AX Word of the Week: Inquiries

Inquiries - you see them in almost every module of AX along with the headers Common, Journals, Periodic, Setup, and Reports. If you have ever opened something that was listed under Inquiries, you may have gotten something that kind of reminds you of a report, or a query screen, or even a completely new form.

Inquiries within a module in AX

AX Word of the Week: ERP

What is an ERP? I am actually asked this question a lot, and for people not well versed or immersed in the world of ERP, it's pretty common to not know what this acronym means.

AX is an ERP

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. I know, that really cleared it up.

Enterprise resource wha...?

For the simple, down and dirty explanation, I just tell people that it's fancy terminology for an accounting system.

But an ERP is so much more than just an accounting system. If you do a search for ERP, the definitions that are out there can be overwhelming and sound more like they belong in a textbook on ERP Theory.

AX Word of the Week: FastTab

This week's AX Word of the Week is FastTab. I did not realize it, but I say this word a lot in my blog posts and I have never really explained it. Some people probably know exactly what this is (or have a pretty good idea) but if you ever find yourself wanting to explain navigation in AX to someone, knowing what a FastTab is can truly save you some time.

The FastTab in AX

AX Word of the Week: Infolog

Ah, the infolog. You are probably very familiar with this if you work in AX in any capacity, but you may not have known what it was called. The infolog is a tool that developers use to communicate issues within the system to users, but you probably are more familiar with it as that %#^$& pop up message that's not letting you do your job.

Watch your language!

What is an infolog in AX?

D365 Tech: AX 2012 Upgrade Path

By far, the most informative session I attended was about the AX 2012 Upgrade Path. This hasn't really made the rounds yet and it's still pretty high level, but the plan seems solid and was very encouraging!

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The upgrade tools won't be available until July 1, and will start with AX 2012 R3 and move backwards to include functionality for AX 2012 R2 and then AX 2012 RTM.

As of right now, the informally named Upgrade Analyzer is the core of your upgrade from AX 2012. This product effectively helps to analyze, execute, and validate the code and data that you wish to migrate from your 2012 environment through an LCS diagnostic service. The nice thing about it is that it can be used on a backup of your database at any time, so if you want to analyze your data to see what kind of issues may lie ahead, it will be available for you to use!

Getting Started

D365 Tech: Licensing and Pricing for Dynamics 365

This topic seemed to cause more confusion than clarification, but it was a session that generated a lot of discussion! Here is what I gleaned from the Licensing and Pricing session I attended.

User types

There are two types of users that get licenses in Dynamics 365, light users and full users. I made the comparison to functional and enterprise users, but I am not convinced that they are the same!

Light users: Get access to Dynamics 365 for Team Members, Enterprise Edition. This means that they get access to all basic functionality. They can execute basic processes and use embedded business intelligence.

Full users: Get access to all Apps - Operations, Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, Project Service Automation, and PowerApps. These users have access to everything, then have to deal with the constraints of security beyond that point.

Pricing

Here is the Pricing that was shown to us:

D365 Tech: Deployment options

When Dynamics 365 for Operations was introduced to the world, it was a stunner because it was meant to be a cloud-based ERP system. Period. This caused quite a bit of commotion amongst the AX user community due to a lot of concerns about the security of data in the cloud and industry regulations regarding location and accessibility of data. When the AX user community balked at the notion of a cloud-only ERP, Microsoft finally agreed to develop a local business data, or on-prem, version of Dynamics 365 for Operations after initially saying that if the users wanted on-prem, they could use Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

During the keynote at D365 Tech and during an in-depth session on deployment options, I was able to get a clearer picture of the offerings that will soon be available. It appears that the cloud version of Dynamics 365 is ready to go as several companies have already implemented this and are moving forward. There is a hybrid model for deployment in addition to the local business data (on-prem) version of Dynamics 365, but neither one is completely ready yet. Keep reading for more info on the deployment options available for users.

I snapped this photo of a slide shown during the keynote. Great information!