Synergy Software Systems

Archive for January, 2011

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 – Retail Release 2

January 31st, 2011

Dynamics AX for Retail R2 will be available in more than 50 countries starting Feb. 1, 2011. Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail R2 includes the following enhancements:

Insight. Retail Role Centers mean key data can be surfaced quickly and easily, helping people make more informed decisions and be productive
Loyalty. Expanded scenarios and centralized management out of the box help retailers enhance the customer experience
Simplicity. New interfaces for assortment and item management speed workflows and help drive productivity
Global availability. New localizations and translations further support the needs of multinational and growing organizations

Comments Off on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 – Retail Release 2 »

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Global erp with Microsoft Dynamics Ax

January 31st, 2011

If your organization has multiple sites and operations, then you face significant challenges to efficiency and growth. Disparate business systems, lack of supply chain visibility and control, and high IT maintenance costs hold you back and make it difficult to support growth.

Use Microsoft Dynamics Ax to manage your organization across multiple operations with a single, adaptable global ERP solution that supports your expansion into new markets:

standardize business processes,
optimize your value chain,
simplify your IT environment.
view comprehensive, real-time informnation across the organization for financial reporting and operational decision making
scale up to accomdoate new users and companies, wih rapid user learning in a familiar Microsoft environment with role based portals, and on line elearning
add company and industry specifc functionality
extend with mobility and automation
use built in workflows and alerts,a nd in built task recorder to ensure compliance- there is even a Compliance centre
leverage the Micorsft integrated technology stack- direct integration to Excel, Word, Share Point, Unified Messaging, SSRS reporting and easy conenctivty to other solutions.

You can rapidly scale your global ERP solution to support new locations, geographies, and industries with minimal IT effort. Work smoothly across borders with intercompany, multisite, multilanguage, and multicurrency capabilities, as well as support for local tax, regulatory, and market requirements.

Simplify your IT environment – Standardize on a single ERP solution based on the Microsoft platform and innovate more easily by capitalizing on existing IT investments in Microsoft products and technologies, such as Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a leader for centralized ERP across multiple operations

According to Aberdeen Group1, there is a growing trend for midmarket companies to have multiple sites; and best-in-class organizations count on their ERP solutions to help simplify business collaboration and manage their operations effectively in this distributed environment. Microsoft Dynamics AX has also earned recognition from Forrester Research Inc., a leading independent research firm, as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Order Management Hubs, Q3 2010 (August 2010)2. Find out why Microsoft Dynamics AX is right for your business. Watch Microsoft

1 Aberdeen Group, “ERP in the Midmarket 2009: Managing the Complexities of a Distributed Environment,” by Cindy Jutrus, August, 2009.

2Forrester Research, Inc “The Forrester Wave™: Order Management Hubs, Q3 2010” by Roy C. Wildeman and Craig Le Clair, August 19, 2010.

Although the idea of implementing or replacing an ERP system may seem daunting, workign with a fmailar interface and an integrated system that is easily adapted singificantly reduces the challenge and risk. The greater risk in a global market is doing nothing to leverage techniology to drive business success and future growth.

Whatever you decide, a well implemented your ERP software will show a clear payback—in business value and as IT investment. Its not just about the right solution, its also about the right partner and support. A good partner will make it work, while a bad partner will make even the best solution and the simplest project a nightmare.

Synergy Sofware Systems has been working with International companies to implement global and regonal solutions since 1991 and Micrsoft Dynamics Ax Gold Partners for several years. If you are seriously considering how to take your business international then call us to discuss how Microsoft Dynamics Ax and our experience can help you on the way to a succesful implementation.

Comments Off on Global erp with Microsoft Dynamics Ax »

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Microsoft phases out Oracle for Dynamics Ax

January 30th, 2011

Microsoft® Business Solutions will discontinue the Oracle database support for Microsoft Dynamics® AX effective with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server Data Migration Assistant for Microsoft Dynamics AX, which was released in October 2010, helps customers to switch from an Oracle to a SQL Server database. The data Migration Assistant helps with the migration of data from a Microsoft Dynamics AX Oracle database to a Microsoft Dynamics AX SQL Server database. The Data Migration Assistant supports the following versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX: Microsoft Axapta 3.0, Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, and 2009.

