The Truth About Digital Transformation

March 2, 2017, 9:21 am

≫ Next: AX reporting issues causing downtime?

≪ Previous: Microsoft partner Arbela completes acquisition of Integral USA, bolstering Dynamics 365 & AX service, support

Sometimes it feels like software and IT have a more powerful hype generator than most other industries. Often, it’s a short distance from today inspired catchphrase to tomorrow’s tired cliché. It becomes easy to forget what got us excited and enthusiastic about certain ideas when nothing really changes in the way you run your business.

Digital transformation is one of those concepts that could easily result in hype and disappointment. There’ve been too many IT initiatives described as transformative when all they did is provide people with tools to be more productive or make certain processes more efficient.

It’s for you
However, digital transformation is real. The visionaries and innovation leaders in many industries are using digital technologies to anticipate and respond to customer demand, collaboratively develop new products, connect operations around the globe in a seamless flow, and enable their people to achieve their ambitions.

Even better, digital transformation is not confined to the large enterprises that can commandeer a wealth of resources and whose budgets are unlimited compared to yours.

With modern cloud technologies, you can now benefit from the most advanced computing resources available today, but you don’t need to own them. You subscribe to them as a service, using exactly the functionality you want. Unlike can often be the case with on-premise software products, you don’t pay for capabilities that would never make a difference for your business.

You can get going today
In the cloud, you find the data storage, networking, information protection, and software applications that can help you run and grow your business and transform it for a digital future. The leading cloud providers also have created powerful arsenals of business intelligence tools to help you make sound decisions and perform reliable planning based on evidence. And, if you need to make sense of masses of information such as data streams from the internet of things (IoT), in the cloud it’s much easier to store, safeguard, process, and analyze them.

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 on the Azure cloud platform, modern ERP and CRM capabilities have come to the cloud. You can make use of them in a modular manner, starting with the functionality that’s most valuable, and add others as you move forward. Dynamics 365 integrates easily with your on-premise applications, Office 365, and a wealth of business intelligence resources such as Power BI and the Cortana Intelligence Suite.

Digital business transformation is no longer the exclusive domain of the industry leaders. You can embark on your own transformation initiative in the cloud while keeping it real – close to your goals, predictable, and low-risk. Columbus offers the expertise and complementary business solutions to make cloud-based transformation pay off for you. To find out more about how to get started, navigate to our website to read our e-book, “How to Start Your Cloud Transformation Journey”.

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AX reporting issues causing downtime?

March 2, 2017, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: Announcement: Warehouse Mobile Devices Portal improvements with February update of AX 2012 R3

≪ Previous: The Truth About Digital Transformation

You’ve told us one of your biggest challenges in AX is Reporting. Whether you’re printing reports or determining an entire Business Intelligence strategy, the options are huge. And no one company’s needs are exactly the same as the next. Hence the need for a tailored solution that meets your needs, but doesn’t break your development budget - which means we need to get as much out of the core AX product as we can. No small feat, right?

But learning all this comes with plenty of challenges that can slow your momentum and cause down time. As one AXUG member put it, "Reporting is the bane of every IT manager's existence."

While we can't make you a reporting expert in a day, AXUG can offer you a wealth of resources provided by your peers - real Dynamics users and select partners who have 'been there, solved that.'

Exclusive training opportunities - upcoming live webinars on reporting:

Wed., March 29	11 AM ET	AX 2009: A Start to Developing User-Tailored Reporting. What Comes Out-of-the-Box?
Tues., April 4	11 AM ET	Public Sector Reporting: A Horse of a Different Color
Tues., April 11	2 PM ET	How to Time and Plan Reporting & BI for Your Implementation or Upgrade to 2012 or D365
Thur., April 27	11 AM ET	AX 2012: A Start to Developing User-tailored Reporting --Cubes and Role Centers
Wed., May 3	11 AM ET	AX 2012: A Start to Developing User-tailored Reporting --SSRS
Wed., May 23	11 AM ET	Knowing When AX OOB Reporting and BI is Not Enough

Blogs - members who have written about reporting:
How to see an item's purchase history by Kelly Kane, Microsoft MVP
Information access - Reporting in AX by TJ Vassar, Microsoft
Modern Reporting Strategies for Dynamics AX by Don Riggs, ICN

Special Interest Group - focused discussions and learning around a specific topic:
Business Intelligence (BI) & Reporting for AX 2012
AX 2009 Operations and Maintenance
D365 for Operations

