CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW. Objectives. Introduction. Chapter 1: Overview. The objectives are:

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1 Chapter 1: Overview CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Objectives Introduction The objectives are: Understand that Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a powerful solution. Understand that Microsoft Dynamics AX provides an agile solution. Understand that Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a simple solution. Understand that Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a unified solution from Microsoft. Understand the industry focus for Microsoft Dynamics AX. Understand the broad functionality that is provided in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012. Perform the setup steps required to complete the demonstrations in this training material on the training virtual machine. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is the Microsoft enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for enterprises that empowers your people to anticipate and embrace change so that your business can thrive. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is designed for enterprises with 200 to 7,500 users. It helps employees be more productive and increases the value of information by providing all people in the organization with access to important business information and processes. Because it includes rich industry and core ERP capabilities in a single, global solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 promotes faster time to value. Simple to learn and use, it provides the agility that you need to expand business opportunities, modify processes, and differentiate your business. With pervasive interoperability, you can take advantage of existing investments, lower the total cost of ownership (TCO), and support innovation in your organization. Microsoft Dynamics AX supports global organizations by managing multisite operations through shared master data and business processes, as well as countryspecific capabilities, in a single instance. Rich ERP capabilities also support human resources, financials, project management, and sales and marketing. The Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored user interface includes more than 30 Role Centers and makes it easier for everyone in key business areas to access and share ad hoc, self-service business intelligence and reporting. 1-1

2 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Powerful Deliver value faster with powerful foundation technology in a single solution. Many Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems have never moved beyond managing the administrative dimension of your business, tracking general ledger, payroll, and HR, while the real operation of the business is managed elsewhere. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is different, covering both the administrative and operational requirements. To do this, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 : Delivers rich, prebuilt, industry-operational functionality out of the box. Is a truly global solution, designed to scale with your business. Provides a RoleTailored user experience. Pre-built Industry and Operational Capability Microsoft Dynamics AX provides pre-built industry and operational capabilities gives you more value faster. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers rich, prebuilt, industry-operational functionality out of the box, with proven functionality for manufacturing (process, discrete, and lean), distribution, retail, public sector, and service industries. By delivering this capability, Microsoft Dynamics AX gives you more value faster, and establishes a strong platform for independent software vendors (ISVs) to more efficiently deliver the specialized vertical functionality unique to verticals within those industries. Stronger base functionality and a broad portfolio of specialized vertical solutions means a better fit for the needs of your business, more value, and more rapid time to value. Microsoft Dynamics AX uniquely combines industry-specific capabilities in one solution and makes them available to all customers, benefiting organizations that require capabilities for more than one industry. Global Solution Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a global solution that grows easily with your business. Microsoft Dynamics AX is a global solution, designed to scale with your business. Simple enough to deploy for a single business unit in a single country, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the unique requirements for business systems in 36 countries - all from a single-instance deployment of the software. 1-2

3 Chapter 1: Overview Multiple currencies, multiple time zones, multiple languages, and compliance with multiple banking and reporting standards and legislative codes give you the global coverage that you require. The layered architecture and installable language packs provide the flexibility for future growth to other markets, including options for agile, partner-led localization. Role Tailored User Interface Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a RoleTailored user interface which provides instant insight and productivity for your people. The RoleTailored user interface spans the Microsoft Dynamics AX rich client and Enterprise Portal and helps drive productivity and business insight through its familiar user experience and connection with business processes. Microsoft Word and Excel, familiar and powerful tools that workers already know and use, work bidirectionally with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to enhance worker productivity. A flexible Help system provides added support when it is needed. The value of a business system is not only about the ease of entering transactions, instead it is about turning those transactions into information, or business intelligence (BI), to help users make faster, better decisions. To do this, business intelligence must be an embedded part of the application, not a separate tool that requires users to take additional steps and switch contexts. Rich, embedded BI is at the core of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with: More than 30 Role Centers shipped out of the box, to provide the right BI for each user's job role. 11 SQL Analytics Server Cubes that provide data to Role Centers. Key performance indicators that are role based and tailored to each process. Over 800 out-of-the-box reports, all delivered through SQL Server Reporting Services. Rich interoperability with Microsoft Excel for outputting report and enabling analysis. Interoperability with Microsoft PowerPivot for ad hoc slicing and dicing. InfoParts providing in-context BI fully embedded throughout the Microsoft Dynamics AX user experience. 1-3