Comments Off on Microsoft phases out Oracle for Dynamics Ax »

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Why do we recommend Microsoft Dynamics Ax?

January 30th, 2011

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 (v2012 scheduled to be released this year) is Microsoft’s flagship business management ERP software product; robust and scalable enough to outperform against other Tier 1 solutions and be more cost-effective than other less capable, lower-end mid-market offerings.

Cost-effectively delivers robust out-of-the-box business capabilities and the flexibility to support unique/complex and multi-language/ country-specific/localized requirements.

Top Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 (Axapta) Benefits

Some great reasons to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 for your business with Synergy Software Systems :

System Capabilities

Market Leading Product – Top ranked by the leading third party analyst for mid-size companies of $50M – $1B in revenue, global operations and 5 – 1,000 employees. Read Gartner’s latest Mid-Market ERP Magic Quadrant, published Dec 2010.

Rich Business Capabilities – Delivers full-function, embedded best practice capabilities CRM, SCM and ERP along with Workflow Management and Business Intelligence/Reporting to enable true KPI driven business performance management. Supports multi-entity, multi-territory, multi-site, multi-vendor/partner, multi-IT platform, multi-currency, and multi-language global operations.

Comprehensive Suite – True business management solution automates end-to-end, best in class enterprise processes, provides common database stores real-time information, eliminates silos of data and provides a reliable ‘single source of truth’, means more visibility, control, fewer delays and confident decision making.

Fuels Business Productivity – The role tailored Microsoft Dynamics AX user interface is already familiar to your people with its Microsoft Outlook navigation ‘look and feel’. Easier to learn and use, easy to access data without reliance on IT, consistent look and feel, all means less training required, faster adoption rate, and accelerates ROI.

Out-of-the-Box Integration with Dynamics CRM – Enable end-to-end integration and flow-through order management via integration between Outlook, Dynamics CRM and Dynamics AX to pass customer, order and product information.

Agile – Flexible and extensible to meet unique and changing future needs. Highly-configurable to model and enable your varied sales and operations models as market demands and SCM relationships change over time.

Fits With Your Existing Systems – Runs on your Microsoft IT platform. Works even better with your other Microsoft solution components to further leverage your previous IT investment. Unlocks other pre-integrated capabilities in Outlook, Office, SharePoint, Search, Office Communications Server, Active Directory, SQL Server, Azure Cloud Services, and more.

Advanced Technology – Object based design. Available web-portal interface for non-core licensed users. Windows optimized very thin client for core users provides the rich client interface power users prefer. Secure. Open XML APIs (web services) to integrate with your other applications and import/export data from the system.

Highly Scalable to Grow with Your Business – Three tier architecture supports multi-instance, clustered application server and database server implementations for massive scalability. Benchmarked to support for 16,000+ concurrent users and multi-million transaction throughput as needed.

Implementation Approach

Power of Choice – Supports your changing business needs with flexible software + services license and deployment options. ‘Buy’ a one-time, upfront, perpetual license to own or ‘rent’ on a monthly subscription basis. Option to upgrade from Dynamics AX Business Essentials to the Advanced Management edition and/or credit your existing Dynamics GP license toward a new Dynamics AX license when/if your business needs change. On-premises, cloud and hosted software deployment options and the ability to move between also available.

Rapid Implementation Time/ Time to Value – High-level planning guideline is 4-6 elapsed months for typical project duration; includes requirements definition, design/configuration, training and user acceptance test before deployment. Scope, client stakeholder availability and deployment method drive actual project duration.

Business Value

Low Total Cost of Ownership / High ROI – Leverages your current Microsoft computing platform investment. Easy for business users to operate and maintain (without reliance on internal IT or outside contractors/ consultants). Less cost and complexity to manage and support via fewer internal skill sets required to grow and maintain, fewer contracts, vendors and brands to manage.

Low Risk

Microsoft’s Sustained Commitment to Product Innovation – Long-term Microsoft commitment to the Dynamics AX product development road map. Deep end-to-end integration and backward compatibility with other Microsoft platform products. 35+ year track record of Microsoft convergent product innovation powered by a $9 Billion+ R&D spend – more than Oracle, SAP, Google, Intuit, Sage, Salesforce.com, Epicor, and Netsuite combined!

