hariprasadp: Dynamics AX 4.0 Takes Step Toward Unified ERP

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Источник: http://hariprasadp.spaces.live.com/B...B91F!128.entry
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Microsoft launched Dynamics AX 4.0 in USA, a new release of the ERP system that's used by thousands of manufacturers and distributors, and which formerly went by the name Axapta. With this release, Microsoft has made solid strides in breaking up the monolithic structure of the ERP product and offering smaller pieces of functionality via Web services. AX 4.0 also moves farther away from Axapta's proprietary roots and makes greater use of Microsoft's middleware stack, including SQL Server and SharePoint Server.
With Dynamics AX 4.0 Microsoft has delivered a stepping stone between Axapta's past and the future of Microsoft's Dynamics ERP strategy. This is the first new version of the Axapta product line in 2.5 years, and the first major release of the product since Microsoft announced plans to eventually merge its four ERP product lines. What happens to Axapta is important, not only because it's used by 6,100 customers--second in customer base only to Dynamics GP (Great Plains)--but also because it's considered to be Microsoft's most sophisticated ERP product and the one with the best chance of challenging the tier-one ERP providers as they attack the midsize business accounts.
One of the most significant steps Microsoft has taken with AX 4.0 is the standardization of the business intelligence and reporting functionality. With this release, AX users are directed to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services when they need to access, create, or view reports. Not all reports have been migrated from Axapta's proprietary X++ development language, but the bulk of them have, says Joe Gulino, the ERP practice director at Green Beacon Solutions, a Boston systems integrator with an AX practice and more than a dozen Axapta customers.
AX 4.0 features user interface enhancements, too. While the product previously featured hooks into Office products, the user interface has been redesigned to look much more like an Office product. "It's more Office-like," he says. "Users used to using Office--I don't want to say everyone, but it's pretty close--will be very familiar with the user interface of AX."
The product's portal environment is another area where Microsoft has made a big improvement. In previous releases, users were stuck within the Axapta portal environment, which left something to be desired from an interoperability perspective. "I don't want to say it was proprietary, but it was confining," Gulino says. With AX 4.0, users can access their ERP screens as Web Parts within a SharePoint Portal environment.
The new version also introduces a Web services facility, called the Application Integration Framework (AIF). This interface allows developers to expose parts of AX 4.0 as Web services, and also to consume Web services exposed by other applications within the AX 4.0 environment. The company hasn't exposed all of the ERP suite's functionality as Web services yet--Microsoft only mentioned receiving and order fulfillment in its announcement, as well as an RSS feed for pushing time-sensitive information out to employees. But there is more Web services functionality within AX 4.0 than the version 3 release of the product, which was completely closed to Web services. In the future, Microsoft's plans call for offering practically all AX capabilities via Web services.
A new adapter for BizTalk Server 2006 is also included in AX 4.0. This adapter will connect AX 4.0 with other ERP systems, including those from SAP and Oracle, Microsoft says. Microsoft is also talking about new security features that make greater use of roles to segregate information in AX 4.0. This release also features security enhancements aimed toward ensuring compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, IAS/FRS, the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11, and new European laws.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is another area of improvement in AX 4.0. RFID is replacing barcodes in some supply chain applications, in particular the consumer goods and hardlines supply chains--both areas where the Axapta product line has been adopted--so RFID support should be welcomed among AX 4.0 users, particularly as RFID trickles down to the mid-market, which is where Axapta is strongest.
"Using Dynamics, you can now create business mash-ups, snapping together Web-based services into custom rapid solutions," he says. "Dynamics server and service capabilities are also made available directly in Outlook, or through remixable technologies, such as RSS. Our approach to other forms of enterprise IT infrastructure will be similarly flexible, in the areas of e-mail related services, collaboration services, or communication services.
AX 4.0 has already been put to use by customers participating in Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program (TAP). These customers include Russell Athletic, Best Water Technology Group, and Optiroc. The software is available now--either as a shrink-wrapped product or delivered as a service over the Web--in North America, and will be localized and launched in Europe and Asia-Pacific markets later in the year.
Product pricing has not changed. Although the company announced plans several months ago to move to a user-based pricing model with AX 4.0, the company is apparently still using a combination of user-based and module-based pricing.




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Источник: http://hariprasadp.spaces.live.com/B...B91F!128.entry