Microsoft Dynamics AX is one of Microsoft's enterprise resource planning software products.
It is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family.
History Microsoft Dynamics AX was originally developed
as a collaboration between IBM and Danish Damgaard Data as IBM Axapta.
Axapta was initially released in March 1998 in the Danish and U.S. markets.
IBM returned all rights in the product to Damgaard Data shortly after the release of
Version 1.5 before Damgaard Data was merged with Navision Software A/S in 2000.
The combined company, initially NavisionDamgaard, later Navision A/S, was acquired by Microsoft
in July 2002.
In September 2011, Microsoft announced the release of new version AX 2012.
Today, it is available and supported in 25 countries and 23 languages.
Development Centers MDCC or Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen
was once the primary development center for Dynamics AX.
MDCC is located in Vedbæk and also houses Microsoft Dynamics NAV and several other Microsoft
Dynamics family products.
MDCC employs about 900 people of around 40 different nationalities.
In addition to MDCC, AX development is now performed in two additional sites in Bellevue,
Washington and Fargo, North Dakota.
Features Microsoft Dynamics AX contains 19 core modules:
Traditional core General Ledger, composed of ledger, sales
tax, currency and fixed assets features Bank Management, where cash is received and
paid out Customer Relationship Management, where Business
Relations are contacted and maintained Accounts Receivable, where orders are entered,
shipped and invoiced Accounts Payable, where purchase orders are
issued and goods received into inventory Inventory Management, where Inventory is valued
and managed Master Planning, where purchase and production
planning takes place Production, where bill of materials is defined
and manufacturing is tracked Product Builder, where product models are
created and maintained Human Resources, where employee information
is kept Project Accounting, where projects are created
and tracked primarily from an accounting perspective Basic, where data configuration is performed
Administration Module, where system configuration is performed
Procurement and Sourcing Sales and Marketing
AX 2012 R3 Call Center - employees take orders over the
phone and are able to create sales orders General Ledger - the ability to transfer opening
balances in balance sheet accounts to a new fiscal year
Inventory and Warehouse Management - compare item prices, enhanced posting routine and
a new Inventory aging report Master Planning - estimate future demand and
create demand forecasts based on transaction history
Procurement and Sourcing - create your own soliciation request for RFQs, and more
Production Control - a new option to automate material reservations
Project Management and Accounting - new on-account billing rules and fee transactions that modify
invoice proposal sales prices Public Sector - now able to publish a request
for quotation to the Vendor portal and now have the ability to view details of closed
RFQs Retail - commerce Data Exchange, updated retail
server, new retail hardware station, and more Sales and Marketing - register serial numbers
during sales processes when preparing the packing slip or the sales order invoice
Transportation Management - plan transportation for inbound and outbound shipments, configure
rating structures and view driver check-in and check-out history
Trade Allowance Management - define merchandising events, manage trade fund budgets, process
customer payments (including deductions, and more
Warehouse Management - configure inbound and outbound intelligent workflows, use scanners/mobile
devices to optimize precision in the picking and put-away processes, and more
For the full list of AX 2012 R3 features, click here
Extended core The following modules are part of the core
of AX 2009 and available on a per-license basis in AX 4.0:
Shop Floor Control Cost Accounting
Balanced Scorecards Service Management
Expense Management Payroll Management
Environmental Management External components
Several external components are also available: Enterprise Portal for Dynamics AX
Microsoft SQL Reporting Services integration Microsoft SQL Analysis services
Project Server Integration WorkFlow
Application Integration Framework A .Net Business Connector for third-party
software Microsoft Dynamics Mobile 1.5 development
tools Microsoft Project Client
Microsoft Excel Microsoft Word
Office 365 Architecture
The Microsoft Dynamics AX software is composed of four major components:
The Database Server, a database that stores the Microsoft Dynamics AX data
The File Server, a folder containing the Microsoft Dynamics AX application files
The Application Object Server(s), a service that controls all aspects of Microsoft Dynamics
AX's operation The Client(s), the actual user interface into
Microsoft Dynamics AX See also the book Inside Microsoft Dynamics
AX 4.0 MorphX and X++
Custom AX development and modification is done with its own IDE, MorphX, which resides
in the same client application that a normal day-to-day user would access, thus allowing
development to take place on any instance of the client.
Since the Dynamics AX 2012 version, development can also be performed in Microsoft Visual
Studio 2010 through a Visual Studio plugin.
MorphX is an integrated development environment in Microsoft Dynamics AX that allows developers
to graphically design data types, base enumerations, tables, queries, forms, menus and reports.
In addition to design of application objects, it also allows access to any application code
by launching the X++ code editor.
Because MorphX uses referencing to link objects together, changes in, for example, datatypes
of fieldnames will automatically be reflected in all places where they are used.
Furthermore, changes made through MorphX will be reflected in the application immediately
after compilation.
Microsoft Dynamics AX also offers support for version control systems integrated with
the IDE, allowing collaboration in development.
There is also a tool for reverse-engineering table structures and class structures to Visio.
The actual implementation limits the practical use of both these features.
X++ itself is the programming language behind MorphX, and belongs to the curly brackets
and .-operator class of programming languages.
It is an object-oriented, class-based, single dispatch language.
X++ is a derivative of C++ to which garbage collection and language-integrated SQL queries
were added.
Code samples X++ integrates SQL queries into standard Java-style
code.
Following are three equivalent examples, though the first one has generally better performance.
Samples #2 and #3 hint at an object-like behavior from table buffers.
Sample #1
Sample #2
Sample #3
Future On its PartnerSource web site, Microsoft publishes
a "Statement of Direction" for Dynamics AX that describes future development plans.
It states that increased vertical market functionality, cloud computing, and HTML 5 will be included
in future versions of AX.
Presence on the World Wide Web One of the most notable sources of information
with regards to Axapta was technet.navision.com, a proprietary web-based newsgroup, which grew
to a considerable number of members and posts up until 2002.
Following the incorporation of Axapta into Microsoft's Business Solution suite, the newsgroup's
content was transferred over to the Microsoft Business Solutions newsgroup.
The oldest Axapta Technet post that can be found today dates back to August 2000.
During the Axapta 3.0 era, this newsgroup in conjunction with secured official Microsoft
websites accounted for most of the official documentation sources on Axapta.
During this time freely accessible documentation remained scarce.
Following Microsoft's release of Dynamics AX 4.0, Axapta's presence on the World Wide
Web greatly improved through heightened interest from professional blogs as well as a continually
improving presence on MSDN.
Though MSDN contained mostly placeholders immediately following the release, it now
contains a wealth of information from a complete SDK to white papers and code samples.
Community The AX community consists of professionals,
typically employees of Dynamics Partners, End-users and MS MVP's.
The Dynamics AX User Group is the largest, user-led community for companies using the
software.
Events AXUG Summit
AXUG Summit is held each fall and is an independent, user-led conference.
Competitors Agresso and Coda Financials from Unit4
JD Edwards and PeopleSoft from Oracle SAP ERP from SAP AG
References
External links Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Launch
Microsoft Dynamics AX Official Website Microsoft Dynamics AX on MSDN
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0
Best Practices for Microsoft Dynamics AX Development
Microsoft Dynamics AX Community Information Microsoft Dynamics AX Resources
Microsoft Dynamics AX Video Resources Testing and Quality Assurance for Dynamics
AX Customization "How to squeeze more life out of your AX 2009
solution".
Article Group.
CEMBS.
Archived from the original on 2014-07-08.
Retrieved 2014-01-27.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 is HERE!
New Features in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3