Entries tagged with dynamics ax - Channel 9

End of week overview of Dynamics Communities event

John O'Donnell — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:22:00 GMT

During the week of September 14th the Dynamic Communities team ran a successful event in Illinois focusing on Dynamics CRM, Dynamics GP, Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV. I met with two of the organizers to get their feedback at the end of the week.

If you work with a Microsoft Dynamics product and are not part of a user group consider joining a group at http://www.dynamiccommunities.com/

The opportunity to network with your Microsoft Dynamics peers is one not to be missed.

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Peter Villadsen and Gustavo Plancarte: X++ to MSIL

Charles — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Dynamics Program Manager Peter Villadsen and Software Developer Gustavo Plancarte teach us about a new tool they've developed that translates X++ byte code into MSIL. We learn a lot of history along the way and gain insights into the process of taking X++ into the .NET age.

Microsoft Dynamics features a proprietary language called X++ (basically a superset of Java, with some strong data primitives added) and a complete stack (compiler, interpreter and debugger) that goes with it. The new feature Peter and team have developed is a tool to generate managed code from the X++ intermediate language produced by the X++ compiler. This will have profound impact on the performance of the business applications written in X++, and it very clearly points to where they'll be going in the next few releases of Dynamics Ax.

Tune in.

FY09 Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: Avalara

Sanjay Jain — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:07:00 GMT

In this FY09 Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one…

During Convergence 2009, I got an opportunity to sit down with Marshal Kushniruk EVP of Strategic Accounts and Customer Experience, Mark Wilhelm VP Development, and Bryan Wiggins VP Marketing from Avalara, provider of AvaTax, on-demand sales tax compliance services. Learn more about AvaTax for Microsoft Dynamics AX here.

Prior Stories:

· LinkPoint360

· Bottomline Technologies

· Hoovers

· LeadTime Techonology

· Pervasive Software

· Celenia Software

· MaxQ

· Parature

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

FY09 Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: Bottomline Technologies

Sanjay Jain — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:48:00 GMT

During Convergence 2009, I got an opportunity to sit down with Karl Taylor from Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY), provider of collaborative payment, invoice and document automation solutions to corporations, financial institutions and banks around the world. You can learn about the Create!Form for Microsoft Dynamics and see the Create!form for Microsoft Dynamics AX Demo.

Prior Stories:
* Hoovers
* LeadTime Techonology
* Celenia Software
* MaxQ
* Parature

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

FY09 Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: LeadTime Technology

Sanjay Jain — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:09:00 GMT

During Convergence 2009, I got an opportunity to sit down with Mike Bonelli, President, LeadTime Technology , leader in optimization model for Forecasting, Production Planning, Distribution Planning, and Scheduling. Recently LeadTime Technology announced partnership with Fullscope to Strengthen APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) Offering for Process Manufacturers. See the earlier announcement on FastForward, advanced planning and optimization tools suite for small to mid-sized manufacturers and distributors.

Prior Stories:
* Pervasive Software
* Celenia Software
* MaxQ
* Parature

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

Sreencast : Deploying EP in NLB configuration

Diwakar Bedekar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Here is a screencast done by Anunay Kumar (Test on Enterprise Portal team in Redmond) . This screencast walks through the steps involved in configuring Enterprise Portal on a NLB web farm.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 AIF Web Services Screencast

Sanjay Jain — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:51:00 GMT

Application Integration Framework (AIF) enables companies to integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and communicate with external business processes and partners through the exchange of XML over various transport media. AIF enables both business-to-business and application-to-application integration scenarios.

Following enhancements are new in AX 2009
* Create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations are now supported.
* The programming model for AIF supports document services that encapsulate business logic and are the interface to external systems.
* AIF provides functionality for consuming external Web services from within X++.
* Performance improvements include the ability to scale up and handle more messages through parallel message processing and the addition of multiple AOSs.
* New document services for additional commonly-used documents.

