Predictable updates through Lifecycle Services

Built on Microsoft Azure, Lifecycle Services (LCS) makes Dynamics AX updates more discoverable and less onerous. LCS helps you to manage your AX updates easily: binary or application updates containing regulatory features, new features, or changes to existing features. You can create a customer update package containing your desired updates (and their required dependencies). Coupled with the Diagnostic data, you can filter out application changes that are already applied or those that are irrelevant to your environment.

With LCS, regularly updated services, such as System Diagnostics and Upgrade Analysis, help you manage the application lifecycle. LCS provides a predictable and repeatable rollout of an application implementation, upgrade or update. Moreover, the AX update installer comes with an automated code-merge tool that simplifies the process of applying hotfixes and regulatory updates to customized environments. After installing updates, the tool proposes a code merge for the new code into the higher layer customizations. It also adds all impacted code to a project so that you can review and correct the merge as needed.

We strive to be dependable and release these updates on a set schedule so that you can plan your efforts to uptake the enhancements. In addition to cumulative updates, we offer monthly releases that  include the latest compilation of updates for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 & R3. Read on to discover what’s included in the upcoming and current updates.

Updates for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Cummulative Update 9 (CU 9) is available now and includes the new LCS update experience. If you have an LCS project connected with your Dynamics AX 2012 R2 environment, updates will be easy to execute. From your LCS project environment, you’ll be able to select specific parts of R2 CU9 to install, based on their relevance to your business. In addition, you’ll be able to perform an impact analysis of each specific KB article, which can help you understand the work required in order to make a particular hot fix in a customized area of Dynamics AX.

Updates for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3

Our most recent release, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CU9, focuses both on improving product quality and delivering new capabilities for Retail, with new MPOS capabilities, and Call Center & Headquarters enhancements. For Warehouse Management Services and Transportation Management Services, we’ve enhanced features such as Warehouse mobile device, packing station, bill-of-lading, wave processing, and load planning workbench. Review our What’s new document for more detailed information.

Check back here often for information about what’s coming up for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CU10 along with news and announcements for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 versions.

Antonia Kha

In my conversations with customers, one of the key things I hear is how they are looking for technology that can keep pace with their business. They want solutions that give them the agility to change with their customer’s and market needs. For example retailer Pet Supplies Plus is gaining both more flexibility while lowering costs by putting their business infrastructure in the Microsoft cloud.   

Cloud has played a significant role in helping our customers keep up with this pace of change. With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 in 2014 and Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle services (LCS) in 2013, we are enabling our customers to use the power of the cloud to develop and test their business critical ERP solutions, helping them enter a new era of business applications in the cloud. Earlier this year, with the availability of Microsoft Azure D-Series Virtual Machines, we took the step of giving our customers the choice to directly deploy production instances for Dynamics AX on Azure utilizing LCS and giving them clear, predictable, repeatable implementation capabilities as well as significantly reducing their deployment times. As a result, to date, we have seen more than 15,000 Dynamics AX cloud VM deployments in Azure, a number that continues to grow daily.

To help our large enterprise customers and further accelerate Dynamics AX deployments and give even more deployment choice for Dynamics CRM on Azure, we are excited about the announcement of the global availability and introduction of a new variant of the powerful G-series class of servers called the GS-series that combine the compute power of G-series with the performance of Premium Storage to create incredibly powerful VMs for storage and compute intensive applications. The capabilities offered by the new GS-series give even more choice to our customers to deploy Dynamics AX on Microsoft Azure – capabilities such as supporting high volume transaction volumes to enable real-time inventory and BI capabilities that any global, world class enterprise requires to run their business critical applications. 

In addition, we are also enabling new ways for our customers to achieve incredible business agility by giving them the ability to leverage the elasticity of Azure. Specifically providing customers and partners tools and services to manage their environments efficiently in Azure through simple capabilities in LCS. We are doing this by providing a set of PowerShell scripts that leverage Azure Automation through Runbooks capabilities as the first step in this journey. We expect this elasticity will help our customers and partners that are doing dev/test on Azure to reduce their monthly costs by up to 69% or more and have environments ready for their developers or users when they need them instead of making them wait to spin them up.

We continue to help simplify our customers utilizing these new updates and advancements through LCS by planning to provide support for the deployment of the GS-series VMs by the end of September and the integration of the Runbooks capability into LCS by the end of November. And finally, to deliver the most value to our customers for their technology investments, starting October 1 2015, we are pleased to announce a reduction in the prices on D-series VMs by up to 27%.

All of today’s announcements demonstrate that we are taking the next major step in our journey to reinvent productivity and business processes for our customer and taking Dynamics on Azure to the next level.

