Archive for January, 2012

Dynamics Ax 2012 erp Workflow – Synergy Software Systems, Dubai

January 30th, 2012

Everyone has Business processes. The right  Business management software adds significant value when it is used to execute   processes efficiently, on time, and to ensure compliance with segmentatiot of duty, approvals, audit trails, notifcations and attachments

 In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the workflow tools include powerful new  features that to quickly model and update your business processes -to give you the powe, agility and simplicity you need to deal with the rapid changes in business and technology.

The workflow system in AX 2012 uses the Microsoft .NET 4.0 Workflow Foundation,with both the graphical editor and the runtime environment.

The graphical workflow editor in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is based upon the re-hostable workflow designer control from the .NET 4.0 Workflow Foundation. There are added controls and custom workflow elements that reflect activities and tasks typically associated with ERP, so you can actually access the workflow design surface from the ERP client.

When a workflow is submitted for processing, execution of the workflow instance is managed by the Application Object Server (AOS) using the .NET 4.0 Workflow Foundation runtime.

Faster Process Modeling

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 makes it much simpler for business users and people with limited programming skills to set up and automate some pretty sophisticated processes

People who understand the business and work with these processes on a daily basis can define the conditions and business rules, assign tasks, and automate the flow of information through the organization.

  • Visual Tools. Its easier to understand a business process, when its visual  –  actually see what’s happening.  Flow charts as graphical representations of processes. The new graphical workflow editorlets a business user model a process and build the associated workflow that automates approvals, escalations, notifications, decision points, .
  • Prebuilt Workflows. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will ship with around 60 workflow types, to speed up the process of creating a workflow. Pick one of the available workflow types, associated with specific business documents, and then model the resulting workflow to reflect your particular organization’s policies and procedures.

 Flexible Process Execution

New features t help you design richer workflows,to reflect the way business is done in your  organization

Assignment. . Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports assigning to:

  •  an individual,
  • group,
  • or role,
  • or defining an organizational hierarchy, with rules for escalation.

 Organizations can also assign tasks to work item queues, which can in turn be assigned and managed at an individual or team level. Flexibility to get the work done the way you want to manage it..

  • Conditions and decisions.Ccreate workflows that branch, based on specified conditions or decisions that people make as part of the process. Decisions can be: conditional or manual, depending on the process and the rules or policies that govern it. Automate and ensure consistent application of your business rules or business policies.
  • Time limits. Set time limits on tasks, approvals, and manual decisions— define escalation policies when limits aren’t met—complete tasks on time and in-box avoid delays.
  • Parallel activity. Processes may require multiple tasks to be executed at the same time.  Parallel activity and the ability to call other workflows from within an existing workflow is uspprted..
  • Line items. A single document, for example an expense report or purchase order, may contain multiple line items that need to be processed differently. Enable workflows to be applied to a specific line item, rather than treating a document as a whole, which means more granular control.

 Use workflow toautomate and standardize business processes, for greater efficiency, while also making it quick and easy to change those processes. Ensure your business maintains its agaility, within a framework of ever increasing need for faster response,  tight cost cotnrol that meets. internal and stautory compliance requirements.

Management Reporter-Why? Get training and support in Dubai – GP, NAV, AX SL

January 30th, 2012

Management Reporter is the Microsoft Dynamics AX application used for the creation, distribution and analysis of financial statements and other financial reports.

  • Use Management Reporter, tocreate boardroom-quality reports without IT assistance;
  • Use its enhanced XBRL capabilities to get updated instance documents by simply changing a date;
  • Take advantage of secure report distribution and storage through the centralized Report Library.

 Management Reporter empowers decision makers to provide real-time insights into organizational results allowing you to take action and to align employee behavior with overall goals.

 Management Reporter provides a direct integration with the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 general ledger (GL), so there is no need to create a custom connection to your primary data source.

Build custom reports based on GL data

  •  Slice general ledger information into Rows, Columns, or Hierarchies
  • Use robust formatting such as flexible page design and the ability to add company logos.

Management Reporter provides the following integration points to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for you to use when creating your financial statements.

