Microsoft recently wrapped up their Worldwide Partner Conference on the west coast, and one of the highlights of the conference was the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The focus for developers of AX 2012 was on creating a more powerful, simple, and agile solution for business enterprise users, developers and partners. Some of the highlights of the announcement below surround how implementations of AX 2012 will be positively impacted by two new tools. These are the RapidStart Services approach, which will simplify and streamline the typical decisions made for configuration of AX, as well as the new dramatically simplified pricing model. I’ve seen the new pricing model myself and I must say I was overwhelmed – talk about Next Practices! Nobody else has pricing anywhere close to as simplified as Microsoft for AX 2012. The role-centered, 4-user-tier model is revolutionary in it’s ease of understanding and use. Who of you out there have seen pricing proposals from ERP vendors and have been left shaking your head after 5 minutes trying to wade through various features and options for modules and pricing? I believe AX 2012 customers are going to absolutely love the new pricing model! And I can’t wait to use the new RapidStart Services. I’ve been asking for something like this from other ERP vendors for a long time, leave it to Microsoft to step up and actually provide something this useful for partners and customers… What scenarios have you been involved in where you could have used something like RapidStart Services?
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No Comments » Flow International and Microsoft Dynamics AX
Flow international is the inventor and world leader in waterjet solutions. They replaced JD Edwards World with Microsoft Dynamics AX. Listen to the reasons why in the video below.
As the Director of Enterprise Architecture for Flow International says… Don’t pour concrete around your business processes! Leverage powerful simplicity and the lower total cost of ownership achieved with Microsoft Dynamics AX…
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: Sharing Business Information the Easy Way w/ Enterprise Portal – Microsoft Dynamics ERP “The Edge” Blog – Community Home – Microsoft Dynamics Community
Great summary of the new Enterprise Portal for AX 2012 built on SharePoint. The author does a comprehensive job here so all I will add is the fact that Microsoft is “eating their own lunch” here by rolling this out to their internal organization, and their employees are excited about it… tells you a lot right there…
IT Supports Lean Thinking | Featured Article | Automation World
The Automation World August edition, below, features an article titled “IT Supports Lean Thinking,” highlighting Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and how it supports Lean manufacturing.
Author James R. Koelsch discusses successful Lean manufacturing and points to WIKA Instrument Corp., a manufacturer of advance pressure gauges, sensors and temperature instrumentation technology and applications, and their use of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. With AX 2012, WIKA saw better delivery times, increased orders and more satisfied customers.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at Hannover Messe 2011
Check out the Intro of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at the Hannover Messe Conference earlier this year. Hannover Messe is one of the word’s largest industrial conferences, and in this video you’ll see how AX 2012 shines for industrial manufacturers.
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: Easy ERP is NOT an Oxymoron – Microsoft Dynamics ERP “The Edge” Blog – Community Home – Microsoft Dynamics Community
Easy ERP? We’ve all heard of the “Easy Button” (many of you may have even seen these or had one on your desk). But anyone who has been involved in an ERP implementation knows it’s not as easy as running setup.exe. But, with the GA release of AX 2012, you’ll find the closest thing to an easy button. The more you become involved with AX 2012, if you implement it or use it, the more you’ll be impressed with it’s simplicity and ease of use. The developers were given a mandate to re-think the entire architecture of AX 2012 to make everything as simple as possible (but not more so) and with the results it’s obvious they did exactly that. The author does an excellent job giving examples of this so I won’t repeat those here, but what I will say is all this simplicity goes directly to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) – lower than other ERP software packages. Which means you get improved performance faster and for less money which makes everyone very happy!
Learning Point 2 – Demand Drivers/NEXT Practices–Part 3
(This is the sixth in a series on The Power of Choice – Leveraging Configuration Technology to Differentiate, Simplify, Perform and Win, by Mike Shields, Co-Founder and CEO of eLogic Group.)
The First type of Mixed-Mode we’ll discuss is Standardized Products – this type is fully pre-designed and ready for Self-Service…
Best of Both Worlds: Working With Microsoft Office – Microsoft Dynamics ERP “The Edge” Blog – Community Home – Microsoft Dynamics Community
This is an excellent summary of some of the many powerful aspects of the link between Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Office. Everyone who uses ERP knows that they spend time moving back and forth between their ERP application and their business productivity tools in Microsoft Office such as Excel, Word, etc. The direct, secure link between AX 2012 and Office allows you to move information seamlessly and securely between these environments, helping to dramatically increase productivity.
Microsoft Dynamics Lines Up Against SAP, Oracle, And Salesforce
Very telling article from Information Week that covers the current state of Microsoft Dynamics maturity, especially in comparison with its Tier 1 rivals. Also the author pointedly makes the case that no other large ERP provider has such as compelling cloud offering, with on-premises, on-demand, any hybrid models available or soon-to-be available. Summed up, “The idea that Dynamics needs to play catch-up with its bigger brethren is no longer on the table.”
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Office
Office Interoperability with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a powerful feature that allows users to leverage their familiarity with Microsoft Office tools and bridges the gap from Office to their ERP system in a secure, interconnected platform that no other ERP software offers…
Security is maintained across platforms, including audit trails.
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Reporting
Microsoft has worked very hard to embed Business Intelligence in AX 2012 through the use of both Analysis and Reporting.
AX 2012 BI primarily provides compelling experiences around business data. What that means is that the content is compelling, interactive and rich. Additionally, AX 2012 enables developers to more easily build those rich experiences.
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Integration and Web Services
Microsoft has invested heavily in integration and web services, yet these areas of the application remain powerfully simple.
Any area of the program can be accessed through web services, which widens the reach of your application, including to mobile platforms.
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – Development Tools
AX 2012 has many powerful new features, and the development tools area was not overlooked. Many of these new development tool features revolve around the Customization engine, including support for Models, which is an extension of the layered architecture concept, Productivity and Simplicity, Documentation on APIs, .Net Technologies, language integrations to leverage full .Net libraries, and integration to Visual Studio.
IN THE PIPELINE: Microsoft Software Builds On Competitors’ Products
Below is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about the recent release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The article discusses how one of the ways in which Microsoft is growing their ERP market share is by the ability of AX 2012 to work in combination with other ERP core financials packages, such as Oracle and SAP. This strategy makes it more palatable for Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) to develop niche market products to work with AX 2012 because of the increased market for their products. Microsoft is really putting their money where their mouth is with this strategy by “eating their own lunch” – Microsoft currently has 17 of their own business units running Dynamics AX, while their core corporate financial application is SAP. For any companies considering this approach, this should give them additional confidence that 2-Tier is an effective and viable option.
Drum Roll Please… Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is now on the market! – Microsoft Dynamics ERP “The Edge” Blog – Community Home – Microsoft Dynamics Community
Well, Microsoft said they were going to do it and they were true to their word. They said they were going to do it in August – not August 31st but August 1st – it’s here! Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is now GA in over 25 countries! Great job Microsoft! Talk to us soon to see how you can transform your business to Next Practices with AX 2012!