Tip Sheet - a quick overview of Power BI:
Introduction to the Power BI Platform

In-person training with learning tracks for the IT Professional:
Dynamics 365 Tech Conference | March 12-15, 2017 | Tracks: System admin, Reporting & Analytics | www.d365tech.com/home
Summit EMEA |4-6 April, 2017| Tracks: BI & Reporting, Functional, Retail, Security, Technical | www.summitemea.com/home
AXUG Focus | May 8 & 9, 2017 | Tracks: Power BI, Retail, Technical | www.ugfocus.com/home
AXUG Summit | October 10-13, 2017 | www.axugsummit.com

Distance Learning topics offered through AXUG Academy:
Intro to Management Reporter
Advanced Management Reporter
Deep Dive into Power BI 2 Day Workshop
KPIs, SSAS & Cubes in Dynamics AX
To register for a deep-dive training, visit: www.axug.com/engage/academy

Perhaps we can think about reporting in another light, which could make it appear less daunting. Here's how one well-respected IT Manager within the AX community puts it:
"The biggest hurdle for people to overcome is that AX provides information, they just need to change their way of thinking around reports. Everyone expects these great reports out of AX, and it’s just not designed for that. Once people can get past the unnecessary NEED to have a piece of paper with information in front of them, they can really start using the system as intended – a live view into your company’s operations and financial status."

Let us know other reporting resources you've found helpful by posting a comment on this post.

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Announcement: Warehouse Mobile Devices Portal improvements with February update of AX 2012 R3

March 2, 2017, 3:06 pm

≫ Next: AX Word of the Week: X++

≪ Previous: AX reporting issues causing downtime?

A monthly cadence AX 2012 R3 update for February has just come out on LCS, and with it a few changes our team has done that deal with overall behavior and performance of WMDP - the Warehouse Mobile Devices Portal used in the Advanced warehousing module. I want to call them out here, and if you are reading my blog to keep up to date with the Warehousing changes, I strongly encourage you to

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AX Word of the Week: X++

March 2, 2017, 5:48 pm

≫ Next: D365FO Channels, Insiders Preview and Update Policy

≪ Previous: Announcement: Warehouse Mobile Devices Portal improvements with February update of AX 2012 R3

In my AX Word of the Week post last week on the AOT, I briefly mentioned the code in AX that developers work with to make the system work as intended. Well, that programming language, X++, is the AX Soup Word of the Week!

X++

X++ is the AX programming language, and is most similar to the programming language C#.

Here is an interesting MSDN article that compares the two: X++, C# Comparison: Hello World [AX 2012]

There are several other comparison articles just like this that compare loops, string case and delimiters, array syntax, operators, and several other programming language fundamentals. You can navigate to those through the link above.

X++ is only used in Microsoft Dynamics AX. It is a class-based, object-oriented programming language. It also allows for the use of SQL queries within the language.

Also, if you are so inclined, please check out this wiki on X++ syntax: https://ax.help.dynamics.com/en/wiki/x-syntax/.

The wiki is actually very helpful and should you opt to learn the programming language in AX and become an AX developer, it will provide you with the basic knowledge that you need to proceed in working with X++.

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D365FO Channels, Insiders Preview and Update Policy

March 3, 2017, 2:08 am

≫ Next: Hyper link for the fields(AX Form ) - Dynamics 365 operation/AX7

≪ Previous: AX Word of the Week: X++

As announced with the update 4, Microsoft will release monthly updates so that new and existing environments can stay up-to-date with the latest innovations with a click of a button. Hopefully this make it easier to stay on the newest platform. We are also assuming and hoping that this approach in the future will extend to also cover business functionality (eg ApplicationSuite). A faster update cycle also results that there are more versions currently used in at customers. As seen here are all the official releases that Microsoft have made available for Dynamics 365 for operations. With a monthly update cycle the list will be extended quickly. Keeping track on versions does not give any actual customers value. But in a SaaS approach, creating faster and simplified updated on business functionality will require a better and more visible release policy, not based on build numbers.

We need to make this upgrade and update experience easier to understand and easier to follow. The work that the Microsoft Office and Windows team have done is a great example that I think is something we also should have for Dynamics 365: The introduction of release channels.