  Management Reporter V2 (August 2011) Management Reporter 2012 (1HCY2012)
Accounts X X
Dimensions X X
Fiscal Periods X X
Posting Layers X X
Account Categories X X
Org Models   X
Actual GL Data X X
Budget Data X X
Cash Flow Forecasts X X
Budget Reservations   X
Adjustments X X
Currencies X X

When creating financial statements also use:

  • Custom dimensions
  • Totaling Accounts

Include additional account and transaction level information such as:

Account Type Budget Model Payment Reference Posting Layer
Company Group Account Currency Code Price Quantity
Document Date Document Number Source Document Transaction Apply Date
Further Posting Type Journal Number Transaction Description Transaction Code
Ledger Closing Main Account Category Transaction Number Voucher

Increase productivity . A familiar interface based on Microsoft Office. Generate reports automatically to monitor performance in real time, close books quickly, and improve decision-making across the organization.

Enhance collaboration and sharing – Improve communication across your organization. Distribute reports using multiple formats, distribution techniques, and document bundling

Help safeguard financial data – Tailor security settings for reports so that only people with the appropriate permissions can access sensitive business information.

Management Reporter is available in 24 diffentent languages

If you need iomplementation assistance, training or help in creating your report pack then please cotnact us.

Management Reporter 2012 – some previews

January 28th, 2012

In Management Reporter 2012 , you can include the dimension codes and descriptions for a line of a report, as a result, your users know exactly where a number is coming from. Here is a preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvdiAc439zo&list=PLBE027591B1C070D6&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Management Reporter 2012 allows users to enter comments at the financial, account, and transaction level of a report. This common feature request will save many customers’ hours while collaborating with others during the close process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lysv7jyvWyk&list=PLBE027591B1C070D6&index=198

AX 2012 for RETAIL LAUNCH EVENT- join in from Dubai

January 28th, 2012

 Microsoft leaders, customers, and retail industry experts will talk about what it means to be a Dynamic Retailer in today’s retail environment while providing a first-look at the powerful retail capabilities being introduced as part of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Register now and receive access to the following on February 1st:

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax2012launch/?fbid=EVsqn0ReKYg

  • Hear Microsoft executives and retail customers talk retail trends and technology from NRF in New York
  • Watch demos showcasing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 retail capabilities
  • Chat live online with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 retail and technical experts
  • Learn about local retail events in your geography
  • Explore all of the additional functional and industry innovation in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
  • Register for the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail Virtual Launch Event on February 1st, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (USA)

 See how Microsoft Dynamics AX can help with challenges faced by multichannel retailers today. Watch the video

Solar storm

January 26th, 2012

Huge geomagnetic solar storm started on Sunday and continues to buffet planet earth – worse since 2005- beware of possible grid outages and avoidn flying over the North Pole. See these images from NASA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC2ekCMP98A&feature=player_embedded

AX ANYWHERE – NEXT RELEASE Q1 2012 – be the first in Dubai to try

January 24th, 2012

In March 2012 the  next release of AX Anywhere will be released. New  important function and features are:

  • New version of AX Anywhere Field Sales, including more functions
  • New version of AX Anywhere for Retail, covering the Retail processes
  • Style sheet support –  much easier to change the look and feel of the mobile application, inside AX!

IPAD – OFFLINE FIELD SALES AVAILABLE Q1 2012

One of the great advantages of Dynamics Anywhere is the fact that in runs online on almost any device with a browser, including the iPad. 

We will offer  an offline app for iPad Field Sales.

Dynamics Ax 2012 Retail – Synergy Software Systems – Dubai from 1 February 2012

January 24th, 2012

We chose Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail because it provides us with a scalable platform to support our future growth and a differentiated customer and sales associate experience at the point of sale,” said Patty Wade, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Strategy and Technology, with Mattress Firm. “Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail gives us what other solutions could not — ease of use and simplicity in operations, coupled with the ability to scale and reliably deliver on our brand promise

Dynamics Ax 2012 Retail functionality:

 

Multi-Channel Management | Store Operations | Merchandising:

Multi-Channel Management · Cross-channel scenarios such as “buy online/pick up in store” enhance customer convenience.

· Retail channel integration with online marketplaces and stores creates new opportunities for sales, customer interaction and feedback.

· Sites enable product/service quotations, recruiting, ad promotion and more in the cloud.

· Integrate assortment and category management with online channels.

Centralized Store Management · Centralized POS terminal management includes visual and functional profiles, user interface layouts, and employee permissions.

