Topic: ‘Dynamics AX’

There are many data maintenance tasks that are simply too big for manual updating, but too small to justify writing scripts and using IT resources.  Dynamics AX 2009 features a Fill Utility that allow you to update multiple records at the same time.  For example, if you decide to change the Cash Discount for all customers or a group of customers, you can use fill utility to update all the selected customers at the same time.

1. Open the form where the field that you want to update is displayed.
2. Right-click the field that you want to update and select Record info from the menu.
3. Click the “Fill Utility” button.
4. Use the Inquiry to select which records should be updated.  For example, if you only wanted to update the Cash Discount for customers in a certain State, then you would select ‘Sales District’ in the ‘Field’ field that is related to the Customers Table.  This will return only customers that match that criteria.
5. Once the Fill Utility form is open, you can see the records you are about to change/update.  Remember, in this form you can remove any records you do not wish to update.
6. Click OK, and the New Field Value window opens.  From here you enter the desired field and click OK again.  This will update your records!

Of note; not all fields are available in AX for Fill Utility.  Also, not all users have access to Fill Utility.  This feature is only available if the Fill utility configuration key is selected and the Fill utility security key is enabled.

To view changes that were made using the Fill Utility, see Basic/Inquires/Fill Utility Log

Microsoft Press has released Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 as a book application for the iPhone.  This book is a must have for many AX professionals.  The app features the full version of the book, full text search, dictionary, and the ability to add notes.  And at $5.99, it’s a great value over the $40-$70 for the tree-and-pulp version.  It’s available here.  (iTunes required).

If anyone knows of pdf version of this book (or any other AX book), please let us know.

The MS Dynamics AX Sustained Engineering Team has confirmed that Windows 7 is compatible with AX 4.0 SP2 and Dynamics AX 2009 RMT and SP1 (read MS results here – customer or partnersource required).  Not a real surprise and also nice to confirm compatibility with AX 4.0 SP2.  The team also used the opportunity to announce compatibility with Server 2008 R2 and SP2.

AX 2009 includes SysImport functionality which can be used to import leads and contacts.  Using this usually requires some development in Microsoft Visual Studio, but Microsoft has made available the files necessary to get this going without development.  The files are available here: CRMImports.zip

Here’s the process:
1.    Basic >Setup > Import > Documents

• In Documents form:  Name, CRMContacts; Description, CRM Contacts Document Class; Document Class, AxdSysImportContactPersons.
• Click “Validate”, close Documents Form

2.    Basic > Setup > Import > Transformations

• In Transformations form: Name, XmlToContacts; Document Class, CRMContacts;
• Click “Load”
• Select file “SysImport.ContactPersons.xsl
• Click “Validate”
• General Tab, verify that type of transformation is “XSLT”

3.    Basic > Setup >Import > Formats

• In Formats form:  Name, XmlFormat; Description, Process Xml Files; Extensions, *.xml; Document Class, CRMContacts; Active (checked)
• Save, then click “Transformations”
• On the Format transformations form:  Transformation:  XmlToContacts, close the form
• On the Formats form, click “Validate”
• The Import form will appear; select the file “Contacts.xml”; click OK

Now you can start and complete the import process.  CRM >Periodic > Import > Leads

In Dynamics AX2009, the Global Address Book is a repository for every Person OR Organization that your organization comes into contact with.  When you create a customer, vendor, employee, business relation, contact or competitor, a record is automatically created in the global address book.  This is handy, as you have visibility of relations between all people and organizations.

However, when some important contact data does not synch up between, say, a business relation’s credit rating and the corresponding contact record, it can leave users scratching their heads and searching in vain through parameter settings.  The error lies in the limitation of synchronization in the Global Address Book.  Only certain common fields are shared:
•    Name
•    Address
•    Communicaitions (Telephone, fax, etc)
•    Number of employees
•    Organization number
•    Category

Other data will not be synchronized.

Recently several states have enacted laws to protect consumer data and information.  While most organizations want their customer data to be private, often companies use the “honor-system” when it comes to exactly how careful their employees are with sensitive data.

For that reason, security and audit controls are increasingly becoming drivers for ERP decisions as companies move from less sophisticated systems.  According to Forrester Research, over 75% of companies include security and audit as drivers for their decision and with Microsoft Dynamics you can have confidence that your data can be protected.

The good news is that our customers using Microsoft Dynamics are already half way to compliance.  

Microsoft Dynamics is one of the easiest tools to be able to provide a secure auditable environment but just because you already use GP or AX doesn’t mean you’re automatically compliant.  There may be a few tweaks to make, including:

• Set up encryption on the SQL Server.
• Enforce secure password policies using Microsoft Active Directory.  For example, enforce mandatory password changes every 45 days and use complex passwords with at least 8 characters and a combination of numbers, symbols, or uppercase/lowercase letters.
• Set up enhanced levels of security in your ERP system using roles.
• Review your security to ensure for appropriate segregation of duties.
• Limit access to the system administrator username/password.
• Use tools like Fastpath Audit Trail to audit any changes made by the system administrator and other users.  It allows you to track who has access to data, who made a change, and who deleted or added information to Dynamics from either within or outside the system. 