Update channel	Primary purpose	Feature updates	Platform updates	Security Updates
Preview Channel	Provide users to evaluate the newest features of Dynamics 365 as soon as possible. The channel is only available through an insider program, and is not deployable into a production environment.	Weekly	Weekly	Weekly
First Channel	Provide users with the newest features of Dynamics 365.	Monthly	Monthly	Monthly
Current Channel	Provide users with the released and stable features of Dynamics 365.	Every 3 months	Monthly	Monthly
Deferred Channel	Provide users with new features of Dynamics 365 only a few times a year.	Every 6 months	Monthly	Monthly

What channel you would like to have should be a setting in LCS, and the customers can switch between the channels as wanted. Visually the release and update schedule could then look something like this.

With the introduction of Microsoft AppSource and for ISV’s this would mean that they could commit to a specific channel, and “front-runners” like myself would have early access to the newest and hottest. Some customers are deadly serious about stability, and new features could potentially cripple business processes. In this way customers can for them self’s decide their speed for adding new functionality.

Dear Microsoft; Can we have something like this also for Dynamics 365?

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Hyper link for the fields(AX Form ) - Dynamics 365 operation/AX7

March 3, 2017, 3:06 am

≫ Next: New Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP says learning AX comes with work, long hours

≪ Previous: D365FO Channels, Insiders Preview and Update Policy

Hi All, Just to share how to add the Hype link for the the fields in the form(which takes to the master form - related record when click on the field). Normally it can be done be the following ways...(read more)

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New Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP says learning AX comes with work, long hours

March 3, 2017, 7:31 am

≫ Next: Observations regarding the Amazon S3 Outage

≪ Previous: Hyper link for the fields(AX Form ) - Dynamics 365 operation/AX7

For Sohaib Cheema, being named a Microsoft MVP in July 2016 was more than a thrill - it affirmed his passion for helping the greater community. "It is a great thing because you are not doing it for the money," he says. "You are ...read more

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Observations regarding the Amazon S3 Outage

March 3, 2017, 7:59 am

≫ Next: While Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations remains cloud-centric, local model broadens reach

≪ Previous: New Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP says learning AX comes with work, long hours

Downtime is a mystery until you are back up.

While we don’t anticipate many Microsoft Dynamics ERP users were running on the Amazon S3 (which stands for Simple Storage Service – a part of Amazon Web Services) a huge number of websites store content and run services on S3. Among the sites and services that appeared to be affected were Slack, Quora, Lonely Planet, Snapchat's Bitmoji, Hulu, Hubspot and even the US Securities and Exchange Commission website. The outage lasted 4 hours February 28th and is apt to give pause to companies who are considering running their ERP solutions in a public cloud. Learn about Microsoft Dynamics ERP hosting services.

If you are in the process of deciding between public vs private cloud, remember the following if you are concerned about the AWS outage:

Limited information–All you get is a dashboard with a red light, and in this particular case Amazon Web Services tweeted at one point that the "dashboard" that allows users to see the status of its own services was not able to update itself because of the S3 technical problem.

Limited communication–We view this differently than information on a dashboard. Communication is typically when you are able to let your customer base know what the problem is, time to resolve and any issues they will encounter post resolution and who to contact. Information like this is usually never readily available in a public cloud – hence downtime is always a mystery until you are back up.

Longer downtime—Massive reboot effort takes longer than more agile, boutique cloud services: According to news reports a full restart was required which took longer than expected due to the number of servers involved. This is where we believe bigger is NOT always better.

Observations regarding the Amazon S3 Outage https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/s3/sla/ - We had a hard time getting this site to load , due – we expect - to the volume of people requesting data. Amazon does offer an SLA for the S3 service, guaranteeing 99.9% uptime or part of your money back. With .1% of a month being around 45 minutes, that means they owe people money. What's an SLA for Cloud and what should it include?

However, Amazon's requirements for claiming a refund are onerous. With requirements to submit request logs documenting errors and corroborating your claimed outage, don’t expect anyone except large users to bother. We suspect Amazon will indicated that this wasn't technically an "outage," since Amazon's S3 was not entirely out of commission and some services were only partially affected. Not much help if you are down.

Of course, when an event like this happens, everyone starts rethinking their cloud strategy including considerations such as:

Public vs. private
Mission critical applications vs. file storage
Acceptable downtime vs. redundancy

If you are in the process of choosing a cloud solution for your Dynamic ERP application let’s begin a discussion on how RoseASP’s private cloud overcomes the public cloud mystery.