Availability of Skilled Resources – built on industry standard technologies means experienced business user and IT resources are readily available in the marketplace for permanent hire as well as multiple sourcing options for part-time professional service support.

Proven Solution – Microsoft is the world’s largest software provider (with ’09 revenue of $60 Billion+); here today and tomorrow to serve your changing needs. Dynamics AX trusted by over 13,000 companies worldwide. Microsoft has the longest product version support cycle in the industry (10 years). Massive R&D positions your organization to draft behind a colossal wake of ongoing convergent technology innovation. As a genuine Microsoft Product, it is your lowest risk solution option.

THE BOTTOMLINE

When you compare all the factors, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 (Axapta) is one of the best ERP software solution options to consider.

Microsoft Dynamics AX demos

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 can help you meet the needs of your people as well as the evolving demands of your business. Watch the videos and learn more from resources that relate to four key business challenges.

Watch Microsoft AX software demos (Microsoft Silverlight).

For the best demo experience: Get Microsoft Silverlight.

Don’t have Microsoft Silverlight installed? Use Windows Media Player to watch the videos in .wmv format. (Get Windows Media Player.)

Comments Off on Why do we recommend Microsoft Dynamics Ax? »

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Virtual computing – Energy management

January 29th, 2011

Data-Centers could be contributing significantly to global warming. Estimates by Gartner are that energy costs could be up to 12% of the total running-costs of a Data Center and is growing at 11% per annum, due to the huge increase in smartphone usage (1.1 billion by 2013).

The EU base their policy on an estimate of electricity consumption by data centers of 56 TWh per year in Europe, doubling by 2020. This alarming figure includes temperature regulation, lighting, backup power and so on, as well as the actual servers.

This is one of the reasons why Virtualization has caught on so fast.

The EU’s Code of Conduct for Data Centers on Energy Efficiency. Although it is currently only ‘advisory’ legislation for limiting energy usage is coming.

In the UK, there is the ‘Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme’, which threatens draconian fines to companies with large energy-consumption that do not register, and it encourages firms to indulge in ‘carbon trading’. The increasing heavy-handed legislation on the energy usage of data centers is driving investment in huge data centers in countries with less legislation interest in avoiding climate change, and ‘off-shoring’ of data services so that it becomes someone else’s problem.

We are now using virtualisation for most of our installs to run several logical servers on one physical server. In addition to energy saving, there is also the beneoft of reduced space needed, and easier management.

Synergy offers cloud hosting for Microsoft Dynamics Ax and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Comments Off on Virtual computing – Energy management »

Posted in Technology

Budget control with Prophix? or use a spreadsheet?

January 26th, 2011

In many cases, small-to-medium-sized businesses and some large-sized businesses still manage the difficult and error-prone process of budgeting on spreadsheets.

Excel’s capabilities are often inadequate to support the critical nature of budgeting and forecasting and auditors are often sceptical about the accuracy of self created tools. typical issues are: version control, complex macros, formula errors, and inability to easily draw in and consolidate input from needed participants.

A recent whitepaper from BPM Partners reveals a best-practice approach to move beyond spreadsheet-based budgeting.

Warning Signs That Your Budget Process Has Outgrown the Spreadsheet:

No single version of the truth
Ownership and accountability by business users have disappeared
Time-consuming setup of financial statements

Breaking the spreadsheet habit is a difficult step , and finance executives often postpone the decision to migrate to a more purpose-built budgeting solution.

Step One: Acknowledge That You Have a Budgeting Problem

Good budgeting practices are structured to minimize errors and inconsistencies, drawing in all the necessary participants to contribute their business experience and the unique perspective of each department. Best practice in budgeting entails a mixture of top-down guidelines and standards, combined with bottom-up individual knowledge and experience. There comes a point when a company’s reliance on spreadsheets for budgeting becomes an impediment to effective decision-making and analysis. Spreadsheets can accommodate many tasks – but, over time,the models running in Excel grow too big for the spreadsheet application. When companies regard budgeting as a key business process, it becomes more apparent that it should be separated from the idiosyncrasies that spreadsheets allow.

It is common for spreadsheet budget models and their intricacies to be known and maintained by a single person who becomes a vulnerability point with no backup. . Data confidentiality is almost impossible to maintain in spreadsheets, which are not designed to hide or expose data (i.e., payroll) based upon each user’s role. These are drawbacks for corporate governance and make the audit process more difficult.

2. Ownership and accountability by business users have disappeared, and control over consolidating the

Watch the 8-minute PROPHIX online demo to see a complete end-to-end Performance Management solution for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation and personnel planning in action.

Synergy Software Ssytems is the Certified implementation partner for this region

Comments Off on Budget control with Prophix? or use a spreadsheet? »

Posted in Security and Compliance

Occupational Health Software – Cohort

January 26th, 2011

Occupational Health Software is a key aspect of any OH department to meet the manifold demands for service requires easy to use, functional and fully flexible software. Day to day tasks such as diary management, recalls, health surveillance, management referrals are just some of tha many faeatures required. Almost every OH service these days has to provide information and reports: proven cost savings, outcome reports, fit for work information, health surveillance statistics.

Occupational Health, like other industries need automated, paper frer systems. New technology supports:

online health screening,
online management referrals,
voice recognition for clinical note dictation,
digital pens to write rotes or to sign consent forms ,
touch screen registration,
SMS appointment reminders,
Client service portals allow the client to manage their own health surveillance, see the fit state of employees and to request appointments

OH software is not only for large corporations and government departments. The sole OH provider who runs their own business with multiple clients need software priced withintheir means, without IT infrastructure. The ability to rent a system with all the technology hosted by the OH software company means that the single OH provider can provide their clients with reports/costings/ monthly statistics etc. and also manage their diaries, recall lists and other administrative functions.

A key benefits of an Occupational Health software system is the ability to link policy and procedure documents to the relevant employee record with links to scanned images, GP reports, emails, – all relvant items and information in one place.

The right Occupational Health software system reduces adminstration and cost and will help you generate income. Not only can you prove to your clients/Directors etc. what you are doing, but by linking in a lifestyle assessment system, such as CALM, you can provide an assessment for an employee based on Lifestyle, Nutrition, Stress and then target these areas as room for improvement by initiating a health surveillance programme.

Choosing an Occupational Health system can be a minefield. When you are planning to implement a new system ensure that you are supplied with the information you need and that the system you choose can do what is required . Find out whether it i already working in an environment similar to yours. Cost is an important factor in decision making but initl price is not the only cost factor – ease of use, dependability, strong user group, report production, letter production and diary management are only a few of the features that need to be proven to work correctly.

If a system doesn’t give you what you want then it is not cost effective be clear what is the best for your purpose. Look at the options, look at the system and ‘try before you buy’. Report creation is key – you if it doesn’t produce the reports you require then what is the point of capturing all the information. When choosing a system work backwards! Think of the reports you will be requiring and check whether the system captures that information – if it doesn’t then it is not fit for your purpose.

Ask around and get peoples’ opinions of the systems and obtain a non-biased white paper that has been produced by an individual rather than one of the computer suppliers Talk to someone who has been through the tender process themselves and evaluated all the different systems – they will have some beneficial information and I am sure would be more than happy to share.

Admin/Time Saving

One of Cohort’s most beneficial features is its ability to save you time. Just consider how long it currently takes to perform common tasks such as booking an appointment, producing a list of health surveillance recalls, booking out daily for OHA’s, providing reports to management, or collating a full set of patient records?

Worth adding up the hours involved?

With Cohort’s unique functionality you will be able to dramatically reduce the time these tasks take, and allow more time to be spent on campaigns, problem staff and the business of adding value as a service provider.

‘The move to Cohort from manual processes was simple and welcomed by the staff, who desperately wanted Cohort implemented. It has changed the dynamics of the department for the better and made the occupational health department at Queen’s more modern and efficient. This is a fantastic development for the staff, the trust and our clients.’

Steve Reipond, Manager, Occupational Health, NHS Trust

Synergy Software Systems is working with Tempus Software to offer the extensive features of the popluar Cohort Occupational Software to the region.