Learn more about deploying Dynamics on Azure using LCS, here.

Christian Pedersen, General Manager Product Marketing

In the paper, Mr. Greenbaum explains how the next release of Microsoft Dynamics AX, running on the Microsoft Azure, positions cloud computing for a dramatic and meaningful shift. With a starting discussion of the long-standing customer promises and pain points with regard to ERP, Greenbaum explains the basics of our cloud offering and then describes the benefits to both partners and customers.            

“It’s clear that Microsoft has made some very crucial and highly strategic bets, when it comes to the combination of Dynamics AX 7, LCS, and Azure,” states Greenbaum. “ EAC believes that these bets have been extremely well-placed, and the uniqueness of the combination of these three offerings bodes well for Microsoft, its partners, and most important of all, its customers.”

Enjoy reading this preview of the next release of Microsoft Dynamics ‘AX 7’. We plan to release a public preview in this quarter and will provide more information about this release and the preview on this blog in the coming months.

Learn more

Download the white paper now!

Attend Microsoft Dynamics ‘AX 7’ sessions at WPC

/Dynamics Team

About Joshua Greenbaum

Joshua Greenbaum has more than 30 years of experience in the industry as a computer programmer, systems analyst, author, consultant, and industry analyst.

Redefing the potential of enterprise cloud computing WP final.pdf

Why join?

Get the features of Dynamics ‘AX 7’ before the general public!  But that’s not all.  When you join our Preview Program, you’ll also receive:

• Direct engagement opportunities with Microsoft, including contacts from Dynamics AX R&D, Solution Architecture, and Support
• Access to pre-release code and training (English only)
• Access to a private Yammer community, dedicated to customers sharing their experiences with Dynamics ‘AX 7’
• Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services, a Microsoft Azure-based collaboration portal that provides a unifying, collaborative environment along with a set of regularly updated services that help you manage the application lifecycle of your Microsoft Dynamics AX implementations.

How to join

To join our Preview Program, make sure you have all of the following:

• Your organization purchased Dynamics AX licenses
• Committed implementation team and sponsorship at your company
• A signed agreement with a Microsoft Dynamics channel partner, and a complete implementation plan that includes performance testing, end-user training, risks assessment, and so on.

Additionally, you’ll need to commit to going live within the timeframe that Microsoft requests as part of the Preview Program, and participate in a PR event with Microsoft, such as a press release, case study, or testimonial.

Sound good? Apply online: https://aka.ms/ax7tap

/Dynamics Team

Whether you’re new to the products or looking to enhance your knowledge, the Technical Conference provides a unique opportunity to connect and interact directly with the people that build Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Why attend?

This conference will help you:

Learn. Be inspired by Microsoft experts and your colleagues at sessions, labs, and deep dives created just for you.

Interact directly with the people who build Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, along with their colleagues from Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, Microsoft Social Listening, Office,Azure, Parature, SharePoint, BizTalk, Visual Studio and more.

Bring value to your business. Whether you are new to Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM or you’re looking to keep your edge by going deeper and staying up to date on the new enhancements, you’ll find targeted sessions that fit your needs. The opportunity to interact with peers and Microsoft experts will exist at all levels, so this is your chance to get access to information and expertise that you will rarely find anywhere!

Keynote Sessions

Join the entire group of conference attendees to get the big picture from Mike Ehrenberg, CTO of Microsoft Dynamics. Plus, hear from Jujhar Singh, GM of program management of CRM for Microsoft Dynamics CRM; Sri Srinivasan, GM for Microsoft Business Solutions Platform for Dynamics; and Dan Brown; General Manager in Microsoft Dynamics AX R&D.

General Sessions

Attend general sessions to get a product-centric view of the latest releases, including top strategies and a view of the road ahead for Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They will also help set the stage for what you’ll learn in the Breakout Sessions and Instructor-Led Labs.

Breakout Sessions

Always popular with attendees, you’ll love our 75-minute breakout sessions, which may include demos, and are always delivered by Microsoft Dynamics R&D team members who are ready to share their knowledge and expertise with you.

Instructor-led Labs

Looking for hands-on learning? Sign up for these sessions! Within the instructor-led labs, we pose business scenarios for you to solve and then offer alternatives for you to compare and analyze. Instructors will be present to provide solution guidance.

Deep Dive Sessions (additional fees)

Still want more? Register for the Deep Dive Sessions! Running after the main conference (Thursday, February 5 through Saturday, February 7), these highly focused, advanced workshops offer in-depth training on a specific topic areas, such as Warehouse Management System (WMS) in Retail  or Customer Service Enhancements for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These sessions require an additional fee and extension of your stay in Seattle through Saturday, February 7, 2015.

