September 2011

Pedro has been working with Dynamics Ax since nearly 6 years. His experience focus with end users helping them to optimize their ERP. He has worked with the end users Juan Jimenez García and Novatec Solar.

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

It was 6 years ago when I was working in my first job as .NET developer when a colleague gave me a newspaper advertisement about a company in my born city that needed someone to help them with their new ERP. It was called Axapta and I haven’t heard about it before but it sounded so cool…

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

In Spain I have to mention Manuel Querol who worked in a former partner of us (IFR). Actually he is a MVP by Microsoft. Also I have to mention Antonio Ramón de Mata-García Sánchez who gave me the hints to make a successful upgrade from Axapta 3.0 to Dynamics Ax 2009. On an international side I can mention Rahul Sharma. His contributions are always incredible and quite useful.

What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

Spain is fighting against the economic crisis for several years and the worse is to come so for Spanish companies is quite important to keep costs down. With Dynamics Ax I have helped my company to make this in two ways. First, we have achieved to make everything inside the company (from customization, to more complicated projects like upgrades) dropping expensive IT services rates. Second, we have optimized the ERP to our business making a very fast decision making environment in our company and reducing all the redundant tasks. We also introduced integration with Blackberry applications some years ago when mobile applications weren’t so usual like today.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Dynamics Ax is an environment that promotes creativity and it is quite easy to use and to customize. On the Axapta 3.0 times it was more difficult to find information on the Internet but nowadays with Dynamics Ax 2009 and even Dynamics Ax 2012 you can see plenty of dedicated websites and blogs talking about new fantastic add-ons.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

Dynamics Ax is a tested tool. Even Dynamics Ax 2012 despite the improvements should keep the core of Axapta 3.0. It is quite easy to use and customize if needed. There is now out there plenty of professionals and also it is not very difficult to introduce a generic software developer into Dynamics Ax so the lack of professionals can be coped if the company have patient and give some training meanwhile the developer knows the company.

On the times of Axapta 3.0 I thought of SAP for biggest companies and Axapta for medium companies but this is no longer true and big multinational companies can make a very good choice with Dynamics Ax 2009 or Dynamics Ax 2012.

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

In countries like Spain we can say that the main challenge is the economic crisis itself. There are plenty of companies with are on Dynamics Ax 4.0 or even Axapta 3.0 and they don’t find a reason to upgrade. They think that their needs are server by the current software but this leads to very traumatic upgrades in the future and an IT Team which becomes even more deprecated than the software itself. Microsoft should be also aware of this and put in place reasonable prices.

Which add-on has made your clients life easier?

In our case we have developed all the add-ons but talking about possible external add-ons I find extremely help full all type of add-ons for invoices and document management and workflow.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

The installation of the additional services for Dynamics AX 2009 like Reporting Services and Role Center was a bit complex due to high number of possible problems and incompatibilities. I would like that the license where simpler. Only a license per user where you have access to all the modules.

 What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

I guess it was in the beginning of 2005, few months after getting my BC’s degree in Computer Science, started by customizing a standalone application integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP, I spent 3 months working on the application and finalized it as requested, during those days I got involved in the Dynamics GP processes, database and application technicalities, and start looking deeply in this application by reading manuals and tracing application forms methods and functions.

 Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics? A lot of people are in my mind, those people who helped in drawing my path, started by my first manager Rami Al Baik, who did train me on the application technicalities basics and how to utilize application manuals to get the needed information. 

Later on, my partner and colleague Majdi Barhoush who started with application functionalities before me, trained me very well on the business processes applicable on the application and on how to utilize this application to get the max for our customers.

Day after day I started studying every single tip of the application and worked hard to get a new tip every day. My community work started in 2007 where I started my blog http://mohdaoud.blogspot.com and start working on Dynamics GP forums like www.microsoftdynamicsforum.com to help people on their GP issues.

Mariano Gomez, Mark Polino and Victoria Yudin did point me to the right direction and introduced me to the official application newsgroup, where the real application challenges begun! Posts in the forum was around 200 a months, while there was around 50 newsgroup posts per day!  What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

First I would start by the applications modules added and developed by me and my team, we have developed two versions of the "Point of Sale system" fully integrated with the application, one was standalone copy and the other was developed on "GP VS Toolkit" inside the application, in addition we have also developed Middle-East compatible payroll system that fully integrated with Dynamics GP.

Based on one of my customers request, I customized Dynamics GP to support offline reading for Barcodes and RFID (Radiofrequency Identification) antennas by fully utilizing the existing serial and lot tracking features of the application, it was a great achievement having the application automatically generates the customers invoices and performs the stock counts.

