Workflow Wizard's for Dynamics AX 2012

I wanted to write today about Workflows in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Specifically around the Wizard's that now exists for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack and beyond. There are several wizard's that help you create the needed artifacts and elements that make up a workflow.



Before getting into the Wizard's, I think it's very important that we look into some very good resources on this topic. So the following is my hot list of resources, I make use of when looking to work with workflow's and create custom workflow's for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

• What's New: Workflow [AX 2012]
• Workflow concepts [AX 2012]
• About Workflow Development [AX 2012]
• Creating Custom Workflows (By Murray Fife)
• My own past post about Workflows & AX 2012

Now with those resource's one should have plenty of information to focus in and get started with the wonderful concept and power workflows bring's to a Dynamics AX 2012 instance.

One area that is new with the release of the Feature Pack for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and beyond is the amount of Wizard's that Microsoft has delivered. We have several actually, and each has their own value point. The idea is around to help decrease your time to value for enabling workflows.



The focus for the wizard's that are delivered is around.: Approvals, Task & Workflow Types. These are each accessed by highlighting the specific type of artifact desired, right clicking, highlighting add-in's, and then selecting the Wizard option from there.



Each will ask a series of question's that will then be used to generate workflow artifacts that relate to specific workflow document classes, and types. This means having the workflow types & categories in place is a must. After understanding this, one can then jump start creating artifacts that fully help model and instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for their specific needs.

I will end with this fact, don't under estimate the amount of work that might be required to fully enable a workflow. Depending on the nature of the workflow, and what is required. What should always be the first thing that is done to help with this fact? Solid Functional Design Documents that clearly give finalize & finite scope to the deliverable's that are being targeted.

Well that's all for this post. Check back soon as more to come! Till Next Time!


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Spotlight: RF-SMART simplifies Warehouse Operations for Microsoft Dynamics AX Customers

Today, I wanted to take the time and give a spotlight to a sponsor of this blog. Who exactly am I talking about? RF-SMART - the company that simplifies warehouse operations for Microsoft Dynamics AX Customers.



I sat down, virtually with Stephen Morgan, Vice President of Global Sales and North American Partner Manager for ICS, Inc – Developers of RF-SMART offering for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. I wanted to pick Stephen’s brain a bit, and get his thoughts on specific topics of what exactly is the value message; RF-SMART brings to AX customers. The following is the result of that interview.


Stephen Morgan
VP of Global Sales

Stephen, being the VP of Global Sales, can you give us some insight into the value that you see RF-SMART bring to AX 2012 customers?

"RF-SMART’s dashboards for Dynamics AX 2012 unchain the manager from his desk, allowing him to address additional warehouse needs. Our Picking Activity Dashboard, for example, organizes and displays picking progress on the shop floor, where an average of 60% - 70% of a warehouse’s manpower is focused.



In addition to extending and simplifying AX for the worker on the warehouse floor, RF-SMART adds functionality to AX with our Advanced Logistics workflows. For example, RF-SMART’s Container Management workflow grants visibility into the contents of your containers and allows for the real-time creation of container reports. Carton packing and shipping and cross docking are also among our Advanced Logistics capabilities.

RF-SMART provides its customers with the intangible value of peace of mind! With nearly 200 customers in over 30 countries, we are accustomed to delivering our solutions to customers with single sites, all the way to multiple sites across the globe."

Stephen, what are your thoughts on the AX 2012 market, and what do you see the future holding for it as a product - and how RF-SMART will continue to add value?

"In reference to added value, we would of course want to reference back to our Advanced Logistics for AX 2012. Additionally the 2012 solution is written using HTML 5, making RF-SMART available on iPad, iPhone, iTouch, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Android and more.



Microsoft Dynamics AX has been a proven and trusted ERP for many years. It meets the needs of its customers and keeps in step with the ever changing demands of the market. RF-SMART works closely with Microsoft to align our focuses and ensure a highly compatible product. Dynamics AX and RF-SMART are a perfect partnership for manufacturers, retailers and distributors who need one source of truth, inventory accuracy and real-time visibility into their products."

Give us a real world example, of where RF-SMART has been brought into an AX 2012 project and save time, reduced cost, and that shows off the value points you mentioned earlier.

"The value of RF-SMART’s automated data collection solution is evident as RF-SMART has recently welcomed their 25th MS Dynamics AX 2012 customer. One such delighted customer is a specialized retailer of close to 100 stores. RF-SMART combined with AX has extended the real-time visibility of actual inventory levels all the way to the storefront. In addition, store-to-store transfers, PO receiving, cycle counting and more can be done at both the distribution center and storefront with a single solution – and both update AX in real-time!

Other AX 2012 customers include manufacturers, distributors and food and beverage companies that are finding RF-SMART to be instrumental in achieving inventory and shipping accuracy, on-time delivery, increase productivity and reduced labor costs."

Stephen, if you could point out one or two things that you think is really a game changer with the RF-SMART for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 product, what would those be?



"RF-SMART offers enhanced Advanced Logistics for AX 2012, such as container management, cross-docking and more. Our new manager dashboards facilitate even greater productivity, freeing the manager from the confines of his office.

Because we leverage HTML 5, RF-SMART tools are made available on virtually any device.

RF-SMART has made it a high priority to be a company that is easy to do business with, not only nationwide, but globally as well. Thanks to RF-SMART’s user-friendly workflow studio, customers around the world can make changes to RF-SMART fields without needing to contact support. Our over 1,500 pages of documentation prove that RF-SMART is focused on being the best in our field and on enhancing our solution to meet our customer’s growing needs."