150 + Hospitals Using Cohort

Number 1 Provider Within The NHS Becoming No 1 Provider within the Corporate OH Depts

Example Customers : –

150 + Hospitals Using Cohort

Number 1 Provider Within The NHS Becoming No 1 Provider within the Corporate OH Depts

Example Customers : –

BAA

British Nuclear Group

Bank of England

European Space Agency

British Transport Police

Cosworth

Honda

National Air Traffic Control

1 comment »

Posted in General Synergy News, Security and Compliance

Access Control – Schlage

January 24th, 2011

Synergy has been a regional partner with Ingersoll Rand for many years for security and time and attendance solutions. Recently our consultants completed a one week certification training for the popular Schlage range of access control systems .

Synergy Consultants Hands-on

Locks, exit controls, biometric devices, wirelss or wired-we have the solution

There is more to access control than choosing a lock or a simple reader.

How many different areas and devices ?
Which areas, can which people visit, when ?
- doors, rooms, lifts, gates. lockers
- control, or monitor?
What is the network access?
Is time and and attendance recording also needed?
Mass entry at shift changeover, or mass exti in emrgency?
Fire codes for doors
What happens when the power is cut?
For wireless access consider;
- line of sight
- interference from large metal objects e.g :
  - metal staircases
  - elevators and lift shaft
  - shielded walls
  - generators and A/c units
  - lockers
  - floorpans
- interference from other devices working at a similar frequency

This is why training, experience and proven equipment and software matters to architect a reliable, robust 24 x 7 solution. We havel skilled resource based in Dubai since 1991 to esnure your system is supported after go live.

For more information contact Kamlesh : 00971 4 3365589

Comments Off on Access Control – Schlage »

Posted in Security and Compliance, Technology

Microsoft Dynamics CRM connector to Microsoft Dynamics Ax

January 22nd, 2011

Integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics Ax4 has arrived with the release yesterday of Feature Pack 4 of the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics!

Out-of-the-Box entity mappings provide immediate value by integrating the key data in both systems. That basic integration can be extended by adding new maps, or by leveraging the SDK to create custom integrations.

An Upgrade Readiness tool will be available. You install this tool on your live AX4/2009 system.
The tool offers a lot of benefits. First, it enables you to verify that the data in your live system can be upgrade. For example, if an optional column is being converted to an mandatory column, and your current production data has <blank> contents in the field – then the data upgrade is bound to fail.
In the past you discovered issue like this much later in the process – you could call it trial-n-error.
This pre-verification allows you to fix your data on your live production system before starting the actual upgrade.

The Upgrade Readiness tool will enable you to enter data that is required to run AX2012.

In the past you would be entering this type data after the actual data upgrade but still during the downtime. Now you can enter the data up-front while the system is live. It is a quite comprehensive amount of data you need to provide, covering global address book, site, financial dimensions, organizational model etc.

The Upgrade Readiness tool allows you to copy live data to a staging area with data transformations in the process, to lower the complexity (and thus execution time) for the upgrade scripts that needs to run during the downtime. This process is of course delta-based, so any updates happening in the live system can be reapplied to the staging area. Control how much of your live system’s resources should be used for this, e.g. you may only want to use 0% during peak hours, 20% during night time, and 40% in the weekends.

. The upgrade process now schedules the actual upgrade scripts based on the distribution of the actual data you have. . At this point you have completed about 80% of the data upgrade process, and now is the time to take the system offline to do the actual data copy/transformation.

The upgrade model contains all the DEL_ tables/fields/indexes, and as you don’t need these anymore – you might as well remove those completely from your system. This way your developer experience on the system gets much improved.

· An Upgrade Readiness tool will be available. You install this tool on your live AX4/2009 system. The tool offers a lot of benefits. First, it enables you to verify that the data in your live system can be upgrade. For example, if an optional column is being converted to an mandatory column, and your current production data has <blank> contents in the field – then the data upgrade is bound to fail.

· In the past you discovered issue like this much later in the process – you could call it trial-n-error. This pre-verification allows you to fix your data on your live production system before starting the actual upgrade. The Upgrade Readiness tool will enable you to enter data that is required to run AX2012. In the past you would be entering this type data after the actual data upgrade but still during the downtime. Now you can enter the data up-front while the system is live. It is a quite comprehensive amount of data you need to provide, covering global address book, site, financial dimensions, organizational model etc.

