Managing Process Manufacturing using Dynamics AX

Scott Hamilton has released his 6th book on AX - 'Managing Process Manufacturing using Dynamics AX'. Like his previous titles, this one also gives a great functional insight into the ProcessManufacturing concepts and Dynamics AX.
Book Description:


Managing Process Manufacturing explains how Microsoft Dynamics AX supports the unique business practices of process manufacturing, including hybrid scenarios involving discrete and process manufacturing. The targeted reader includes those individuals implementing or considering Dynamics AX as their ERP system, as well as those providing consulting assistance. The book content provides a complete walk through of functionality related to operations and supply chain management in process manufacturing.


Firms involved with a system selection process may be considering Dynamics AX as a candidate package, and this book can help reduce selection risks, evaluate system fit and needed customizations, and provide a vision for running the business using AX. The book can help businesses involved in implementing and using Dynamics AX by accelerating the learning process, supporting gap/fit analyses, and reducing implementation time and costs. It suggests changes that can improve system usage and revitalize a wayward implementation. For firms providing consulting services related to Dynamics AX, this book can accelerate the employee learning process, especially for those not yet familiar with the new functionality related to process manufacturing.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
Click here to pre book the title from Amazon.
 
Download the TOC from here:
 

Dynamics AX 2009 Rollup 5

Dynamics AX 2009 Rollup 5 has been released to Partner Source and Customer Source. RU-5 carries all the content that has been released in previous rollups (RU-1, RU-2, RU-3, RU-4).
Click on the link below to download (Requires Authentication):
AX 2009 SP1 RU-5

Happy upgrading :-)

Microsoft Dynamics Salary Survey 2009

The Microsoft Dynamics Salary Survey 2009 is now available for public consumption. This salary has been compiled by Nigel Frank. Contains detailed statistics for all Dynamics products (AX,NAV,GP,SL).

Definitely should be interesting :)

Please click on the image below to sign up and get the report.

Visual Studio 2010 Launch & Dynamics AX Perspective

Well you all know Visual Studio 2010 RTM'ed on 12th April. I had attended the Launch event at TechEd 2010 Bangalore and the launch was done by Somasegar himself. It was a great event to attend :-). VS 2010 opens up new vistas for developers.

Well whats VS 2010 got to do with AX? Brandon posted a compatibility report on AX & VS 2010 . I thought I would wait for RTM :-). The Dynamics AX Sustained Engineering Team has completed the  compatibility tests for the new releases for .NET 4.0, VS 2010 & Office 2010.
Click here to learn more.
Looking forward to play with VS 2010 & AX 2009.

One good thing I got to see @ TechEd 2010 India was the Windows 7 phone :-). Awesome.
 

















Happy DAX-ing :-)

DynamicsWorld - 2010 Top 100 - Voting

Dynamicsworld started a  Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 Most Influential People List . The criteria include the number of years experience, MVP status, those that run blogs, forums and Dynamics based sites, and those with senior positions within organisations, as well as those that have created products and modules for Dynamics.
Click on the link below to vote:
2010 Nominations

TechED India 2010

TechED India 2010 starts next week in Bangalore India. Lots of exciting events planned as well as release of VS 2010. This TechED will also feature a community track where MVP's will be taking sessions on latest technologies. I'll be taking a session on Dynamics AX . Drop in in case you want to know more about the power of Dynamics AX 2009 and how businesses can derive value.
The session list is:
http://www.microsoftteched.in/community_track.aspx

AX Tools Blog

The Developer & Partner tools group of Microsoft Dynamics AX has published a new blog. This blog will give you the roadmap for the current & future productivity & development tools for Dynamics AX. Keep watching this blog for more updates on the future of AX for Developers :-)

Happy DAX-ing

New Dynamics AX Spanish Site

My friend Antonio Gilabert Plaza started his new Dynamics AX site. This site is entirely in Spanish. Do drop in. Another site added to the growing DAX community :-)

Happy DAX-ing

BI Persona Presentation for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

A new presentation has been released which can be used when meeting with customers and prospects who need to explore the Business Intelligence capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

"With this presentation you will be able to present the BI concept and examples of how Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 supports the BI needs of 10 specific roles – from the CEO, accounts payable coordinator to the order processor, Environmental Manager etc. You will be able to present how the different roles with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 have access to the information they need when they need it, and in a format that makes sense to them."

Click on the image to download (Requires Partnersource Logon)

Happy New Year 2010

Sure Step 2010

The latest version of Sure Step 2010 is now available from Partnersource. Click on the image below to download.

Happy Sure stepping :-)

Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics AX

The updated SOD for Dynamics is now available on Partner Source/Customer Source. The document comprises of four main sections:

• Future direction of the product
• What is our current offering (Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 SP1)
• What is Microsoft Dynamics AX ‘6’
• Customer Support and Maintenance Policies

The SOD will contain information about our development plans through the year 2018.

Click here to download from Partner Source [Login Required]

Microsoft Product Support Index

During AX implementations it becomes necessary to view the support lifecycle policies of the related products like SQL, MOSS. Here is a nice link to the MS Support Index where you will find the support roadmap for all MS Product versions. I found it extremely useful. Click on the image below to view the site.