4 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Agile Increase agility and expand business opportunities while reducing risk. Excellence for a business application begins with two primary challenges: how well does the software model the real-world, and how quickly can I make it fit my business in a rapidly changing world? If the fidelity between software model and reality is high, then implementation is straightforward and the software can provide strong insight, empowering efficient business execution. If it is not, then implementation is filled with compromises and workarounds and using the software is filled with challenge and complexity. It is that simple, and it is the beginning of why Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is different. Unified Natural Model Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a Unified Natural Model that lets you plan, see and change your business. Unified, natural models make modeling simple businesses fast and easy and yet still provide the richness and flexibility to represent the most complex organizations. Fundamental elements of the unified, natural models in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 include the following: Flexible business organization modeling. This lets you capture the physical locations of your business, legal entity structure, and business reporting structure. Representation of business workflow, policies, and dollar limit - and the ability to specialize that policy for different parts of the organization model by using a graphical workflow editor, without any coding required. Unlimited financial dimensions. This enables categorization and analysis of transactions across multiple views. Date effectivity for data and models at the framework level, with additional security control on future effective information to enable before-and-after reporting across organizational changes. 1-4

5 Chapter 1: Overview Flexible Deployment Alternatives Microsoft Dynamics AX provides flexible deployment alternatives to support your business today and tomorrow. System deployment represents another important dimension where businesses demand agility. Growth, or even consolidation, will change a business's needs. Evolving technology may change the most effective way to meet those needs. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables flexible deployment alternatives that support your business today and tomorrow. Microsoft Dynamics is committed to enabling deployment choice - that includes on-premise deployment and partner private cloud hosting today, and a roadmap to Microsoft cloud capability in the future - all with a single application solution. Deployment of a model at a specific moment in time should not lock a customer into an application that should be the heart of their business for a very long time; customers can choose Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 because it is the right solution for their business. Model-driven Layered Architecture Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a model-driven layered architecture that makes company differentiating changes easy to execute. Microsoft Dynamics AX is designed with a unique layer and model structure that separates and controls the updates and modifications made in the application. This structure provides a powerful and flexible architecture for developing business logic. As more and more of the system is defined through models, unique requirements can be addressed without writing code. The key benefit of the layer and model structure is that it lets developers change and extend the functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX while maintaining upgradability to new versions. Models drive overall system agility by speeding the process of fitting the software to the business at implementation, and more importantly, enabling rapid system evolution in the face of changing business conditions and requirements. 1-5

6 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Simple Drive adoption and lower costs with an easy-to-use solution. As business applications evolve, the natural tendency is for complexity to increase. Instead Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is committed to simplicity. It focuses on simplifying every aspect of the system, including installation, deployment, implementation, customization, user experience, and upgrades. Simplicity drives adoption and ensures that customers truly get the benefit of the system's power and agility. Familiar User Experience Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a familiar user experience to make it simple to learn and intuitive to use. For end-users, simplicity begins with a familiar interface that makes the application simple to learn and intuitive to use. A key focus of user interface design is to allow high-velocity transaction processes like order entry to be entered as quickly and simply as possible. Common, innovative user interface concepts including visualizations, Microsoft Office look and common user interface across both the web browser and Windows rich client user interfaces accelerate the ramp up time of all users. The bi-directional integration with Microsoft Office 2010 lets users work with Microsoft Dynamics AX data in familiar applications. Integrated Collaboration Microsoft Dynamics AX provides integrated collaboration to make it simple to connect employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 brings collaboration directly into the application making it simpler to connect with other people. SharePoint based vendor and customer portals simplify basic supply chain collaboration. Customers and vendors can access information from the web portal. Sites services support ad hoc, end-to-end business process integration with partners and customers. The Application Integration Framework allows data to be passed between applications either within an organization or with trading partners. 1-6