Additional Resources:
* Microsoft Releases Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, June, 2008
* AIF Overview
* What's New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 for Developers
* WCF and AIF in Dynamics 2009: Chatting with Michael Merz, PM for AIF (Video Interview by Ben Riga)
* Microsoft Dynamics AX receives placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant
* Download Pre-Sales Demonstration Toolkit For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - Refresh 1 (Need PartnerSource Access)

Sanjay Jain
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://Blogs.msdn.com/SanjayJain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SanjayJain369

10 MorphX tricks in 10 minutes

mfp — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:40:00 GMT

This screencast shows 10 small demos that will make you more efficient as a MorphX / X++ developer.

It turned out to be almost 20 minutes; so you'll have to play it at double speed to see it all in 10 minutes. :-)

Interview and demonstration of Dynamics AX 2009 snap-ins with Merit Solutions

John O'Donnell — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:18:00 GMT

In this video I talked with Bill Burke and Nenad Simeunovic of Merit Solutions and learned about their snap-in product for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

Product Demonstration starts at time index - 8:10

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Interview and demonstration with ExactShip and Dynamics CRM

John O'Donnell — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:41:00 GMT

ExactShip gives you the ability to ship products directly from solutions like Dynamics CRM, Dynamics GP and Dynamics AX. As the guys from ExactShip say, everyone ships!

See more product demonstrations at http://www.exactship.com/msdynamics

Product Demonstration starts at time index - 9:29

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Transcensus Interview and Demonstration - Deliver easy training with SHO Guide

John O'Donnell — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:56:00 GMT

Just before Convergence 2009 wrapped up I caught up with Dan Higbee and Dan Peay from www.transcensus.com and talked with them about their solution for delivering application help. In this video we show it running with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online but it can also be used with Microsoft Office applications, Dynamics or any application developed using Microsoft .NET.

Product Demonstration starts at time index - 5:45

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Parature- Integrating CRM for customer support solution

Suresh Sreedharan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:08:00 GMT

Channel Manager Heather Pertel and Chief Software Architect Matt Walnock of Parature explain how they use Microsoft technology for their customer support solution. The team explains to Larry Gregory, Director of why they use Windows Communication Foundation and how Dynamics CRM is a good fit in the future direction of their product line. For more information, see Windows Communication Foundation and Dynamics CRM.

http://www.parature.com/

Overview and demonstration of Cast Iron Systems Application Integration and Migration Solution

John O'Donnell — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:15:00 GMT

While in Mountain View, CA I had the pleasure of visiting Cast Iron Systems and talking about their hardware and cloud based solution for data migration and integration. Chandar also did a great demonstration of the solution with Dynamics CRM and Dynamics GP.

Overview starts at time index - 4:01
Demonstration starts at time index - 14:23

More information about the solution can be found here -http://www.castiron.com/integration-solutions/ms-dynamics/index.html

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Demonstration of Cincom Acquire Product Configurator in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

John O'Donnell — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:05:00 GMT

In this interview, Rick Wood and Jim Wilson of Cincom Acquire talk to me about their product configurator solution and how it can be used to configure simple to very complex product packages. In addition Jim shows us the solution working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online which starts at time index 8:44. This solution is also available for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

More information about the solution can be found here - http://www.cincomacquire.com/product-configurator-for-microsoft-dynamics.html

Cincom Acquire will at booth #300 at Convergence.

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Interview with Bill Knapp and Scott Mills of vSync

John O'Donnell — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:52:00 GMT

In this interview, Bill Knapp and Scott Mills of Vsync (http://www.vsync.com) talk about their companies work on the Dynamics ERP platforms of Dynamics GP and Dynamics AX and also talk about their new product - vSync EDI for Dynamics AX 2009 - http://www.vsync.com/Portals/0/Documents/solutionsAX/AX_EDI_TNL.pdf

vSync will at booth #607 at Convergence.

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green

Ben Riga — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:30:00 GMT

I couldn’t help but think about the old Kermit the frog tune while chatting with Jennifer Pollard (Product Manager) and Neil Huizenga (Software Developer) last week about the new Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Dynamics AX. While many organizations are doing everything possible to reduce their carbon footprint and improve the efficiency of the resources that they do use, it is often difficult to measure progress. With the recent economic downturn and pressures to report emission, the environmental sustainability dashboard helps organizations to run their business more efficiently as well as fund ongoing green efforts.