For more information

Check out the Session Catalog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/techconference/Session-Catalog.aspx

Register Today here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/techconference/

Tweet: Follow and retweet @MSFTDynamics on Twitter. Use the hashtag #DynTech2015

Shelly

In the November 2014 update to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, we showed our continued investments in retail and supply chain, with features that allow representatives to engage with customers on their terms across web, social, mobile, and in-store experiences. These changes also help companies run dynamic operations that deliver on promises made to customers. And, with Dynamics AX on Microsoft Azure, we show our commitment to the pervasive use of cloud services for business applications, which offers IT a way to positively impact business.  

Turning IT teams into assets

You can use the cloud to contribute to the flexibility and efficiency of a company or organization’s IT foundation while freeing up your team to focus on supporting new business initiatives. You can also help company leaders consider appropriate new models and processes that the cloud can efficiently support. For instance, expansion into new markets can easily be facilitated with a hyper-scalable, global cloud infrastructure. Costs of new business initiatives like this one become operational rather than capital and can be executed faster. More importantly, because the cloud essentially lets you outsource those operational tasks, such as the acquisition and maintenance of infrastructure, your team can better participate in growing and transforming the company.

While the cloud is often called a disruptive technology, your journey to the cloud should be anything but disruptive. Cloud infrastructure and services is easy to add to on-premises systems, and you can choose and change the mix of deployment scenarios in a hybrid environment over time. For example, if you have a multi-site, single instance on-premises ERP solution, you can:

• Extend that infrastructure by adding development and test environments in the cloud for specific projects.
• Reduce the risks of data loss by adding disaster recovery.
• Increase agility by supporting business operations in an emerging market with a cloud environment in addition to current on-premises deployment.   

To make it easy to deploy Dynamics AX on Microsoft Azure, we offer topologies through the Azure deployment portal in Lifecycle Services. Watch the demo and development/test topology. And, coming in 2015: a topology for a production environment. More information on Dynamics AX on Azure, you will find in the whitepaper.

Reimagining business applications through the cloud

The cloud computing conversation today often centers on reduction of costs and increased flexibility. We believe the cloud can do more than that. At Microsoft, we see the cloud as an opportunity to reimagine business applications that deliver rich experiences with services, information, and capabilities from cloud and on-premises solutions in ways that might seem impractical today. How can the cloud impact business processes and models? Read on.

Faster and easier deployment. Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) already provides a cloud-based collaborative workspace that customers and their partners can use to manage Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 implementations worldwide. We will continue to invest in LCS and provide a smooth journey from digital discovery through trials and test drives, sign-up and provisioning, simple deployment, and seamless technology updates. Because of the cloud technology, the rules rules-based engine that LCS uses to check customizations can be updated more frequently. Plus, learnings from support can be made available as a best practice to organizations worldwide rapidly.

Empower a mobile workforce. The cloud also enables a distributed workforce to be more productive and connected. In this release, we have enabled an easy and security-enhanced communication between apps on modern devices through the Azure service bus and Dynamics AX.

Predictive analytics. In a world where sensors and big data provide a richness of information, empower employees by combining these with the structured information in the business application in order to provide better customer experiences and therefore become more profitable. At Convergence in Barcelona the food retailer JJ Food Services shared how they are using Microsoft Azure Machine Learning services and Dynamics AX to predict the customer’s next purchase to minimize the time spent on the website as well as an increase in order volume. JJ Food Services combines click-stream analysis with historical transaction data from the business application to predict the next order.

But you can take this even further. Use these cloud-based technologies to help sales and marketing teams to find new channels and connect with new customers. Let product development rethink products and services and shift the portfolio to digital services.

What’s behind this cloud innovation? To enables new business scenarios, we are extending the integration currently available with our leading business and productivity applications, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Office 365, and services from Microsoft Azure SQL Database, the Internet of Things, and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning.

Learn more. Watch the Convergence general session for more to hear how other organizations like Carrefour and Kodak Alaris use the cloud to ready their organization for future challenges. If you want to share real-life examples about organizations using Dynamics AX and the cloud, please let me know. I would love to continue this dialogue.

Stay tuned for more …….

Christian
Pedersen

With this update, we continue investments in retail and supply chain to enable individuals in organizations to engage with customers on their terms across web, social, mobile and in-store experiences and run dynamic operations that
deliver on promises made to customers.