The Upgrade Readiness tool allows you to copy live data to a staging area with data transformations in the process, to lower the complexity (and thus execution time) for the upgrade scripts that needs to run during the downtime. This process is of course delta-based, so any updates happening in the live system can be reapplied to the staging area. Control how much of your live system’s resources should be used for this, e.g. you may only want to use 0% during peak hours, 20% during night time, and 40% in the weekends.

The upgrade process now schedules the actual upgrade scripts based on the distribution of the actual data you have. . At this point you have completed about 80% of the data upgrade process, and now is the time to take the system offline to do the actual data copy/transformation.

The upgrade model contains all the DEL_ tables/fields/indexes, and as you don’t need these anymore – you might as well remove those completely from your system. This way your developer experience on the system gets much improved.

Improvements in the X++ language in Dynamics AX 2012:

New AS and IS keywords – with the same semantics as in C#. In X++ they work for class and table types.
Support for Attributes – just like in C#.
Table inheritance.
Tightening up of various language constructs. X++ no longer allows return type covariance, return type contravariance parameter covariance, parameter contravariance, and visibility contravariance. This fully aligns X++ with C#. To explain this in less language-savvy terms, it means an overriding method must have the same return type and parameters as the method it is overriding. Further; it cannot reduce the visibility, e.g. it cannot make a public method private.
The dangling semi-colon is not required anymore..

X++ as a managed languages.

The BC.NET component is re-engineered.

In Dynamics AX 2009 it is a face-less client that allows the managed world to call into the AX stack. The X++ code in AX 2009 can call out into the managed world using interop. When you call out into managed code, you cannot call back into the same AX session. I.e. no round-tripping.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 this is changed. The new BC.NET component is a thin conversion layer that can attach itself (in-process) to the AX client(s), the AOS and regular managed code. It will ensure all marshaling and type conversions happen seamlessly between the two realms.

AN X++ class can pass itself to a C# class, and let the C# class change the state of the object, by invoking a method on the X++ class.

. In Dynamics AX 2012 we are compiling X++ code to the CLR. At compile time we generate an XML representation of the pcode, which we can convert into IL. At run-time we will be execute the IL for batch jobs, service calls and RunAs constructs.

(RunAs is a new method allowing you to request the X++ logic to be executed as IL(Intermediate Language) which is the constituent language of the Cross-Language capabilities of CLR environment (Common Language Runtime Environment) )

The performance characteristics are vastly different particular in situations with extremely many objects or extremely many methods calls.Even in less-extreme situations running X++ as IL is beneficial as for example it reduces the time database locks are held, and thus improves performance and scalability.

Comments Off on Microsoft Dynamics CRM connector to Microsoft Dynamics Ax »

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

January 22nd, 2011

Microsoft Dynamics AX Technical Conference- Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 was revealed as the official name of the next version of the solution, previously code-named Microsoft Dynamics AX “6.

icrosoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a major change in ERP technologyand new way of thinking about ERP, about how companies deploy applications throughout their organization, how they manage their core business processes, and about how they rapidly deliver value to propel the organization forward.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 meets the core developer needs of pervasive interoperability, unified modeling, and a model-driven, layered architecture, and will have a tremendous productivity impact on our customers’organizations.

Lachlan Cash, Senior Product Manager (demonstrated the model driven development in Microsoft Visual Studio and MorphX. He showed how changes in one environment immediately are available in the other – because they are both driven from the same SQL based repository. He continued by showing how the new concept of Models allows having business logic from multiple source in the same layer – or simply modularizing your code, as the tool sets natively support models directly in the IDEs.

Kyle Young, Principal Program Manager Lead. showed some of the many new application abstractions available in Dynamics AX 2012. Using the Enterprise Portal, where forms are driven from the same form definition as in the rich client, he showed the powerful application features built on top of Organizational Models, Workflow, Date Effectiveness, Categorization, Dimensions, Policies and Work On Behalf.

Tom Patton, Senior Program Manager, showed the new User Experience in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 client, and how it seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office Excel, allowing you to query data from AX, and join it with arbitrary other data sources, pivot, edit and format the data in Excel, before posting it back into AX, and finally using SQL Server Reporting Services to generate an interactive (and very appealing) report of the data from within