This week’s book club suggestion will set you back $0.99, is a whopping 6 pages long which will probably take you about 3 minutes to read (if you read as slow as I do), and it’s also written about Great Plains. I think that it also creates a new book category of ERP Pulp Fiction by showcasing all of the Microsoft technologies though a quick and trashy novel full of secret agents, spy missions, and accountants. Read More
Wouldn’t it be nice to come into work in the morning, open up Dynamics AX, and see everything that you could possibly want to see in one place? It may seem like a pipe dream, but not really. Dynamics AX has a feature called the Role Center that will do this and more for you, without even breaking a sweat.
In this walkthrough we will give you an overview of the Role Centers, how you can tweak the standard ones that come out of the box, and also how you can add additional features that may make your life a little easier. Read More
The week’s book suggestion comes from a colleague, and is all about AX Security.
This is a good reference book with useful nuggets of how-to information. AX security configuration can be confusing and this guidebook provides a nice go-to source of information. Read More
The weeks book suggestion is for those of you that have read Dale Carnegie’s book and want to move on to the advanced class. Although we not look down on those of you that just want to skip making friends, and decide to read this book instead.
This book pulls in examples from all of the great seducers in history, including figures from the Renaissance like Casanova, Madam Bovary, Don Juan, & Cleopatra.
Don’t be ashamed to admit that we are all in the business of seduction. Not necessarily the Fifty Shades of Gray version, but more of the having customers fall in love with us for our expertise, and not wanting us to leave, or in the case of sales, wanting us to stay. Read More
In this edition of the book club, I thought that I would focus on a book called “The Big Switch”. This is an interesting book because it talks about how all technology moves through the same phases where they are introduced, someone makes a lot of money off them because they own the market space, and then the technology becomes more of a commodity that is commonplace. The examples that he uses in the book range from water wheels, to electricity, and then to software, and that companies like Google are the leading wave because they are commoditizing technologies for the masses through services.
Why is this important to us? Because it implies that the business software is heading much the same way. And every now and then we see this mentality in the market place when customers and prospects have the impression that all ERP systems are comparable. This means that they are then making decisions based on price rather than on functionality, service, fit and quality.
If you get a chance, take a look at this book – and also Nicolas Carr’s other book – “Does IT Matter”. It’s interesting – even though I don’t agree with where he ends up.
| The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas CarrPublication Date: Jan 19, 2009 |
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Although Dynamics AX is not a complete new product development and formulation system since it does not calculate nutritional details, or perform least cost formulation, it does allow you to manage all of your product, costs, formulations, nutritional detailed etc. Additionally it has a lot of capabilities to help you manage the NPD and NPI process so that the process is a lot smoother.
In this example, I will show an example of how you can use Cases, Workflow, and Projects within Dynamics AX to manage all of the New Product Development/Introduction process. Read More
For all of you that are waiting for a book on Dynamics AX 2012 that is useful, and that isn’t written by Scott Campbell, then put on your clubbing clothes, because it’s time to celebrate.
Last week, Microsoft released a new book for Dynamics AX.
This book won’t help you with registering picking lists within AX, but it does have 738 pages of information around programming, architecture, portal & workflow development, business intelligence, and even ERD’s, and is a great fallback option when you can’t get hold of Chris Hoer or Chris Dragon.
| Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by The Microsoft Dynamics AX TeamPublication Date: November 2012 |
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It’s already given me a number of ideas on new extensions to make for demonstrations. I’m sure that it will inspire some of you all to create something cool as well.
Cases within Dynamics AX 2012 are a great way to track issues and complaints throughout the organization. Case management may be linked to prospects, customers, vendors, products, transactions and more, and incorporate activities, process management and workflow capabilities.
In this worked example we will show how you can use cases to track consumer complaints. Read More
In our line of business, people skills are essential. It’s a cruel fact that sometimes, you may have the best product or service for the customer, but if they don’t like you, it’s a hard road to travel to get them to let you help them.
So this week’s book club post is focused on the first ever bestselling self-help book in history. How to Win Friends and Influence People was published in 1936, it has sold 15 million copies. It just shows that people skills never go out of date. Read More
I don’t know about you all, but I have a common affliction called TCOK (The Curse Of Knowledge – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge). I expect everyone to know as much about something as I know, so I am always trying to make myself remember that a lot of the things that I show in demonstrations may be completely new to my audience, and I need to ratchet the explanations back a little so that customers and prospects can follow me. Read More
A Tinkerers Notebook 