7 Chapter 1: Overview Pervasive Interoperability Unified Communication integration allows users to instantly interact with other users and minimizes user's distraction from tasks. SharePoint Collaboration Sites can be created directly from within Microsoft Dynamics AX to share information with team members. Application Life Cycle Management Microsoft Dynamics AX application life cycle management makes it simple to deploy, manage and upgrade. Microsoft Dynamics AX automates application life cycle management and provides tools which facilitate deployment, management, and upgrades for customers, implementers, and ISVs. This results in operations efficiencies. Drive innovation-today and tomorrow-by working with a standard Microsoft technology platform that simplifies deployment and reduces costs. This gives you the power to drive your business forward. You can deploy in the way that works best for you-on-premises, in the cloud (through partners), or by using a hybrid model - and make incremental changes as needed. With Microsoft Dynamics AX, you get a business solution from Microsoft that is backed by an ongoing commitment to research, development, and innovation: Maximize your investments, lower TCO, and make additional productivity gains through Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 interoperability with Microsoft business productivity solutions and the application platform, including: o Microsoft Office o Microsoft SharePoint o Microsoft SQL Server o Microsoft Visual Studio development system o Microsoft BizTalk Server o Microsoft Lync Innovate rapidly and move your organization into the future by taking advantage of: o Ongoing investments by Microsoft and its partners in the platform, infrastructure technologies, and applications that enable your ERP solution to evolve as your organization grows. o Easy access to a broad and talented pool of Visual Studio developers and solutions that can help IT implement and maintain your ERP solution to meet your organization's changing needs. 1-7

8 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Industry Focus Functionality In a single solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps enterprises meet their business requirements easily with purposely built capabilities for five industries (Manufacturing, Distribution, Retail, Public Sector, and Services industries). In addition, the same single solution can support specific business requirements easily by extending the industry foundation with packaged vertical solutions from the Microsoft Partner Network, the largest partner ecosystem of global systems integrators (GSIs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and value-added resellers (VARs). This lesson provides a high level overview of key functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX For more information about the various modules, please refer to the Appendix. Financials The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financial Management module provides fast, reliable, and comprehensive accounting, financial reporting, and analysis. It also provides all the functionality that you need to update accounts efficiently and comply with reporting requirements. Basic capabilities of the Financial Management module include the following: General Ledger Liquidity Management (Bank Management) Fund Accounting Accounts Receivable Accounts Payable Fixed Assets Expense Management Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps businesses manage materials, information, and transactions as they move through the process from the vendor to the manufacturer, and then to the retailer and to the end customer. The three goals of supply chain management are as follows: Reducing inventory Lowering costs Improving time-to-market 1-8

9 Chapter 1: Overview Basic capabilities of the Supply Chain functionality include the following: Inventory control Sales order processing Purchase order processing Warehouse management Production Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Lean Manufacturing Product builder (product configurator) Quality control Project and Service As the demand for faster and better service increases, so does the pressure to automate processes and balance costs associated with projects and service requests. For the growing number of companies that provide services to customers, either as their core business or in addition to their products, the challenge is to effectively manage knowledge, opportunities and resources. Project Accounting provides a strong platform to help companies effectively administer projects and achieve the results that they want. Basic capabilities of the project and service functionality include the following: CRM Project accounting Professional services automation Service management Service subscriptions Customer Relationship Management (CRM) may mean many things to many people. CRM is actually a plethora of concepts, ideas, and strategies offered by a large array of CRM specialists. The essence of CRM usually includes the following three disciplines: Know your customer Act on what you know Learn about what you know 1-9