Jennifer talks about Microsoft’s commitment to the environment including making ourselves greener by reducing our carbon footprint and partnering with governmental and non-governmental (NGOs) organizations to to address larger global environmental issues. At the heart of this is technology.

The Environment Sustainability Dashboard is a part of that commitment. The Dynamics AX team has heard from our clients that they are feeling the pressure to report whether that’s for regulatory reasons or for reasons related to the greening of supply chains.

Jennifer shows us a great demo of how this dashboard built into Dynamics AX as a role center takes advantage of SQL Server Analysis and Reporting Services within SharePoint Web Parts. Out of the box the product provides 4 web parts showing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, actual energy costs and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPIs are based on Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines v3.0 (aka G3 Indicators); the de facto standards in this area. With this product a process as simple as paying an energy bill becomes an opportunity to capture information about energy consumption and as a result the ability to calculate the related greenhouse gas emissions.

Jennifer makes the point that “if you can measure it, you can manage it” and shows a couple of scenarios where being able to monitor energy consumption puts organizations in control of that consumption in order to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

There’s a huge demand right now for partners and developers with knowledge in both environmental and ERP systems. The dashboard comes with just a few web parts leaving open the opportunity for developers to build this out much further (for example with water and waste consumption). Neil shows us how simple it is for a developer to dive into the Dynamics AX Application Object Tree (AOT) and modify the metadata in order to customize the system in just about any direction.

So yeah, I guess we did just make it a bit easier to be more green. Sorry about that, Kermit.

Related Resources:

Environmental Sustainability Dashboard product page
- Download (requires PartnerSource login)
Microsoft’s Environment home page

Dynamics AX Version Control

Ben Riga — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:18:00 GMT

While at the Convergence conference a while back I bumped into Michael Fruergaard Pontoppidan (Principal SDE) and Morten Jensen (Program Manager) from the Dynamics AX team. Both Michael and Morten are based at the Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen (MDCC) and have worked on Dynamics AX since the first release.

Morten and Michael worked on the version control feature in Dynamics AX. I more or less dragged them over to a table at the conference and grilled them on how it all works.

In AX 4 we first introduced version control with integration to SourceSafe. In AX 2009, we introduced Team Foundation Server (TFS) support as well as a MorphX VCS a low –end home-brew version control. Michael walks us through the MorphX VCS feature showing how it integrates Check In/Check Out functionality directly into AX environment. MorphX VCS is included with Dynamics AX. The target for this low-end VCS is VARs maintaining numerous client system customizations on the same code base.

Version Control is just one leg of the Dynamics AX team’s commitment to Engineering Excellence. They’ve also integrated unit testing and best practices policy enforcement. The Dynamics AX team uses this integration themselves integrating with Source Depot (an internal Microsoft versioning system). They are looking at moving to TFS.

Interview with Richard Barnett of Kineticsware

John O'Donnell — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:14:00 GMT

In this interview, Richard Barnett of Kineticsware (http://www.kineticsware.com) talked to us about his company and the work his team has been doing with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 which was released earlier this year.

Enjoy the show!

John O'Donnell Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde
http://channel9.msdn.com/Wiki/DynamicsCRM/HomePage/

WCF and AIF in Dynamics 2009: Chatting with Michael Merz

Ben Riga — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:56:00 GMT

In this video I’m back on the Advanta campus chatting with Michael Merz, Program Manager for Application Integration Framework (AIF) on the Dynamics AX team.

AIF is a standards-based framework that allows you to publish and consume web services. It’s used primarily in integration scenarios when connecting Dynamics AX with other systems. AX also has .NET Business Connector (BC.NET) for integrating with .NET applications. BC.NET is more for client side integration. AIF is all about web services and is completely standards-based. Under the covers AIF takes full advantage of .NET using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). For more complex integration scenarios AIF can also help expose services using MSMQ and BizTalk.

With Dynamics AX 2009, the team ships a bunch of services (about 60 out of the box) that are ready for use. That includes, for example, the more common scenarios like integration with sales orders or customers. AIF allows you to create, read, update and delete those sales orders while maintaining the integrity of the database (i.e. without directly touching the database at all). This is done independent of the transport so when developing you could begin by updating via http and later switch to MSMQ. This can be as simple as enabling the service then “generating” which generates the WCF interface (i.e. WSDL). That web service is then available to be consumed by any standards-based client (including apps written in php, java and naturally any of the languages in Visual Studio). You can also configure the service endpoints to change the binding or authentication parameters.