The update is now available to download in Lifecycle services. Find installation instructions here

Retail

As part of the retail domain updates, we are providing with a new, modern point-of-sale (mPOS) application for Windows-based tablets and Windows Phone devices. This new mPOS client will help store associates with customer insights at their fingertips in order to better engage with them. It includes support for connected and disconnected mode to ensure uptime and the support of offline scenarios.

In addition, Retail customers receive:

• Support for hardware stations that includes natively integrated device peripherals, such as printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners.  This means that multiple store associates and devices can work on a single station, which lowers total costs and increases the flexibility in scheduling store associates.  
• In addition to the preconfigured SharePoint-based eCommerce solution, we plan to release controls for the publishing and check-out experiences to be used with other eCommerce solutions, Payment SDK additions, and enhancements to Retail essentials that simplify the configuration of store operations are released as part of this update.

 illustration 1: Screen shot modern POS

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management updates enhancements include:

• Warehouse Management—now offering support for additional scenarios, such as Product Variants in the warehouse, Partial and batch reservations, and x-docking of packages and handling of retail kits. 
• Transportation Management—now with order consolidation automation into shipments, which will facilitate the handling of large numbers of orders. In addition, we make it easier to set accessorial fuel charges and shipping constraints.

Find more information about the SCM team blog here.

Other enhancements

HCM and FSM module updates include the following: 

• For US only, the Payroll capabilities include support for retroactive pay for both regular rate of pay and premium pay calculations. Support for benefits accrual by hour, lump sum, or comp time; support for Family and Medical Leave Act; and improvements to the Employee self-service portal.
• Simplification of vendor registration and better RFQ change management and notification in addition to ACS authentication of vendor account users.
• Ability to create vendor invoices for one-time vendors without creating a Purchase Order.

  Illustration 2: New Lifecycle services landing page

Lifecycle Services

In October, we released many important updates for Lifecycle Services, including some much-anticipated new features to aid in predictable, automated, and proactive implementations and sales. These included a new landing page and an update on the implementation methodology automation (including Sure Step), Business Process Modeler, the addition of Copy system configurations, cloud power support updates, and more. More info to come in a separate blog!

Find more information from LCS team blog here.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2013

Microsoft Dynamics AX development tools will soon be upgraded to Microsoft Visual Studio 2013!

If you are running, developing, or are planning to start development on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, you can soon use the latest Visual Studio integrated development environment to develop for Dynamics AX 2012 R3. You’ll ave time and resources by moving your Microsoft Dynamics AX development environment to Visual Studio 2013.

Find more information here.

Learn more at Convergence 2014 Europe:

From Nov 4-6, Microsoft hosted Convergence 2014 Europe in Barcelona, Spain. Learn in detail about Microsoft Dynamics solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 and the upcoming updates. Find details on the website. If you couldn’t attend in person, Virtual Convergence is available including recorded sessions.

 /Moises

Footnote: Additional information on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 on Microsoft.com/dynamics/ax, including full system requirements, product localization and language availability and what’s new. To follow regular product news and updates, visit our Microsoft Dynamics AX product blog.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 is the realization of the Microsoft Dynamics for Retail omni-channel vision. The new release puts people first – built on a single commerce engine that can create a complete omni-channel experience, Microsoft Dynamics for Retail is already helping businesses like Delta Air Lines, Eason & Sons, Jack Wolfskin and Ted Baker deliver amazing experiences that make their customers happy. Other retailers such as Ashley Furniture and Jean Coutu Group Inc. selected the solution to take their businesses into the future.

The new capabilities in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 include significant enhancements and new functionality:

• Mobility – This includes immersive mobile experiences anywhere, anytime, on any device, enabling retailers to enhance shopping and store experiences. For example, a sales associate can use the modern POS to see customers’ wish lists that were created online and purchase history, and then extend that conversation in-store. They can also manage inventory at the POS.
• Catalog and Call Center sales – This is a new capability that targets customers via mail order catalogs and streamlines operations through fast order entry, assisted sales, and fulfillment.
• E-commerce and Social – This new functionality empowers retailers to offer consumers omni-channel shopping experiences, spanning various online channels as well as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Excellence in Retail Operations – This enables retailers to optimize their daily channel and corporate operations through functionality like kitting, pricing and promotions enhancements, assortment and catalog improvements, global gift card and loyalty cards, not to mention rich BI and reporting improvements.
• Enterprise manageability enhancements include mass deployment capability for centralized initial deployment as well as deploying updates to a large number of stores and devices using System Center Configuration Manager. Enhancements also include centralized monitoring capability to monitor the state and health of the Retail topology, as well as centralized troubleshooting capabilities using System Center Operations Manager. Learn more and try out the management pack here.
• Retail Essentials is a simplified configuration option for less complex retail environments focused on physical store locations.

