The five pillars of the new D365 F&O
Continue readingThe new Dynamics AX 7 is the business management system for the mobile and cloud age.
The new product name, simply,Microsoft Dynamics AX, stripped of any version or year association, reflects the new approach: Microsoft’s flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP system) application suite has been transformed for today’s commercial environment – cloud-driven and mobile-pervasive. Regular updates to the cloud mean you will always have the latest version.
While most of the business logic has been carried over from AX 2012, the new Dynamics AX has undergone a design overhaul to offer a user experience that looks and works like Microsoft Office. The new user experience is the first of five pillars, fundamental to the product’s transformation.
1. User Experience
With the new Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft have leveraged their knowledge from the consumer side into the enterprise space, with Skype and Cortana integration within an Office 365-derived UI to create a whole new, immersive user experience. Able to run in any modern browser, its elegant HTML5-based client has been optimised to eliminate all unnecessary clicking and scrolling, for touch-screen mobile apps as well as traditional keyboard and mouse.
2. Business Intelligence
The latest version of Microsoft Dynamics AX sees Power BI integrated as the native business intelligence. Gone are the days when critical decisions are made on last month’s data. Power BI offers close to real-time data delivery. With Power BI embedded into Dynamics AX, a user no longer needs to exit the app to use a separate analytics tool. Power BI ‘tiles’ can be pinned to different workspaces and forms to easily visualize and drill into data.
3. Productivity
The integration of productivity and collaboration tools has been greatly enhanced in the new Microsoft Dynamics AX. Office 365, Power BI, and Skype for Business all interoperate seamlessly with Dynamics AX, driving individual productivity. The introduction of new concepts such as ‘workspaces’ and ‘task guides’ make it easier to personalise the system and take full advantage of functionality while minimising the learning curve.
4. The Cloud
The new Microsoft Dynamics AX has been specifically architected for the cloud. The application suite will first run exclusively on the Azure cloud, and will be closely followed up by the ability to deliver the service on an organisation’s on-premise environment. As well as the flexibility the cloud brings to the system, the Azure platform has been equipped with a whole new instrumentation and telemetry which allows for greater proactivity and efficiency of ERP implementation.
5. Lifecycle Services
The new release of Microsoft Dynamics AX brings Lifecycle Services (LCS) to the next level. LCS allows the customer and implementation partner to manage the whole life cycle of the project, from planning to post-implementation support. The latest version has added a set of capabilities which bring enterprise best practices to bear on the deployment process.
The new Microsoft Dynamics AX will continue to benefit from a thriving ecosystem of independent solution developers and vendors, and customers will be able to find and sample customised solutions through the Azure Marketplace. Pricing, traditionally a complex area of ERP solutions, has been simplified to provide a transparent and easily scalable pricing model.