10 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Therefore, the main objective of Customer Relationship Management is to keep and grow customers. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can offer many new features in the CRM module that enable a clearer view of a company's sales processes and helps companies to do the following: Better manage and conduct their sales processes Better document processes and procedures for future use Basic capabilities of CRM functionality include the following: Sales force automation Sales management and reporting Marketing campaigns Telemarketing Human Capital Management An agile human resource management system can help companies quickly develop their organization to meet the challenges of a fluctuating business environment. Microsoft Dynamics AX Human Resource Management module helps companies: Gather and structure employee information Encourage employee development Streamline employee performance Offer competitive on-cycle and off-cycle compensation Reward long-term and short-term employee performance Promote talent retention and motivation Maintain an overview of the organization Create the appropriate internal environment to drive business forward Basic capabilities of human capital management functionality include the following: Organization and employee information Recruitment Employee development Training course management Absence management Compensation modeling Payroll Benefits Questionnaire 1-10

11 Chapter 1: Overview Virtual Machine Setup Instructions This section describes additional setup steps required to complete the demonstrations in this training course with the virtual machine provided for training purposes. Please make sure these are completed before the performing the demonstrations associated with these steps. Demonstration: Step 1- Alert Batch Job This step required for Chapter 2 - Demonstration: Create an Alert Rule. This creates a batch job to process alert rules and deliver alerts to users. 1. Go to System Administration > Periodic > Alerts > Change based alerts. 2. Click the Recurrence button. 3. Select No end date. 4. Change Count: from 10 to Click OK. 6. Click the Alerts button. 7. Clear Ended. 8. Click OK. 9. Click OK. 10. Click Close. Demonstration: Step 2- Workflow Approval Security Access Step required for Chapter 2 - Demonstration: Submit a workflow and Chapter 2 - Demonstration: Approve a workflow. This gives Phyllis security access to approve a purchase requisition workflow. 1. Go to System administration > Common > Users > Users. 2. Double-click the record with user name Phyllis Harris. 3. Click the Assign roles button. 4. Select System administrator. 5. Click OK. 6. Click Close. 1-11

12 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Demonstration: Step 3- Workflow Processing Step required for Chapter 2 - Demonstration: Submit a workflow and Chapter 2 - Demonstration: Approve a workflow. This creates a batch job to process workflow. 1. Go to System Administration > Setup > Workflow > Workflow infrastructure configuration. 2. Click Next. 3. Click Next. 4. Click Next. 5. Change Repeat job after the specified number of minutes: from 30 to Click Next. 7. Click Finish. Demonstration: Step 4- SharePoint Access Required for Chapter 5 - Demonstration: Associate a User with an Employee Record. This gives access to Enterprise Portal for all users setup on the virtual machine. 1. Open Internet Explorer. 2. Click Site Actions and select Site Permissions. 3. Click Grant Permissions. 4. Type Administrators in the Users/Groups: text box. 5. Click the Check names button. 6. Select the Full Control check box. 7. Click OK. 8. Close Internet Explorer. 1-12

13 Chapter 1: Overview Summary This tutorial introduces Microsoft Dynamics AX Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The various modules of Microsoft Dynamics AX are described, including the interrelations between the modules and their key features and benefits. 1-13

14 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Test Your Knowledge Test your knowledge with the following questions. 1. Match each theme with the correct description: 1. Powerful 2. Simple 3. Agile a. Plan, see and change your business with agility. b. Drive adoption and lower costs with an easy-to-use solution. c. Increase agility and expand business opportunities while reducing risk. 2. Which of these products interoperates with Microsoft Dynamics AX. (Select all that apply) ( ) Microsoft SharePoint ( ) Microsoft Visual Studio development system ( ) Microsoft Office ( ) Microsoft SQL Server 1-14

15 Chapter 1: Overview Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter

16 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Solutions Test Your Knowledge 1. Match each theme with the correct description: a 1. Powerful c 2. Simple b 3. Agile a. Plan, see and change your business with agility. b. Drive adoption and lower costs with an easy-to-use solution. c. Increase agility and expand business opportunities while reducing risk. 2. Which of these products interoperates with Microsoft Dynamics AX. (Select all that apply) ( ) Microsoft SharePoint ( ) Microsoft Visual Studio development system ( ) Microsoft Office ( ) Microsoft SQL Server 1-16