Happy DAX-ing

AX Application Launcher v2.1

I received some quick feedback on the UI color ;-P. I have changed the UI color to something that will hopefully be pleasant to the eyes :-). [Lemme see if I can create something like a theme...]. The new UI is as:

The installer files are attached below:

Thanks for the feedback :-)

AX Application Launcher v2

Sometimes back I created an application "AX Configuration Launcher" which helped distribute AX Configurations enabling users to open multiple configurations easily. I made some improvements to the earlier application as:
1. New User Interface
2. Ability to sync from a centralized network share
3. Ability to configure the application (Advanced users, config stored in a XML file)
The screenshot is as follows:-

The video to install and use is displayed below:

The installation files & video are shared in the link below.


I tested it out on my local machine as well as at my client. It working fine. The network shared folder must have read access to all users using this tool. In case you use this application, do give me the feedback.
I will publish the source code in Codeplex (Im working on this now to get a license in Codeplex)

Dynamics AX, BING & Language Translation

I was doing some R & D on BING API (Search & Translate) and hit upon the idea of data translation in AX using BING Translate services. Presently when a user changes the AX Language, the Labels change but data does not. It would be nice if this data could also change based on the language change. To do a simple POC, I did some R&D as follows:
1. Create a .NET APP which would consume the BING Translate API to translate text. The simple UI is as follows and works great :-)

2. Replicate this feature inside AX to translate a text inside AX using the BING API and add it as a WS reference . The POC worked and it the simple UI I created is as follows:

3. Now inside AX, create a form and a tmp table and use the API to translate data on the form. I have created a simple UI with 2 Buttons for 2 languages (en) & (ar). When I press the (en) button, the data is displayed in English and when I press (ar) the data is shown in Arabic. I have used a simple Customer Table query for an example. The Screenshot shows the same form side by side with different data translated :)

Comparison...


This obviously is not related to day to day work but just an idea which hit me and I just wanted to explore whether it works. Definitely to achieve this in real life would require architectural changes. Something similar to the UTC DateTime features where the DateTIme is stored in UTC in DB and the AU UI changes based on User settings. ence this POC is just to explore data translation possibilities only. The POC has worked :) and I'm sharing this as is. For creating new data I id not consider, just view. Again this was for some good fun.
To use the BING Apps, you need to create an APP id. Some important reference URL's are:
BING Developer Centre: http://www.bing.com/developers
Search WSDL for BING : http://api.bing.net/search.wsdl
Translation API for BING : http://api.microsofttranslator.com/V1/SOAP.svc
BING DEV App id: http://www.bing.com/developers/appids.aspx
Steps:
1. Add the WS (http://api.microsofttranslator.com/V1/SOAP.svc) inside References Node:
2. Sample Code
Static Server Str TranslateData(Str _text = "")
{
Translation.LanguageServiceClient ls;
Str AppId = "Your BING APP ID";
Str FromL="en",ToL="ar",SourceText="";
Str Lang[];
Str Value="";
try
{
new InteropPermission(InteropKind::ClrInterop).assert();
ls = new Translation.LanguageServiceClient();
//ls.GetLanguages(AppId);
Value = ls.Translate(AppId,_text,FromL,ToL);
CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}
catch(Exception::CLRError)
{
throw error(AifUtil::getClrErrorMessage());
}
Return Value;
}
This POC was created just for some serious fun :) . To be taken on the lighter side :)


Click here to see a real implementation of my experiment. This site is in Spanish. Im really happy :-)

Interview on DynamicsWorld UK

I had been extremely busy since the last few weeks due to multiple personal & official engagements. However I had a little time to respond to an interview by DynamicsWorld UK.
Click here to read it :)

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Quick reference Guide

Hi all, the new Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Quick reference guide is a nice brochure showcasing the modules and features of AX 2009. Nice to distribute to Customers & Partners.

Click on the link below to download.

Managing Lean Manufacturing using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

Scott Hamilton is back again with his new book 'Managing Lean Manufacturing with Microsoft Dynamics AX '.

Book Summary

An integrated supply chain management (SCM) system represents a critical success factor for effective implementation of lean manufacturing. The software functionality must be able to manage variations in lean scenarios as well as changes associated with continuous improvement efforts and the maturity stages of lean manufacturing.

This book explains the software functionality to support lean manufacturing scenarios, as defined by functionality within the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. It also covers the traditional approaches to these same scenarios. It explains the incremental conceptual differences between the lean and traditional approaches, and helps those readers with a traditional SCM/ERP background to understand the new vocabulary and conceptual models. The targeted reader includes those individuals implementing or considering Dynamics AX to support their lean manufacturing initiatives, as well as those providing sales and implementation services.

Click on the image below to pre order from Amazon.

The Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 Influential People 2009

Dynamics World has published the “The Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 Influential People 2009" list. This list is intended to provoke thought and reward those that have achieved something extraordinary within Microsoft Dynamics. Click on the link to view the top 100.

The Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 Influential People 2009