Introduction to Dynamics AX Quickstart Guide

Whenever I give an overview presentation of Dynamics AX to new customers or prospects, I always start off with a general foundation review – sometimes called a “Cooking Demo” paying respect to Julia Childs who always had everything prepared beforehand.  Usually this is also accompanied by a PowerPoint with all of the scenarios laid out in it for reference.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take this to the next level, and rather than hand out PowerPoint decks, format the cooking demo into a book, and give it to people during the demonstration as a reference that they will put on their bookshelf rather than loose within the other pile of PowerPoints that they receive… and also I worked out that this is less expensive (even though the quality is better) than printing out the PowerPoints.

I also decided to make it available to everyone as a quick reference on what you can do with Dynamics AX and posted it to Amazon at the lowest possible price that Amazon would allow after they take their cut on the royalties and also print the book.

If anyone is interested in taking a look, then here is a summary of the topics that are included in the book:

The Dynamics AX Clients

• The Rich Client
• Role Centers
• Self Service Portals
• Collaboration Portals
• Financial Reporting
• PowerBI Canvas
• Dynamics Business Analyzer
• Microsoft Office Integration: Excel
• Microsoft Office Integration: Word
• Microsoft Office Integration: Project
• Microsoft Office Integration: PowerPoint
• Microsoft Office Integration: Outlook
• Modern Clients
• Retail POS
• Online Store
• Mobile Client

Introduction To Role Centers

• Example: CFO Role Center
• Example: Cost Controller Role Center
• Example: HR Manager Role Center
• Example: Retail Merchandising Manager Role Center
• Example: Shipping And Receiving Role Center

The Role Center Parts

• Activities and Cues
• Example: Using Cues To Jump Directly Into The Data You Are Interested In
• Performance Indicators (a.k.a. Real Time Statistics)
• Example: Adding New Indicators To Your Watch List
• Example: Contacting The People Responsible Directly Through Lync
• Example: Accessing The Owners Details Through MySites
• PowerView Dashboards & Analytics
• Example: Launching Dashboards In Full Screen Mode
• The Workflow Task List
• Example: Approving A Workflow
• Quick Links to Dynamics AX Forms and Reports
• Example: Using The My Links To Go To Dynamics AX Screens
• Example: Adding New Menu Item Links
• Personalizing The Role Center Even More
• Example: Personalizing The Role Center Page

Navigating Menus

• Navigation Menus
• Navigation Panels
• Area Shortcuts
• Favorites Menu
• Breadcrumb Bar
• Area Pages
• Example: Adding Items To The Favorites Group
• Enterprise Search

Navigating Forms

• List Pages
• Fact Boxes
• Preview Panel
• Ribbon Bars
• Document View
• Example: Expanding All The Document View Sections
• Example: Switching from View To Edit Mode
• Example: Accessing Related Details Mid-Stream
• Example: Drilling In To Record Details Through Hyperlinks

Showing Want You Want And Just What You Want

• Example: Hiding Fields That You Don’t Want
• Example: Adding Fields That You Do Need
• Example: Filtering The Data By Selection
• Example: Saving Filters To Reuse Later On
• Example: Saving Filtered Views As Cues

Self Service Reporting and Analysis

• Example: Analyzing Through PowerView Directly From The Forms
• Example: Saving Your Dashboards To Use Later On
• Example: Exporting To PowerPoint To Create Dynamics Slideshows
• Example: Exporting Linked Data Directly To Excel
• Example: Adding Additional Fields To Linked Excel Spreadsheets
• Example: Creating Dashboards Within Excel Using PowerView
• Example: Asking For Reports Using PowerBI Q&A

Using Office To Do Even More

• Example: Updating Dynamics AX Data Through Excel
• Example: Using Word To Create Form Letters
• Example: Turning Word Templates Into Dynamics AX Templates

The Lifecycle Management Tools

• Example: Using The Task Recorder To Create Training Documents And Videos
• Example: Accessing Business Processes Through Lifecycle Services

Here is a link to the book on Amazon as well: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494844982

This is going to be a living book, and I will probably make updates, and add additional content when R3 comes out and other releases in the future, but it’s a great start.