At Rose ASP we:

Inform
Communicate
Refund when it’s our fault – no paperwork required.

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While Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations remains cloud-centric, local model broadens reach

March 3, 2017, 2:09 pm

≫ Next: Delete Not Yet Acquired Fixed Asset.

≪ Previous: Observations regarding the Amazon S3 Outage

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations is reaching its official one year anniversary this month, having formally launched in 137 markets in March 2016. In that year of Azure-only deployments, Microsoft representatives say they have evolved and ...read more

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Delete Not Yet Acquired Fixed Asset.

March 3, 2017, 11:04 pm

≫ Next: D365O. How to deploy Demo VM using Visual Studio subscription.

≪ Previous: While Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations remains cloud-centric, local model broadens reach

while user from Fixed Asset department wanted to delete not yet acquired fixed asset he was receiving below error in Dynamics AX 2012 R2 CU7. A financial dimension value is based on the AID067285 record...(read more)

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D365O. How to deploy Demo VM using Visual Studio subscription.

March 4, 2017, 12:41 am

≫ Next: Common data model entities - overview

≪ Previous: Delete Not Yet Acquired Fixed Asset.

Many of us have Visual Studio subscription (formerly called MSDN subscription) and there is monthly Azure credit coming with it. It could be used to spin up D365O demo VM, but the whole process is not...(read more)

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Common data model entities - overview

March 4, 2017, 1:08 am

≫ Next: AX 2012 - Add and Remove dynalink through X++

≪ Previous: D365O. How to deploy Demo VM using Visual Studio subscription.

The Common Data Service is a cloud base business application platform. This platform provides a rich and productive development platform though Common Data Model which is a store of common business entities...(read more)

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AX 2012 - Add and Remove dynalink through X++

March 4, 2017, 5:40 pm

≫ Next: AX 2012 : Add/Remove Dynalink through X++

≪ Previous: Common data model entities - overview

DynaLinks can be removed and added between datasources on form using this code;

I implemented this code on clicked method of a button on an AX form.

void clicked()

{

SalesQuotationLine_ds.query().dataSourceNo(1).clearDynalinks();

SalesQuotationLine_ds.query().dataSourceNo(1).addDynalink(fieldNum(SalesQuotationLine, QuotationId),

SAB_DocQuoteGroupRelation,

fieldNum(SAB_DocQuoteGroupRelation,SalesQuotationId));

}

Where,

First parameter is the source table field
Second parameter is the destination table
Third parameter is the destination table field

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AX 2012 : Add/Remove Dynalink through X++

March 4, 2017, 6:04 pm

≫ Next: Form personalisation in Dynamics 365 for Operations.

≪ Previous: AX 2012 - Add and Remove dynalink through X++

DynaLinks can be removed and added between datasources on form using this code;

The following code is implemented in the Click event of a button.

ClearDynaLinks() will remove all existing dynaLinks [these can be seen by right click on the click > Personalise > Query tab > under dataSource node

AddDynalink() method has three parameters;

1. Source table field
2. Destination table
3. Destination table field

void clicked()

{

SalesQuotationLine_ds.query().dataSourceNo(1).clearDynalinks();

SalesQuotationLine_ds.query().dataSourceNo(1).addDynalink(fieldNum(SalesQuotationLine, QuotationId),

SAB_DocQuoteGroupRelation,

fieldNum(SAB_DocQuoteGroupRelation,SalesQuotationId));

}

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Form personalisation in Dynamics 365 for Operations.

March 4, 2017, 8:00 pm

≫ Next: Parallel inventory valuation – an alternative approach (Part 1)

≪ Previous: AX 2012 : Add/Remove Dynalink through X++

This post is a follow-on from last week’s. After a brief introduction to Dynamics 365 for Operations I spent a few months wandering around AX 2009 and AX 2012 which meant that I struggled a bit when...(read more)

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Parallel inventory valuation – an alternative approach (Part 1)

March 4, 2017, 9:26 pm

≫ Next: Monitoring and Telemetry in Dynamics365 for Operations

≪ Previous: Form personalisation in Dynamics 365 for Operations.