Much of the clients requested to have major notifications sent to their mobiles directly, and as the application does not have this feature out of the box, I created SMS notification services solution based on the Business Alerts, it was great having SMS on your mobile whenever a certain item was out of stock or any other related information

Arabic version of Microsoft Dynamics GP, it was a new method to switch Microsoft Dynamics GP interfaces to Arabic as it is not supported by Microsoft, the method uses alternate GP dictionaries instead of the core dictionary.

 What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

My personal opinion on this could be the MBS field (Microsoft Business Solutions), people trusts Microsoft and trusts its stability, which leads to an interesting success in any field hosted by Microsoft.

 Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics? Basically a solid application that could be countable in all circumstances, customizations limit equals to the customer’s imagination limit which is virtually unlimited.  What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

It’s the competition, not talking about "Microsoft Competition against non-Microsoft products" but the competition between Microsoft Partners that are authorized to resell the same product! In my country, we have around 12 Dynamics GP partners, while there is a big limitation in the available resources and expertise in this field.

 What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future? Honestly it would be great if Microsoft could consolidate features between its 4 ERP’s, not by the meaning of Project Green but at least to enhance applications features to almost be the same level for all their 4 ERP’s, Dynamics GP has very much Great features the does not exist in any other application, but on the other hand, I saw some features in AX would make GP very much stronger.

With his 7 years of technical expertise, he is an everyday inspiration to its development team.  As development manager he continually acts upon iFacto’s technical readiness and guarantees that he and iFacto are always on top of the latest Microsoft Dynamics NAV developments.

Apart from that, Eric is also very active in Microsoft Dynamics NAV community-life where he tries to solve technical issues and thrives to share his knowledge with other Dynamics NAV enthousiasts.  Surely, a lot amongst you will have read some of Eric’s posts on Mibuso.com, Dynamicsusers.net or his own blog www.waldo.be which he invariably signs with “waldo”.

In 2008, he co-founded the Belgian Dynamics Community, a platform for all Belgian Dynamics NAV users, consultants and partners, enabling knowledge sharing and networking.

His proven track record entitled him to be awarded in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional).

What was your first job in Dynamics?

My former passion was VB.NET.  I loved OO-programming and .Net was a new upcoming environment which I very much liked.  We were a very small programming department in a somewhat bigger company, and my employer sold "Navision".   Just like that.   Without having the knowledge in-house.  

Once sold, he asked me to go and implement it .. not knowing one tiny bit what Navision was or what it could do.  So, after following quite a bit of courses, I realized that this wasn’t the sexy Object Oriented environment where I was trying to build my career on, but it sure was interesting. You can imagine .. the implementation at the customers was turning out to be a big fiasco.  Me, as junior developer had to implement a 20-user environment without any help. .   After the help of a Navision Belgium based gooroo, all worked out just fine.

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

Good question.  If I think of one big influencer .. from the top of my head .. I think of Ludo Van den Eynde.  He’s the guy that thought me the basics of Dynamics NAV .. he turned me in the right direction(s).  Spending a day with him was much more valuable then spending a 5-day cours of "Solution Development".  He worked at Navision Belgium that time, and he got me really interested in Navision and all it had to offer.

What is your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

That’s simple: iFacto Business Solutions NV.  The company that I started together with my business partner "Dirk Covens".  The two of us started out on our own, with Cronos NV as our backbone, and now, 7 years later, we’re quite an important partner in Belgium .. with 35 employees.  My role in the company is "Development Manager".  This role puts me into the position to be able to help young developers guiding in the right direction in the NAV development world.  A world that changes a lot thanks to Microsoft.  

It also puts me into the position that "keeping track of all changes and new developments about the product" is a must.  My work is my hobby .

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Microsoft has invested a lot into the community  … but for "Navision" (at the time Microsoft bought it) it was quite new.  During the last 7-8 years, Microsoft has brought the community to NAV.  The evolution was huge. 

 Now,there are quite a number of blogs from Microsoft employees.  On top ofthat, those guys are participating in threads on Mibuso and Dynamicsusers … and that’s great!  You can learn a lot from the people that are really "at the source" of the product.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

Just because it’s the best.  .  This is a question you shouldn’t be asking to a NAV-addict as myself .  But here we go: I like Dynamics NAV because it’s a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, flexible, simple, consistant ERP product .. with an unbelievable devoted development team behind the scenes.  It’s a product that focuses on simplicity, not only for useability, but also on development standards.  So tell me … why shouldn’t an end user go for it?

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics?

Well, one of the biggest challenges I face are: attracting and motivate new developers to build their career in NAV development.  It’s good, it’s easy, it’s simple .. but it’s not sexy.  And people tend to go for the last….

What would you want to see from Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

Just keep on doing what they’re good at .. delivering a good base product for the mid-market.  But if they could build some more sexy (but yet useful) development tools, and make it a little bit more scalable .. then we would really be in a treat.  I’m sure that the architectural change to a three tier environment, brings a lot of opportunities on which Microsoft will build further in the future.

What is your favourite add-on(s)?

Our own, off course : iFacto Integration Framework, iFacto NAS Scheduler, iFacto Collecion+ … Just go to www.ifacto.be .

On top of this, we will foresee a non-NAS-based NAV2009 scheduler as well in the near future … so a lot to look forward too.

years before it was rebadged as Dynamics NAV. I had been an IT Manager and consultant on various

Unix-based ERP packages and deliberately set about looking for a Windows-based application that would

span the next decade (or two I hope!). 

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics? I wouldn’t cite any one person. I have worked amongst some great teams of consultants and

developers and you absorb from all of them. Mostly, the products themselves taught me because of their

open technology. If you have an enquiring mind you can learn them easily. 

What is your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics? It has to be setting up my own consultancy business, Applico, around NAV and CRM. In the past I

have worked as consultancy manager with one of the biggest ‘Gold Partners’ in the UK with >100

clients. However, I prefer to offer a ‘Gold Service’ to a smaller number of clients who get measurable

benefits from the products. Applico is a hybrid that allows a group of freelance associates to work together, whilst we also

work with other Partners and as a Partner ourselves, we have a number of user/customers who we

support.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Interoperability of the product stack. Whether it is the platform, database, email, web tools, ERP

engine or CRM, you can get them to work together relatively easily and add value to that process. To

that end, Microsoft also brings a great business opportunity.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics? Return on investment and future-proof investment. Microsoft’s level of investment is legendary,

and although some Dynamics World contributors may feel that their particular product is not being

developed as much as they would like, MS will continue to provide competitive products in future.

 What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics? I think it is product convergence in the ERP group of products. They are different and have their

own strengths and have very devoted followers. I’m a NAV fan but for example, it doesn’t have the

multi-national appeal of AX where different countries’ business rules can co-exist in the same

database.

 What would you want to see from Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

 There has to be some rationalization of the product offering going forward because I think it is

causing confusing to prospects in the SME marketplace.

If they can get the best of NAV, GP and AX into one box we can sell the box!

Also, having spent the last six months on a project which has NAV and CRM exchanging data, some ‘out-

of-the-box’ connectors would go down well too.

Bill Brotherstone

Director

applico

software connected

http://www.applico.co.uk

I am a Dynamics Ax developer and technical consultant, and have been working with the product since Axapta version 2.1 in the Damgaard days.

I am from Perth, Western Australia and that’s where I started my career.  Before entering the world of IT I worked for several years performing various roles at a small wholesaler/retailer of industrial equipment.  Every day I entered sales and purchase orders, maintained stock levels, helped with invoicing and performed a bunch of other jobs which gave me invaluable experience of real-life business practices and the world of an ERP user.  Little did I know at the time how useful that would later be!

Once I’d moved into IT, which had always been my plan, I began programming commercially and worked for a further 5 years in Perth before moving to The Netherlands for several years.  I am now based in London, a city which I love.

Currently I am working as a technical consultant on a contract basis here.  When I moved to the UK early last year I decided to start my own company, a1x limited, specialising in Dynamics Ax technical services, which in reality mainly means programming.  As I am primarily a technical guy, this suits me fine.  Prior to the move to London I’d always been a permanent employee so it was quite a change, but has been very rewarding, despite the tribulations of the financial crisis.  If anybody is interested my website and contact details can be found at www.a1x.co.uk.

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

Back in Perth in 1999 I had recently started working for Globe Software, a reseller of the SunSystems ERP product, when they came to the realisation that the product had a limited future and they needed a new focus.  Axapta had not been available in Australia for very long at that point, but Globe decided to pick it up and offer it in the Perth market.  That was an exciting time, as I had not been programming commercially for very long, was full of enthusiasm for the new product, and was forced to figure everything out myself as there were no other Axapta developers for literally thousands of kilometres!

Perhaps due to this fact, I heavily used (for both reading and posting) the old Technet community. That was by far the best Axapta resource available and was a lifesaver for the still fairly small community of Axapta specialists at the time.  That site influenced me so much that even now I often still use the old Technet URL as a shortcut to redirect to the official Microsoft Dynamics Ax newsgroup.

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

As during the first part of my career I was so isolated from the rest of the Axapta world, it’s hard to pick somebody as a major influence.  I would say that I owe most to the “old guard” of the Technet community.

What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

There are a few things of which I’m particularly proud over my Ax career to date.

The first was probably the development of Atlas xl (Microsoft Excel add-in for Dynamics Ax) while I was still in Australia.  Most people familiar with Dynamics Ax will also know of Atlas xl.  The solution was conceived by the owners at Globe Software, and as I was the only experienced Ax developer there at the time, I had to develop the entire product alone.  At the same time, I was still working on our Axapta projects doing X++ development so this was really a stretch.  However the product was very successful and by the time I left Australia in 2004 we had sold thousands of copies to countries all over the world.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been involved with Atlas xl, but it’s still nice to bump into the product regularly.  Globe Software still offers the product, albeit entirely rewritten over the years, and they now have a dedicated team working on it and a far more professional offering than when we struggled along in the old days.

Another important event, or more accurately period, for me was whilst I was working in The Netherlands for the Microsoft Gold Partner, HGH Business Consultancy.  HGH had, amongst other offerings, a couple of large vertical solutions (DycoTrade for commodity trading – www.dycotrade.com and DynaRent for the rental industry – www.dynarent.nl) which they had been offering for several years.  Both products had been written piecemeal over long periods of time and were suffering for it.  The decision was made by HGH management to invest significantly into rewriting these solutions from scratch, to bring them into Dynamics Ax 4.0 and at the same time provide new stable base products for the future.  They appointed me as manager of a newly created department to do this, and over the next year and a half (until I left for the UK) I and my team were given virtually free rein to re-write these solutions based on technical best practices in every regard possible.  With a 100% focus on creating fast, scalable, maintainable and extensible products for the future, and without any significant commercial pressure, this was a development dream and I was able to put all my experience into practice to create as close as we could manage to technically perfect products.   I can only applaud HGH for taking such a long-sighted decision and I’m glad to see the products now doing well in the marketplace and winning awards such an Innovation Award from Microsoft in 2008.

A small thing is my personal Ax website www.axaptapedia.com, which is of course a Wikipedia for Dynamics Ax.   I started this a few years ago as I thought rather than the same people writing the same thing a hundred times in newsgroup answers, they could write a full answer just once as a Wiki article, and then just post links to the article to help people out. There’s quite a base of information on there now, and I often refer to it myself to remember how to do things.

Finally, of course, the MVP status which I received in 2007.  That was a little short-lived as Microsoft rightly expects a high level of commitment from their MVPs.   I was very busy in my job at the time and felt that I could not sacrifice my job performance to do what was required to maintain the status.   However it was an honour to receive it and I am glad to have been part of the group, even for only a year.

 What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

From my own technical perspective, it would have to be: continued and exciting technical innovation, a fuller integration with the Microsoft stack and a positive and certain future pathway for the product.  They’ve also started to fix (I won’t say completed…) the serious lack of technical  documentation for the product.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

I’m no salesperson, but at the end of the day, the product can do what they need.  It might need some tweaks here, and some tweaks there, but with Dynamics Ax virtually everything is possible.  In addition, as time goes on it gets bigger and stronger and the gap between Ax and our larger competitors narrows.  This has eliminated most reasons NOT to buy Dynamics Ax for the market I’m most interested – larger companies.  Technically I believe that the product can already operate well at an enterprise level.

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

The fact that Dynamics Ax is often sold to smaller or mid-size customers is problematic.  These are companies which often need a fully-featured product like Dynamics but don’t really have the skills, the experience or the realistic financial view required to properly implement one.  As mentioned above, my view is that larger companies are a more desirable target market , and Microsoft is certainly pushing the product in that direction.  However the same issue of size applies to many of the resellers in the partner channel.  While many have truly excellent people, they are not always able to scale up effectively and are sometimes probably not suited to taking on real enterprise-level projects. It is only through large implementers who already have enterprise experience that we’re going to see a real breakthrough into the large-scale market, in my opinion, and this is needed.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

Dynamics Ax is simply “what I do” so obviously my major priority is for it to have a long and fruitful existence!  I would very much like to see it move further towards the enterprise market.  Somewhat selfishly, this opens opportunities for – and in fact requires – a wider variety of roles for Ax specialists beyond the usual “project manager, consultant, developer” model which exists now on most projects.  I have 100% faith in the future of Dynamics Ax and that Microsoft will move it in the right direction, and see only good things in the future.

Ernst, founder of the Dynamics UserGroup and Number 10 on the Microsoft

Dynamics Top 100 List for 2009.His insight and technical ability mark him out

as one of the strongest in our community and who better to be our first MVP Profile.

One of the best known names in Dynamics GP Frank’s experience also spans SAP, Baan, Fourth Shift, Logix, and MAS90.

He is the author of the definitive blog for daily transaction processing and reporting gp2themax.