In the video, Michael walks us through using a standard Excel Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) project to consume a AX 2009 sales order service that is exposed using AIF. He also shows us how, by using WS-Addressing in the WCF headers, you can pass a target company for a web service call. By default, AX limits error messages coming back from the server for security reasons. Michael shows us how to configure AX to propagate those errors when you need to see them.

Dynamics AX is a rich platform for supply chain management and financials. AIF opens up AX so that ISVs can build on that richness by integrating their own applications. Sometimes when you do that you need to consume a web service exposed by external applications. We see here how you can plug external web services into the AX processes. In this case, Michael shows us how when trying to create a customer in Dynamics AX with a name that has been blacklisted by the US government (“Bin Laden”, for instance. Yikes! :) ) the customer create process calls out to an external web service in the cloud to verify the customer name. This seamless integration of external processes is a boon for ISVs that need those deep integration points. Michael explains how. In order to do this sort of integration you build a Service Reference in the Application Object Tree (AOT) to provide the parameters. AX takes care of much of work by generating the artifacts (compilation, deploying, bundling etc) that are deployed and executed on the server. CLR interop is available in order to use .NET DLLs and their classes.

Some code samples are available here:

Application Integration Framework Overview (MSDN)
Calling the Customer and Vendor Services (Dianne Siebold)

Reporting and Analytics in Dynamics AX 2009

Ben Riga — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:14:00 GMT

I spent some time with Manoj Nuthakki on the Dynamics team chatting about how we take full advantage of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) in the recently released Dynamics AX 2009. AX 2009 ships with 10 SSAS cubes out of the box so includes tons of prebuilt KPIs and reports all built on the SQL Server BI platform.

Manoj walks us through how reports and charts are built in Visual Studio including conditional formating or custom business logic in C# while pulling metadata and data directly out of AX. The reports are easily put into the AX 2009 rich desktop client and the enterprise portal web client (built on SharePoint). With the role center integration a developer can build reports, charts and KPIs that appear only for the appropriate roles. Since AX is an international product, localization is built right in.

Hal Howard, Mike Ehrenberg, Sukumar Rathnam chat about Dynamics AX 2009

Ben Riga — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:23:00 GMT

Last week the Dynamics AX team announced general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. While the team was basking in the glow of a job well done I grabbed a few folks for a chat. In this Channel 9 video I sit down with Hal Howard, Mike Ehrenberg and Sukumar Rathnam. Hal is the General Manager for Dynamics ERP (he runs the R&D for all ERP products at Microsoft). Mike is senior architect for the entire Dynamics team. He’s also a Microsoft Distinguished Engineer. Sukumar is Architect for Dynamics AX.

In our short chat we talk about a lot of different topics. Of course, Dynamics AX is an ERP product and there are numerous new features for customers using the product (literally hundreds of new features actually). For this chat we focused completely on the ISV and SI developer experience. Dynamics AX 2009 takes a major step forward in integrating itself into the Microsoft stack. That includes deep integration of web services with Windows Communication Foundation, process workflow with Windows Workflow Foundation, storage, reporting and business intelligence with SQL Server, a brand new role-tailored user experience in either a rich client built entirely in .NET or a web client built entirely in SharePoint/ASP.NET, and finally tight integration of unified communication with Office Communication Server/Office Communicator. I definitely need to dive into some of these in more detail. Look for more Ch9 videos on these topics soon.

I think Sukumar said it best: “Grab Windows Server 2008; Go get SQL Server 2008; Get Visual Studio 2008, Add AX 2009 and go party with it. Go write some code.”

Version control in MorphX

mfp — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:40:00 GMT

This screencast is a preview of the version control system integration options in the next release of MorphX - the IDE of Dynamics AX.

It shows a side-by-side comparison of the integration options with Team Foundation Server, Visual Source Safe, and MorphX VCS.

The latter is a simple, yet powerful alternative without any additional infrastructure requirements. The last half of the screencast gives a demonstration of MorphX VCS.