In one of my prior posts I already had a look at the parallel inventory valuation issue. For details, please see this site . While the prior post focused on the Russian dual warehouse functionality,...(read more)

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Monitoring and Telemetry in Dynamics365 for Operations

March 5, 2017, 2:20 pm

≫ Next: Top bet for streamlining equipment rental processes: DynaRent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX

≪ Previous: Parallel inventory valuation – an alternative approach (Part 1)

It’s been a while since my last post, and let’s just say I haven’t been slacking the past few months! In October, I married my best friend and her and I have been back and forth from St. Thomas US Virgin...(read more)

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Top bet for streamlining equipment rental processes: DynaRent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX

March 5, 2017, 11:25 pm

≫ Next: Oh No, Not Again!?! How A Second Global IT Outage Suggests Delta Airlines Still Has No Decent Disaster Recovery Strategy

≪ Previous: Monitoring and Telemetry in Dynamics365 for Operations

What’s most important to have at hand when you’re focused on equipment rental? Well, you’re working in a multi-channel marketplace, with rental offerings that likely come from multiple sources, and your business model is that a single offering is going to be used by multiple customers over its lifecycle. Just as important, you need to be ready to execute multiple equipment rental processes either simultaneously or as part of a quick and predictable process flow. So, you want a rental solution that gives you the best possible access to information and the best possible tools for executing daily operations.

HiGH Software can offer that with DynaRent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX. Our solution is embedded from the start in Dynamics, so it shares all information with your business database. Your rental desk works with graphical dashboards that provide complete, well-organized overviews about current orders, quotes and equipment availability, service needs, resources—you name it. Within seconds your staff can drill back to granular details related to any aspect of a rental offering. This “multi-faceted” approach to data visibility is essential to effective, profitable rental allocation and customer service.

Image 1: DynaRent Rental Management ***-pit

Along with visibility and quick insight, DynaRent sharply reduce time and effort for actual rental operations. The traditional approach to handling equipment rental is hard to justify in a world where responsive service is pretty much “Everything right now” service. By traditional we refer to a customer requesting equipment, the clerk taking the request, and then following up as soon as possible with results. The problem is that in many cases there’s an exception that can only be resolved through a linear search—for example, the clerk checks availability, sees that a sub-rental is needed, needs to check pricing and margins and possibly recalculate, then call back the customer with a proposed change. That’s just one example.

As we’ve already noted, DynaRent gives you rich graphical visibility, and also tools for instantly searching through availability and pricing for equipment that a customer is requesting. Users can immediately find a match if one exists. They’ll also be able to locate sub-rentals, equipment sourced from other depots, margins, etc., with all information organized as a complete rental offering. Prompts and suggestions let them suggest appropriate cross-sells or up-sells. Within a single interaction, they can process a complex rental request and utilize Graphical Quick Order Entry to present or send the customer a detailed rental order.

Image 2: DynaRent Equipment Rental Processes Overview

At the end of a single phone call or communication, the customer will have a confirmation number in their inbox and everything related to the rental will be recorded in both DynaRent and Microsoft Dynamics. And best of all, all rental information feeds automatically into the full lifecycle management records for equipment. Daily rental tasks fuel long-term operational management—that the power of information access and automation in DynaRent.

If you’re interested in talking about your company’s specific needs for equipment rental and services, mobile and on premise, HiGH Software would welcome the opportunity to talk with you. Contact us at info@highsoftware.com or visit www.highsoftware.com.

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Oh No, Not Again!?! How A Second Global IT Outage Suggests Delta Airlines Still Has No Decent Disaster Recovery Strategy

March 5, 2017, 9:15 am

≫ Next: Dimension Controls in a Dialog for Dynamics 365 for Operations

≪ Previous: Top bet for streamlining equipment rental processes: DynaRent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX

In August, I blogged about my experience with the Delta outage and provided some lessons learned from those calamitous few summer days. With over 650 cancelled flights (and thousands of frustrated customers), I speculated that their disruption in ...read more

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Dimension Controls in a Dialog for Dynamics 365 for Operations

March 6, 2017, 3:25 am

≫ Next: Microsoft Dynamics Webcasts, March 6-10, 2017: Dynamics AX MPOS; CRM + IoT + Machine Learning; Dynamics AX for Commodities

≪ Previous: Oh No, Not Again!?! How A Second Global IT Outage Suggests Delta Airlines Still Has No Decent Disaster Recovery Strategy

To put it simply, we just need to create our own custom control type, let’s call it “Dimension Entry No Datasource” control. Firstly, create an extension package so that you are not tempted to overlayer...(read more)

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Image 1: DynaRent Rental Management ***-pit

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