Modern POS

Microsoft Dynamics for Retail: delivering a complete shopping experience

At the heart of every successful business are the people who make things happen. And at the heart of Retail are the interactions between those people and the customers they serve – the interactions that make all the difference in building loyalty and delivering on brand promise.  Microsoft Dynamics designs modern business solutions to exceed the expectations of today and embrace the opportunities of tomorrow. Watch the “Ready for What’s Next” video here.

Ready to dive in and learn more?

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics for Retail:

• Join us at Convergence EMEA 2014, 4-6 November in Barcelona. Click here for more info.
• Visit our webpage
• Check out the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 “What’s New” digital brochure on the Microsoft Dynamics AX webpage.

In August, 2014, MS Press published “Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3,” which is designed to help ease this learning curve. This book is the latest edition in the popular “Inside” series, has been updated for Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

Whether you are a developer who is just learning or an experienced developer who wants to delve deeply "under the hood", this book will give you lots of detailed information. For example, new developers can benefit from a comprehensive tour of the development environment, and experienced developers can find detailed information about performance tuning and how to deploy and customize the prebuilt BI solution that is included with the product.

With “Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3,” you can get an insider’s view of the developer toolset and runtime in Dynamics AX 2012 R3:

• Dig into the architecture and internals—with firsthand insights from the team that designed and developed it.
• Deepen your knowledge of the underlying frameworks, components, and tools—and deliver custom ERP applications with the extensibility and performance that your business needs.

Useful for solution developers of all levels, this guide will provide maximum benefit to those who understand OOP, relational databases, and Transact-SQL concepts. “Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3” offers comprehensive developer information in a single place, in addition to content you won’t find anywhere else.

You will also learn best practices and techniques to:

• Work effectively with MorphX tools and X++ code
• Use LINQ to access and manipulate data via managed code
• Plan and customize your reporting and prebuilt BI solutions
• Know how AX 2012 implements security, licensing, and configuration
• Implement process automation, including batch jobs and print management
• Test and optimize application performance
• Delve deeper into application frameworks and models
• Develop mobile apps for AX 2012

To get a preview of the book, check out the sample chapters at the MS Press Store and click the Sample Content to view “Developing companion apps for AX 2012 R3” and “The MorphX development environment and tools.” The book is available for purchase from retailers.

For more information about this book and other Microsoft Press news, see the Microsoft Press blog.

If you are evaluating Dynamics AX 2012 R3 and want to see a comprehensive overview of all new and updated features, see “What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3”.

Whether they plan to expand domestically, internationally or both, it often results in increased complexity and competitive nature of their business environments, requiring them to use available resources more efficiently and effectively.

At the same time, the number and complexity of regulatory requirements continues to increase. Performance expectations, increasing stakeholder demands, and changing market conditions are forcing business leaders to search for cost-effective ways to enforce compliance adoption without jeopardizing organizational agility and business growth.

Microsoft Dynamics AX can help address the change and complexity involved in meeting compliance regulations as a result of globalization.

International Reporting Standards – a global standard format

In order to maintain consistency and comparability of reporting financial results of global organizations, International Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been designed and implemented across the world as a standard format for companies to report their financial results in an easily understandable and comparable nature.

The globalization of business and finance has led to the adoption of the standards by more than 12,000 companies. IFRS and accounting determinations are replacing many different national accounting standards to maintain consistency and comparability for global investors.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Microsoft developed a white paper together to explain how Microsoft Dynamics AX can help organizations appropriately use and apply the IFRS.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Support for IFRS white paper

Microsoft Dynamics AX helps organizations with compliance initiatives

While the dimensions of IFRS and Sarbanes-Oxley are far reaching and can be complicated, we’ve built Microsoft Dynamics AX to help organizations meet these obligations. The compliance and audit features offer a way to enforce compliance in a consistent, cost-effective way, while streamlining business processes and improving efficiency across the organization.

Other capabilities that can help organizations support their compliance initiatives are the ability to define and share any number of chart of accounts, fiscal calendars, and currencies. In Microsoft Dynamics AX the general ledger for a company or legal entity defines a combination of a specific chart of accounts, a fiscal calendar, and the functional and reporting currency. For organizations that have foreign operations, for example, overseas subsidiaries, branches or associates that maintain their accounting records in their local currency Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports expressing foreign currency transactions in the entity’s functional currency.

Learn more

I’m happy to share the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Support for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) white paper with you today. For more information please visit:

• International Financial Reporting Standards and Microsoft Dynamics AX web page (requires Partner Source/Customer Source access)
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 launch page

//Yvonne Haarloev

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Dynamics ERP