"RF-SMART is the #1 automated data collection (ADC) solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX. With more than 70 workflows, RF-SMART supports Dynamics AX transactions and also provides advanced functionality to help companies achieve measurable increases in data accuracy and operational efficiency. Learn more at http://ax.rfsmart.com or visit our blog at http://dynamicsax.rfsmart.com/blog/"

You can follow RF-SMART at the following social channels.:

I would like to thank both Stephen and the people behind RF-SMART for taking the time and sharing with all of us. Having seen RF-SMART in action over the years, I can speak to the value it brings to the Microsoft Dynamics Ecosystem. That the whole point of looking at such a solution, to derive the most value out of a customer’s Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. If you have manual warehouse operations, paper-based workloads, and a need for automation – find out how RF-SMART can help you at: http://ax.rfsmart.com

That’s all for this post. Check back soon as more to come including a continued focus on creating a system of engagement with AX 2012, and how this is practically achieved. Till Next Time!
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New Workflow Types with Feature Pack Release for AX 2012

Well I hope everyone has had a great weekend, your fully rested and ready to have a productive Dynamics week! Recently I wrote about how the feature pack for AX 2012 should be adopted now for all projects. In that post, I highlighted some of the reasons this is critical, including being a stepping stone to AX 2012 R2 set to be released in H1 2013. With that being stated, I wanted to dig deeper into some valid reasons, from a business impact and value add of such a move - beyond what has already been pointed out.



To this end, I wanted to point to the new workflow types that have been added as part of this feature pack release for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. There are five new workflow types that are part of this feature pack release, that cover three area's: Advanced Ledger Entry, Project III & Public Sector.

The following is a list of those new workflow types.:

• AdvancedLedgerEntryTemplate - "Use this type to create approval workflows for advance ledger entries" [Configuration Key: AdvancedLedgerEntry ]
• PSAProjInvoiceProposal - "Workflow for handling invoice proposals" [Configuration Key: Project3 ]
• PSAProjQuotationTemplate - "Project quotation workflow template" [Configuration Key: Project3 ]
• PurchAgreementType - "Use this type to create approval workflows for purchase agreements" [Configuration Key: PublicSector ]
• PurchCommitmentTemplate_PSN - "Use this template to create approval workflows for commitment documents" [Configuration Key: PublicSector ]

As you can see Microsoft is for sure committed to the idea that Workflows should be used to modeling business processes. Further you can see past coverage of this topic, that I wrote about, in the past for creating custom workflows here.: Modeling Business Processes with AX 2012 and Workflow - Part III - Enabling Custom Workflows



It is critical that when thinking in terms of implementing AX 2012, and designing the customers usage - to get the most derived value from such an investments, workflow usage and design has to be a top priority. This great feature of AX 2012 will only continue to evolve and truly enable domain specific modeling & language for companies and the verticals they live and work in.

Well that's all for now, check back soon however as there is a lot more coming, including my postmortem on my AXUG BI webinar I'm putting on next Friday. Beyond that, there is a lot of great coverage in general from the entire Ecosystem, which is wonderful to see. Till Next Time!
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Torrential Data Solutions brings embedded document imaging and workflow natively within Microsoft Dynamics AX with the expert help of IDB Solutions

It is with great pleasure that I get to talk with you today about a recent success story for the company I'm apart of IDB Solutions, LLC. Our client? Torrential Data Solutions, Inc a Microsoft Silver ISV Partner providing value-added ECM technologies to the Dynamics Ecosystem.



A direct link to the press release, can be found here.: Torrential Data Solutions, Inc brings embedded document imaging and workflow natively within the Microsoft Dynamics AX user experience with the expert help of IDB Solutions.

From the press release: "IDB Solutions, LLC. is pleased to announce that Torrential Data Solutions, Inc., a Microsoft Silver ISV Partner providing value-added ECM technologies to the Dynamics Ecosystem, has selected IDB as their trusted Microsoft Dynamics AX partner. IDB Solutions was tasked with helping Torrential Data bring their “Datahaven for Dynamics” solution offering to the Microsoft Dynamics AX market space, to enable “embedded document imaging and workflow” natively within the Microsoft Dynamics AX user experience."

Further... "“We chose IDB Solutions because of their proven expertise in the Microsoft Dynamics AX market space. Throughout the engagement, IDB staff demonstrated a deep understanding and knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics AX design and development best practices and a relentless focus on adding real value for the Microsoft Dynamics AX customer. Most importantly, IDB was committed to our success in bringing ‘Datahaven for Dynamics AX’ to market," said Brad Bimson, President of Torrential Data."

Working with Brad and his team has been a great pleasure, and at IDB Solutions we are always looking for ways to add real value for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers. As the press release states, what TDS brings with it's "Datahaven for Dynamics" solution truly helps companies content-enabled processes.

Value is always the goal for myself personally, and for IDB Solutions. Value is more than just a word to us, it is our product & our brand. In short value is truly our focus, and having the pleasure of helping TDS bring their product to the Microsoft Dynamics AX market space shows our commitment to adding value, and to helping customers like TDS succeed with their AX projects.

You can find out more, by visiting our site: IDB Solutions, LLC Website

Stay tuned as I have a whole lot more of Dynamics topics, post, book review and more. Till Next Time!
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