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.

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.

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!


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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OData Query Utility for Dynamics AX 2012

Well I hope everyone is doing well, and finding yourself very productive in this Exciting Week for Microsoft Dynamics. Of course, I'm talking in reference to the now released Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.

While that for sure deserve's a lot of attention, there is something I wanted to give to the community at large, as my Christmas present if you will to everyone. What I'm talking about is an Open Source Project I created called.: AX-OData Queries



As the above image implies, it's the gift that keeps on giving! That is, this open source project has ready to use, a Utility Wizard, and context action that makes understanding which Queries in a Dynamics AX 2012 instance, are valid candidates to become PowerPivot OData Feed sources!



Further as part of this project, there is a Library component that I started, in which I have placed a customer aging query, in the standard folder location. You can read more, by visiting the project's home page.

Further, important, is the documentation, so the following is a direct link to that.: AX-OData Queries Project Documentation. Make sure to read the Read Me, and then following along from there. This includes from Install, through to How To Use Guide.



The above image is the Dynamics AX 2012 project that currently comprises as v1.0.0 of the OData Query Utility scope. This again, includes a Wizard as well as an Context menu, that lives under the Add-in's section.



Like all projects, this needs revision and refinement. This is an Open Source project, and so I do encourage you to get involved as you can. Help make this better! Further, the changes and impacts of AX 2012 R2 has not be tested against this. So there is plenty of chances to make this a much better set of tools, and queries for common data sets.



As-is, you can download the Utility as an XPO file, and import it into a target Dynamics AX 2012 RTM or Feature Pack instance. Then you can either run the Wizard, or you can execute the Context Menu for a specific single query element. The goal, is to help enable the continued theme of creating a System of Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics AX. This specific will help on the Personal BI landscape, in helping faster enable use of PowerPivot, via OData Feeds.

Well that's all for now! (Early) Merry Christmas! As updates happen, of course I will take the time and let everyone know. Please visit the project, download, test, enjoy, contribute! Till Next Time!

Update: There was a slight feature added this afternoon. One that I thought was important to make the first grid, in which you filter the searching of queries by layers. We have added a new field called "Number of Queries".



Now I admit the speed in which the utilElements table can be read, which is a key to the majority of this, is not at the level I like. This is one of the area's that will be focused on next.
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The value of a BI Product outside of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

With the a lot of focus this week around Business Intelligence, including being my entire session load, I keep getting asked the same question.: "Why are there so many BI products in the expo hall?" Another flavor of this is "Which BI Products are good candidates to look deeper into."



Before I give my public answer to this, let me first start with this. When you purchase and invest into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 you are also getting a BI Solution. It true then, when I state that BI is no longer a separate product or project. With the focus around the BI Semantic model, you can achieve Personal, Team & Organisational BI artifact creation without having any other tool.



You can create compelling executive dashboards, as well as other role tailored user experiences, enabled via SharePoint, Office & SQL Server technologies. This can be viewed without having to access the Rich Client of AX 2012 as well. So having a statement that a "CEO never uses AX" is not valid. Just because they don't make use of the rich client, to enter transactions, does not mean they do not use AX. In fact Role Centers should be front and center for the User Experience modeling for you AX investment.

With that said, there still is a valid reason for adding another BI enabling product to your total solution. First thing we have to focus on is the value such a product brings. If it brings relevant, pre-built, focused artifacts that fit into your business model and needs - then that is functional value. Further, just as important as the functional value, is the fact that whatever product this may be - it should never compete with the Microsoft Dynamics AX BI solution.

This means it should compliment the stack of SQL Server+SharePoint+Office. The artifacts it generates should be easily adding as web parts, so that the targeted Role Tailored user experiences are enabled - not replaced.

Microsoft is committed to the continued development and improvement of having this focus, Role Tailored User Experiences - as part of the out-of-the-box offering. So to answer in short: If the product compliments the stack that represent Dynamics AX, and add value for your company, then it's a possible good candidate for adding to your overall BI story your creating for your company.

That's all for this post. Make sure to join me at 4:00 PM Today, in room 604 for the round table discussion on "Understanding What is Available in Standard AX to Meet your BI and Reporting Needs." This will be an open discussion format, meant to engage the audience and have the audience guide and create the conversation.

Make sure to check back soon and often! Till Next Time!
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AX 2012 - Common EP Development Task

I hope everyone is doing well this Friday! I wanted to spend just a little time this morning, to post and setup one of the next series of articles I will be focusing on. With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Enterprise Portal became a First Class Citizen client for the solution. It has a similar look and feel to Office as well as the Rich client, which helps create a unified user experience across the entire solution.



With this understanding, I wanted to start a series on Enterprise Portal Development, that will go along and merge with the focus I've had recently on Business Intelligence. The two will cross, as we move into Team based BI and Organizational BI.

To be able to kick this off properly, and make use of the great content Microsoft has provide to us, lets look at the following resource.: Common Enterprise Portal Development Tasks [AX 2012]

The above list gives some pretty good information on the common task that take place around the development processes and common task for EP development. This includes creating custom pages, custom forms, and even using workflow with EP! My plan around this series, is to make sure to reference into this resource pages, but also take and add value around it. Having screen shots, food for thought, and any gotcha's and planning points that you need to look at.



With this in mind, I wanted to reference back as well to what I lasted posted about for Enterprise Portal Page Interaction Patterns. We need to keep this in mind, around the design for EP focused development. In order to help start this focus around EP development for an instance of AX 2012 then, lets target our first focus, for what we will develop. With that in mind, lets start with the first page interaction design pattern of View & Edit interaction pattern.

We also need a functional scope that we are trying to achieve with this, to have some meat to this series, similar to what I've done so far with the personal BI series, with a focus on Customer Aging & PowerPivot. With that, lets focus on creating a basic Warranty Management solution for AX 2012 that is 100% focused for Enterprise Portal as it's target.

Well that's all for this Friday, I hope that everyone has a great weekend and your excited about diving into EP. Keep checking back as we continue our focus on BI, Development, Book Reviews, interviews and more for Dynamics AX and Dynamics in general! I will leave you with one more resource, which is the what's new for Enterprise Portal for AX 2012.: What's New: Enterprise Portal in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 [AX 2012]. Till Next Time!
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