· Enhanced store connect performance, extensibility

· Manage staff at the store, regional, and global levels leveraging powerful Dynamics AX HR capabilities

Flexible POS · Create orders and quotations without leaving the customer’s side using POS-based order support capabilities.

· New POS store database offering central point of consolidation for store data offering in greater extensibility.

· Powerful new capabilities for end of day like blind close, and floating till.

Powerful Merchandising · New store-specific pricing and New discounting flexibility including exclusive, best price, and compounded

· New option to specify a discount – coupon

· Take advantage of powerful assortment management including creation, scheduling, tracking, leveraging n-level deep item hierarchies and category management.

  • Leverage of AX 2012 sales cube for merchandising, retail channel and store analytics
  • Inventory enhancements – including flexible, filtered add products form and mass update sheet
  • Role-based security leveraging AX 2012 security model
  • Sales Tax on Shipping

And all the many benefits of Ax 2012 for multi company operations.

Join the launch 1 February 2012

Microsoft leaders, customers, and retail industry experts will talk about what it means to be a Dynamic Retailer in today’s retail environment while providing a first-look at the powerful retail capabilities being introduced as part of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

  • Watch demos showcasing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 retail capabilities
  • Chat live online with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 retail and technical experts
  • Learn about local retail events in your geography
  • Explore all of the additional functional and industry innovation in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Register at: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax2012launch/?fbid=Y6K-lcspkY7

Or call us for a discussion and demonstration. 009714 3365589

Hackers foiled

January 22nd, 2012

Online shoe store Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, was hacked, exposing the names, e-mail addresses, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card numbers of its 24 million customers, the company said late Sunday night.

Fortunately the the database containing full credit card numbers and other payment data, was not hacked. All that was revealed were the last four digits of customers’ credit card numbers.

These kind of hacks can be immensely damaging. According to the Ponemon Institute data breaches across the globe accounted for $130.1 billion in corporate losses last yea,. typically about 30% of  total cost is direct losses attributable to the breaches, which would mean about $39 billion was stolen in 2011.

A scary write up of how organised and mafia like cybercriminals are  can be read here: http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/27/technology/organized_cybercrime/index.htm?iid=EL

SOPA backlash

January 22nd, 2012

In protest against two acts before the USA Congress: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) many popular sites are blacked out today. Sites across the ‘Net, from reddit to the Internet Archive, from Wikipedia to Google, are protesting the excesses of the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA remains a flawed bill that treats piracy as an existential threat to the US economy and to a sacred class of rightsholders—and in doing so loses all perspective on appropriate remedies.

Its doutbful the legislators have the techlnca  savvy to notice but some senaotrs have already said they will oppose the SOPA legislation.   As a comapny selling and implementing software we strongly support anti piracy law  and  believe in intellectual property as a fair concept. Creating an  “emergency” around the issue is not the right way forward.  Betiher  is a debate based only on the perspective of the biggest rights holders. the best way to legislate on key Internet issues. the SOPA bandwagon maybe should be stopped and a dialogue initiated with informed inputs from all sides of the internet community to provide a more balanced legislation. Otherwise the backlash may be more painful and widespread than the problems this legislation is trying to address.

Anti-piracy? Megaupload shutdown – why does it matter in Dubai?

January 21st, 2012

The recent anti-piracy shutdown shutdown of the Megauload site has triggered 4.5 million anti SOPA signatories on Google  in a day. Twitter recorded 2.4 million tweets on anti SOPA searches.

One problem is that fiie sharing piracy is so well established its not so easy to reverse – for example how much of the content on: youtube facebook, twitter, wikipedia and many other established sites are free of piracy/plagiarism of some form, or another.

Over this weekend there are several news items that that provide a wider context, and which may ring some political and business alarm bells:

  • Anonymous has declared reprisal action from its member hackers.
  • Loss of busines due to loss of internet connections is very significant these days with so much business only done on line.
  • A general push to do more on the cloud – office 365, G+ , Saas, collaboration tools, social network marketing  etc
  • Reported attacks by terrorists e.g, in Yemen and by Somali pirates on internet infrastructure cabling
  • Google’s move to enforce G+ registration  on when opening a gmail account
  • Falling revenue at Google and Yahoo