With just a little knowledge, Microsoft Dynamics is the most affordable compliance solution on the market today.  Contact your auditor for your industry’s specific audit requirements.  For your audit needs, call I.B.I.S. for Fastpath solutions at 770-368-4000.

I was recently asked of a client to validate that the FIFO costing in Microsoft Dynamics AX works correctly for their auditors.  This was on a 4.0 environment so the 2009 validation processes weren’t an exact fit.  The process we came up with should be applicable to 2009 as well however.  The process is as follows (I would recommend to run this per item to keep it simple):

1. Run the Specify Inventory Value report (Inventory Management -> Reports -> Status -> Inventory Value -> Specify inventory value) as of the first date of a new period to attain beginning cost price (latest transaction cost / transaction quantity).
2. Run the Inventory Transactions report (Inventory Management -> Reports -> Transactions -> Inventory Transactions) as of the first of the period through the end of the period by Financial Date.  Sort this by Financial Date.
3. Match values from the beginning cost on your “Specify inventory value” report to the running issues on the “Inventory transactions” report.  As you run out of inventory for each receipt, match up against the next receipt by financial date.  These should all match out including adjustments.  The formula for determining your cost per quantity of the transaction will be the (financial cost amount + adjustment) / quantity of the transaction.

This process could obviously be modified to validate the other costing methods as well just by changing the criteria of how you match or average costs.  It will give you a simple way to validate costs per transaction.  One additional note on the process is that this will only be effective after the closing of the period.  Until then, Microsoft Dynamics AX will not adjust costs according to any costing model.

Microsoft last week released Lean Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics AX2009, which in Microsoft’s words will enable organizations to embark on the “Lean Journey”.

Partnersource: Lean Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Customersource: Lean Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

Stephen Wilson of eBECS has also created the Lean Centre of Excellence website.
There you will find a series of short videos, free to watch, that will give you a feel for what Lean means.
http://www.leancentreofexcellence.com

They are delivered by Andrew Rumney, who is the Solutions Director for eBECS Ltd, and the original architect of the Lean Manufacturing module for AX2009.

Although Microsoft have released Lean Manufacturing for AX2009, it does come complete with some known issues – 51 in total, that may impact on a prospective implementation, depending on the solution chosen.  We should all familiarize ourselves with the issues document, which is available for download.
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/resources/productreleases/ax2009leanmanufacturing.htm

The Lean Module provides easy-to-use graphical tools such as Kanban Stop/Go and Electronic Heijunka Board(below):

One of the nice upgrades in AX2009 is the addition of Opportunities in the CRM module.  During a recent AX2009 -CRM module training event, it became clear that the term “Opportunities” doesn’t always fit nicely into the way some organizations think about their CRM process.  Here’s a quick overview of Opportunities and how they fit into AX.

One way to think about Opportunities is your Pre-Sales Bucket.  This bucket contains everything you need to create, develop and close sales deals.  Opportunities pick up where Leads end.  In most organizations it is important for there to be separate definitions for recording and working with potential-sales that are unqualified (Leads), and qualified (Opportunities).  In AX2009, Opportunities keep up with:

• Communications
• Contacts
• Competitors
• Partners
• Products being quoted
• Quoted Prices
• Quantities
• Sales Stage
• Associated documentation

Opportunities are not necessarily companies, and they can contain multiple contacts.  From AX2009:

When your lead record has become an opportunity record, you can start to track more sales-related information such as quotations and competitors. Tracking the competition for the sale can give you valuable information about how to win the opportunity and gain another customer.

When you manage your opportunities, you can also give probability percentages and prognosis ratings to the opportunity and track the probability percentage, or chance that the opportunity will become a customer.

As soon as you have provided quotations and the contact at the opportunity has made a decision, you can track whether you won the opportunity and the reason why you won it. If you have lost the opportunity, you can list why and to whom you lost the opportunity, as this information might be useful later.

The slide below illustrates how Opportunities and Leads fit into the AX2009 – CRM flow:

Brad Koontz
Senior Consultant
I.B.I.S., Inc.
30 Technology Parkway South, Suite 400  |  Norcross, Georgia  30092
Direct: (678) 684-2183  |  Main: (770) 368-4000  |  Fax: (770) 368-1186  |  Mobile: (404) 435-1668
bkoontz@ibisinc.com

I had an interesting issue from a client recently.  They were importing Bill of Material data into AX and validating the data.  When they went to mass calculate all the Bills of Material however, they ran into an issue that none that had active Item dimensions worked.  What we discovered is that the item dimension combination need to be setup for the mass calculation to work for Bills of Material.  This can be accomplished via a set of code as follows: