173 labor hours per month!

• Physical inventory counts have dropped from twice a year to once a year and only half the amount of staff is needed!

• Increased receiving accuracy to 99.97%"

4.) Looking into the future, what can you tell the readers about exciting, upcoming offers that will continue to make RF-SMART a great value add for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers?

"It’s an exciting time for the RF-SMART team. We’re wrapping up our best year ever and 2013 looks even brighter.

From a product perspective, we’re going well beyond supporting core AX 2012 functionality while, true to our mantra, make it easier and easier for people to manage and execute critical inventory functions throughout the warehouse, shop floor and retail store. That’s really what we do: make inventory execution easy by delivering the right information, at the right time, on the right device to prompt the right action.

What helps us identify new functional opportunities is our unique level of industry and Dynamics AX experience. Our people are the best at developing easy-to-use software that solves real problems by taking into account AX, business requirements, mobile UI capabilities and knowledge of how people actually work. As a result, RF-SMART helps companies be more efficient and responsive by helping their people do their jobs better.

Looking forward to 2013!"

I would like to thank Sherry for taking the time to answer’s my questions. One of the major focuses of mine is around Role Based user experiences, specifically in how that can foster the creation of a System of Engagement for Dynamics AX Customers. I know RF-SMART, a sponsor of this blog, is doing the right things focusing their efforts on this goal as well!

To find out more, visit the following resource, fill out the form and download RF-SMART’S AX 2012 Role Base Brochure.

Till next time!

About Sherry Paul: “I have been working with ERP software for my entire career which started in 1984. Spanning my career I have worked with many manufacturing companies to implement ERP and Mobile application, for their discreet, process and lean manufacturing environments. An MBA and years of experience in the industry enable me to offer unique solutions to help clients develop best in class business processes for their organization.”


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Microsoft Opens the Door on Socl - Why I'm using it!

From time to time, I like to post and write about things that aren't specifically related to processes, and post that give you how-to's. Still these topics do have direct & indirect impact on the Dynamics Ecosystem at large. With this in mind, and understanding, I wanted to write about Microsoft Socl.



It's Microsoft's new social platform, that really engages and blends well with the other platforms out there. It's easy to create post, follow specific interest, and blend your other outlets. Obvious, there can be plenty of time looking at picture's, but my focus is more purely on the aspect of gaining valuable knowledge.

I see this as a social learning platform, and one where things can be easily pinned, and revisited later. If you like me, you read a lot! At times there are plenty of things that you would like to read, but don't have time for. With Socl, I'm finding it the best way to tag, and collect content that is important to me.

It is a place where I can pin & place the interest I have, and come back to an uncluttered view of the topics I care about. It's specific, and content focused with out a lot of noise that exists now within certain popular social platforms.



Creating a new post is easy, as you can see from the above image and my first post. Of course, I'm talking about what's hot on my mind for Dynamics, that being BI and more specifically Personal BI with OData Feeds from AX 2012 consumed in PowerPivot!

Sharing is easy as well, being able to tweet or post back to facebook. Further, linking your profiles across multiple platforms is easy as well with the settings for Socl.



I do think that Socl has a spot within the Social landscape, specifically for me around the use of learning, and managing my sources of information into a clean and easy to understand and useful space. The nature of how things are stored, tagged and collected seems like I'm creating little learning portals about specific topics. Further through tags and interest I'm able to find others who are posting and sharing about specific topics.

Some come along and make sure to join me on Socl, and start creating your learning portal's and post, or topics of interest that you care most about!



That's all for this post! I'm interesting to see how this can be used further when thinking in terms of engagement. That is a theme I focus on a lot, System's of Engagement - where user's become fans! I can see a lot of potential with Socl in this aspect. Maybe even being used in Gamification platforms? Till Next Time!
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